Pour one for Lego's extremely adept DIY robots, which will be decommissioned at the end of the year
The writing has been on the wall for a while, but yesterday, as reported by fan sites like Brick Fanatics and Brickset, Lego announced that it will discontinue its Mindstorms robotics lineup at the end of the year, with only support for the accompanying mobile apps, where the robots can be controlled and programmed, guaranteed for another two years.
Lego Mindstorms debuted over 24 years ago in September 1998, utilizing the company's more difficult Technics construction parts, which had gears and other mechanical components, to build semi-autonomous robots controlled by sensors and a programmable block. It was one of the first toys to actively encourage STEM learning before it became a buzzword in the toy business, and the Mindstorms sets and components have been used to make some incredible masterpieces over the years.
The EV3 kit, released in 2013, was the most recent substantial upgrade to the basic Mindstorms product line. It was used to construct the (at the time) world-record-breaking Cubestormer 3 robot, which could solve Rubik's Cube puzzles in the blink of an eye. It was the most costly Lego kit launched in 2013, costing $350, but when compared to the sets Lego is producing these days, such as a $550 reproduction of Iron Man's Hulkbuster armor, it's less of a budget killer.
The less capable Robot Inventor set, introduced in 2020, was the final official addition to the Mindstorms series, while it shares components with the recently announced Lego Spike Prime sets under the company's Lego Education division, which will continue to be maintained as a classroom learning tool. Ars Technica obtained a copy of the whole message that Lego distributed to its fan sites, which we've published below:
Since its launch in September 1998, LEGO MINDSTORMS has been one of the company's core "Build & Code" experiences, carrying significant brand equity and becoming a stand-out experience for the early days of consumer robotics, leading to current Build & Code experiences such as SPIKE Prime from LEGO Education's LEGO Learning System.
With a variety of objectives in LEGO Education and other Build & Code experiences, we've chosen to focus our resources and future ambitions by redirecting our MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor team and their expertise into new parts of the company.
This implies that the physical MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor product (51515) and its related pieces (88016 and 88018) will be phased down by the end of 2022, but digital platforms, such as the LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor App, will be available until at least the end of 2024.
We continue to believe in the Build & Code concept and will continue to promote it through platforms such as SPIKE Prime, and we are retaining the MINDSTORMS trademark and evaluating our future plans in collaboration with LEGO Education.
It's disappointing but reasonable that Lego will no longer be supporting and upgrading the Mindstorms applications after two years, but there have been plenty of alternative tools built over the years for programming Lego robots that far outperform what Lego has supplied to consumers. Those who are fortunate enough to own these sets should be able to enjoy them for many years. Those without their own Mindstorm bot should head to eBay and yard sales as soon as possible because demand for these setups is poised to spike.
#LEGO #Mindstorms #LegoMindstorms
SOURCE: gizmodo
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