BB-8

In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as BB-8 flees the massacre of the Jakku village near the beginning of the film, a very obvious puppet alien pops its head out of the sand to look at him. According to J.J. Abrams, everyone knew how bad it looked, but decided to keep it in any way, because they thought it was cute. The puppet alien also says "ko ji ma" as a reference to video game Director Hideo Kojima, the creator of the Metal Gear Solid video game series.