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Fan-Designed Mindstorms Release Next Tuesday

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bot-bot dept.

EaglesNest writes "The Washington Post has a story describing Lego's new Mindstorms. Two years ago, Lego formed their own 'star chamber' to decide what the next iteration of Mindstorms would look like. Eventually reaching 14 people, the Mindstorm users panel had a huge impact on what will be released commercially next week." From the article: "One member was even able to pressure the company into building a part that makes its debut in the new Mindstorms set -- a rare event at Lego, which treats every individual piece with reverence. The new part is a connector that allows two long pieces to be joined at a 90-degree angle. The resulting toy has much more up-to-date technology than the original set, including a USB 2.0 port for fast downloads and Bluetooth for wireless connections. With the right parts and programming, a Mindstorms robot can dance in response to sounds or follow the beam of a flashlight."

11 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmm by antifoidulus · · Score: 5, Funny

    With the right parts and programming, a Mindstorms robot can dance in response to sounds or follow the beam of a flashlight."

    You can do the same thing with teenagers and some ecstasy pills....

    --
    Monstar L
  2. Yes, but by 0racle · · Score: 4, Funny
    With the right parts and programming, a Mindstorms robot can dance in response to sounds or follow the beam of a flashlight.
    Can it find Sarah Connor?
    --
    "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
  3. great news but... by grapeape · · Score: 4, Informative

    The new mindstorms set sounds great, but the article contained rather disturbing news about the financial state of LEGO. How does a company that makes plastic bricks loose over 200 million in one year? Im sure that the new mindstorms will help boost the bottom line but I cant help but think LEGO's biggest problem was when they went away from generic build kits to licensed sets with highly proprietary (i.e. unusable for much else) pieces. Is it that kids arent as creative today or does LEGO just keep them from being able to be creative? Part of what made LEGO's col in my day was that you could create just about anything you could think up. When I was a kid UI was able to build an entire rebel base for my star wars figures with a blanket and lego bricks but today I have to buy a $75 kit. Todays sets appear to be more of a model kit than a creative toy.

    1. Re:great news but... by johnw · · Score: 5, Funny
      How does a company that makes plastic bricks lose over 200 million in one year?

      Probably the same way my children do - by leaving them all over the bedroom floor and having them disappear into the vacuum cleaner.
    2. Re:great news but... by erik_norgaard · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There is a number of explanations:

      1) The period of being "child" has become shorter. Previously children would happily play with LEGO till age 15, but now kids loose interest around age 10-12 if not before.

      2) Computers take a lot of the attention, which was the reason to launch Mindstorms, make the kid creative with the computer. And when computers don't take the attention then cellphones do. Kids communicate much more (quantity, no word about if this is good or bad) than previously, chat rooms, blogs, sms, social networks etc. None of which involve any bricks.

      3) Media take a lot of attention, and there's not much to do about it. Today it is common to find tv sets in childrens room and programs directed towards children get more exposure.

      And 3) is part the explanation that childhod has become shorter: Just think about all the boys and girls bands that become the big hit, and kids want to be like them. Say, Britney Spears? (there are certainly others, I'm just not young enough any longer to catch interest).

      So, it's no surprise that LEGO looses ground. And they are investigating hugely other ways to get through and catch interests. Which explains the losses.

      PS: Don't know if the loss mentioned is actually danish kroner, in which case it's only a 6th.

    3. Re:great news but... by vux984 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      but I cant help but think LEGO's biggest problem was when they went away from generic build kits to licensed sets with highly proprietary (i.e. unusable for much else) pieces.

      They pretty much had to.

      If the set has no unique pieces a kid with 10 other sets has no real need to buy it.

      My kids are playing with thousands of pieces from my childhood. If lego was selling the same generic kits, I'd be hard pressed justifying buying them any new sets. The star war lego sets, for example, allowed us to build better tie fighters and x-wings than we'd been able to build out of classic space and blacktron...

      Part of what made LEGO's cool in my day was that you could create just about anything you could think up.

      You can still do that...or perhaps you never could.

      Making a decent castle out of classic space lego was almost impossible, and making an x-wing out of the classic yellow castle was an exercise in futility. But with a good mix of lego from a variety of new sets, and you have as much freedom as you ever did. More freedom in some cases... I'd have killed for the ball joints that are common now. ;)

      Todays sets appear to be more of a model kit than a creative toy

      Individually that's probably true. But lego still lets you go anywhere once you've got a few sets from different 'genres'.

    4. Re:great news but... by vux984 · · Score: 4, Informative

      but there's still a lack of basic parts on the shelves.

      That really depends where you shop I guess. Around here it doesn't seem to be a problem.
      The ToysRus, Walmart, and Zellers all have a stack of these on the shelves:

      Start with a couple of these:
      http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=4496 - 805 basic pieces in a variety of colors

      Add in one of these for doors and windows:
      http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=5482&cn=44&t=5& d=11

      And maybe this to get you some wheels and propellers, and other funky parts
      http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=10159

      Sub in a few star wars space craft to for my classic space stuff.

      And I can pretty much recreate my childhood.

      All the linked sets are readily available in stores around here, at least.

      ----------------

      the other issue is almost the other extreme with mindstorms. They need better pieces in order to make more useful models. Once you get past a certian size.. about 12" in any direction they "techinic" models become fragile and unweildly to PLAY with. /shrug

      This one is a non-issue to me. Lego has a scale limitation for most projects. All you can do is get over it. A lego car can only be so big (and be playable) - the available choices for wheels alone are a limiting factor. For motorized creations, yeah the scale limitations are more insurmountable because now you are limited by batteries, motor torque, and so on, not just lego's structural limitations... but so what?

      Suppose you *could* make a working lawnmower out of lego... it would be too dangerous to sell to kids. ;)

  4. Employment Costs by Black-Man · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Lego company just kept doing business as it always had... which was fine when the bricks were selling, but once the video game crowd eroded their sales - they tanked. Since, they have laid off a number of employees - not making the town they reside in happy but the alternative was much worse. They have also moved production off to eastern european countries where labor costs are reasonable and they can compete in the global market. The new CEO means business and I am optimistic they will survive and maybe thrive.

  5. The Wired Article by Phat_Tony · · Score: 4, Informative

    Covered more thoroughly in Wired last February.

    --
    Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
  6. Demo on Microsoft campus by Yvan256 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Steve Hassenplug, left, and David Schilling put some robots to the test at a conference this week on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Wash.

    When activated, the robot stood up and yelled "Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all."
  7. Great, Except... by andrewdk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've had the set for a while now. I signed up for their Developer Program, but wasn't picked, however they were nice and gave everyone who wasn't chosen the chance to order it a month early. So I was able to play with it and build my robot. The only bad thing is that it's been sitting here next to my linux box while I wait for LEGO to release their SDKs for the bluetooth interface, which is supposed to be in August.

    I must note: the bluetooth connectivity to the LEGO NXT is much easier to establish with a Linux box using BlueZ, than it is with a Windows box running MCE2005/SP2 or even Vista. It's just hit or miss with the Windows stuff, depending on whether the driver likes you, the temperature, the time of day, what color shirt you're wearing -- but one rfcomm line and pin confirmation in Linux and it's done.

    That is, after all, how I'm going to let you darn slashdotters control it over the 'net, video included, when I finish programming the new protocol into my robot server.