Fourth-generation Mindstorms available now
Posted by Huw,
51515 Robot Inventor is now available at LEGO.com priced at £329.99, $359.99 and €359.99, and 40413 Mini Robots, which I reviewed the other day, is the current gift with purchase.There are double points on offer too for a few more days, so now's the perfect time to buy it.
The release of a new version of Mindstorms is usually a big deal but I can't help feeling that this latest iteration is going to go under the radar somewhat given that there have been so many other 'big deals' announced and released this year, and the technology in it has already been available for some time in the educational version, 45678 SPIKE Prime.
Nevertheless, my first impressions after playing with it for a couple of weeks are that it's great fun and much easier to build with and program than EV3. I'll be writing more about it in the coming days.
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Already ordered 40426 (before it goes out of stock) and some other smaller things to reach the GWP threshold.
Strange how TLG are competing against themselves with 45678? From the available models seems 51515 has more possibilities, mainly as 4 medium motors allows walking quads compared to only 2 in 45678. Although 45678 has a push sensor and server motor instead allowing other possibilities beyond 51515, but at only 528 pieces (rather than 949 in 51515) seems to limit the scope of play resulting in the need for an expansion set 45680. In the end if the kids are lucky enough to play with the education version at school then this will allow them to tackle different models at home, but using what they have learnt in school.
As I said before- I really dont like this colorshemeans models
Red\black was perfect.
If they wanted more futuristic look, they should have used normal blue or lime.
Damn, it didn't look like my parts order counted as an eligible purchase. Too bad, that was a lot of pieces and well above the treshold!
@Phoenixio said:
"Damn, it didn't look like my parts order counted as an eligible purchase. Too bad, that was a lot of pieces and well above the treshold!"
Based on previous testing I found Pick-a-Brick counts towards GWP but Bricks & Pieces does not. Both do accrue VIP points.
@audaver said:
" @Phoenixio said:
"Damn, it didn't look like my parts order counted as an eligible purchase. Too bad, that was a lot of pieces and well above the treshold!"
Based on previous testing I found Pick-a-Brick counts towards GWP but Bricks & Pieces does not. Both do accrue VIP points."
Yeah I thought something like that had worked before, too bad!
I also realize I made that comment on the wrong article, sorry about that!
Okay. Not a tech whiz, but it doesn’t look bad. However, I’m not going to get this.
I would love a proper product comparison across all Lego programmable systems. I went in on Boost a few years ago as Mindstorms seemed to be in flux at the time. I don't love the interface, but I understand you can also program it through Scratch, which is pretty neat if it works. Curious also what the third-party software options are for controlling Mindstorms.
Yet another non-backwards-compatible connector... I still have the *original* Mindstorms set from 2001(?) which had the big, yellow RCX controller which was programmed with an IR device through a serial port. Granted, I no longer have a computer with the old serial port. They could at least release adapters so we could use the old motors with the new stuff, even if they don't have all the rotation sensing bells and whistles that the new ones have.
Teal Technic beams? Somebody pinch me--am I dreaming? Are we in 1998 with Competition again?
Fourth Generation? TLG probably meant Degeneration.