The end of LEGO Mindstorms

We have some quite shocking news today, LEGO decided to discontinue the 51515 LEGO Mindstorms Robot Inventor set by the end of 2022. More details with the official statement in my blog post:

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[bdablader]

Absolutely breaks my heart. The NXT and NXT 2.0 is what got me into robotics in high school, I even won 2 awards for robotics in my district for my programming and build for my sumo and sorter. I hope this isn't goodbye, Mindstorms is such an incredible introduction to coding, even small children can figure out basic codes for the NXT, hopefully Lego is creating a new generation of robotics.

[jameskratzer]

Lego seems to have missed the point by not making a unified product that completely ties Brick, Technics, and Mindstorms together. I've spent thousands of dollars trying to tie it all in, so I could build custom robotics prototypes; no luck.

[BlackringIII]

The largest problem is that they iterated too much between systems. The entire point of this is to be able to build near limitless creations and capabilities with code, motors, and mechanics, given supply. They didn't grow a system, they just kept redoing it. They have had power functions and control +, why not integrate new sensor components and computer bricks into those systems?

[Gzilla]

I was 10 when first Mindstorms came out. I remember an awesome Mindstorms R2D2 set. Didn't know Mindstorms was still a thing, but now that it's being discontinued I'm sad about part of my childhood going away.

[JakubMarous]

We used Mindstorms EV3 at programing school as an "introduction" to programing and I loved it

[tianxizhao]

They should’ve advertised it to school and have more competitions that encourage creation with this set.

[imaginitivity]

One of most disappointing aspects of this is that in the latest Mindstorms programming environment you can toggle between python and block programming, so it was a useful intro/bridge into python programming. This really is one step forward, two steps back!

[doncourter]

Wow! We just purchased several Mindstorm 51515 sets for our school robotics team since we prefer it to the Spike Prime set. I can't believe LEGO decided to discontinue 51515 so soon. I thought we had many more years of support and access to additional Mindstorm products in case we needed to supplement our inventory. This is very disappointing news.

[leomorris]

I really hope we dont loose the Mindstorms system. FLL was a huge part of growing up for me, and now im a robotics student at the university that held most of the competitions.

[TheNewFaceOfHSP]

The NXT got me seriously into robotics and programming. I grew up poor and pulled myself, my family and friends into ~100k+ across the board, because I got good at coding.
The (2) Mindstorms NXT sets I ended up owning (by m parents pouring their hard work into my Christmas gifts because I wanted nothing else) definitely contributed.

[sailovspider]

For me the biggest drawback is lack of official hub2hub communication for RC or complex builds. While first is prohibited at FLL competitions, multi-hub setup could be very useful and educating for students. We can re-program all hubs to PyBricks, but this approach is limited to intensive text-only coding and lack of some support from TLG (many things is undocumented or not implemented at all)

[Wolforce]

I've wanted a Lego Mindstorms set since it came out when I was very little. Could never justify the purchase price. The question now is, should I get one since they will disappear, or should I not get one, since they will disappear?

[ElectricGeckos]

The only anoyance I have with the Spike Prime / Larg Hub is that the mindstorm app doesn't support my PS5 Controllers.

[geekyglen]

I can understand if you have two very similar sets, only choosing to produce one, and I can understand that they may have had more success selling to education institutions than to parents. But I just can't help but feel that there is a missed opportunity having more integration technics and mindstorms. I am sure there are more than a few people who have mindstorms and technics and have looked at integrated builds, or ways to control sets through an app on their phone.

[opsisoid]

Hello, do you know how to connect new Lego Mindstorm to Wi-Fi to control it via the Internet?

[LeoQKepler]

man i remember always wanting a lego mindstorms set when i was a kid i couldn't get it because it was too expensive sad to see something i wanted be discontinued

[jtd]

Can't say that I'm surprised. Lego robotics is losing out to other manufacturers/systems in the edu space, which is too bad as you can build just about any kind of mechanism using Lego. I think they (IMO foolishly) marketed and themed these sets and the software to younger primary school students, which is a shame given some of the amazing AFOL projects we have all seen. Add that they've now burned everybody who invested in Power Functions and NXT/EV3 with no backwards or forwards compatibility.

[diytoolbox]

Oh, man, I'm still owner of a RCX 1.0, I'm 31 years old now, I remember that in school I used to be in the Robotics club, using the NXT 1.0, or maybe NXT 2.0, and we went to the Lego League competition to compete with our robots, that was soo much fun. I didn't even know of this latest one, to be quite honest, I was out of the LEGO scene for about 10 to 15 years, only now I have my childhood collection back, which actually includes pieces from my moms childhood too, some really old shit in there.

[widdomonki]

lego has had so many variations on motorized functions it is hard to know what to get. they need to make an executive decision instead of retiring multiple workflows every other year :(

[EricAlainDufresne]

I'm very disappointed to see the Mindstorm line disappear. I loved the EV3 and whished that Lego had improved on it instead of veering off into another direction where compatibility between sets is lacking.