Customer Reviews

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Lego Mindstorms is a phenomenal toy. Your kids -- and probably you! -- will learn programming, logic, math, etc., while have hours and hours of fun. I cannot say enough about how impressed I am with this product!

FOR YOUNG USERS This product will immediately engage young users in building and programming the layouts that come with the kit. This alone makes it worth twice the cost. The programming environment is easy, yet the possibilities it offers will draw your kids into thinking and problem-solving. Learning and having fun at the same time: What a great idea!

FOR ADULTS Lego robots are used in graduate courses at MIT and Indiana University, among other schools. The programming environment is robust enough that it can support exercises in artificial intelligence. Check the NET: there are people out there posting advanced code for the Lego OS, writing new operating systems for the Mindstorms platform, and posting instructions for their own robotic creations. It is fun and educational for adults, too!

PURCHASING RECOMMENDATION The Robotics Invention System is the best entry point to Mindstorms, in my opinion. The programming options are much greater because of the ability to program on a PC with this kit. The lower-priced Mindstorms kits, such as the Robotics Discovery set do not allow programming from the PC. The programs are limited to what is included in the on-board processing module. That means the Robotics Discovery robots cannot do nearly as much as you can program the Robotics Invention System robots to do.

I purchased the Robotics Invention System for my son's 6th birthday, thinking that he would require considerable assistance with the kit, but still get some educational value out of it, while he and I would get to spend some time working on a project together.

I was quite surprised, and delighted that after the first evening, he was not only able to assemble the training robot (Pathfinder 1), but design, write and download a rudimentary program by himself. He was able to do so because this "toy" has been *designed* by people who went to great effort to ensure that children would be able to readily grasp the programming concepts required.

The Robotics Invention System consists of an RCX programming brick, in which you place 6 AA batteries, various lego pieces, including gears, wheels, axles, treads, as well as the more or less conventional pieces. The first step is to assemble a robot out of these pieces. The RCX brick has three outputs and three inputs, and comes with two motors, a light sensor and a pressure sensor.

After the robot is assembled, the next step is to write the program. In this System, the program is written on a PC, in a very intuitive language that consists of logic blocks that attached to each other, forming the program - an example of a block is one that turns on any or all of the three outputs. Another example is a logic block that waits for an input to occur before continuing execution of the rest of the program. There are perhaps 40 various basic logic blocks, that when combined, are able to produce astonishingly complex behavour in the robot.

After the program is written, it is downloaded to the brick via an infrared link, after which it can be executed - you can store approx. 5 programs in the brick at any time.

Although the age suggestion is 12+, I would recommend this toy to anyone who is able to build the ages 7+ kits. Adult assistance will be required for anyone under 8 or 9, until the basic concepts are understood. I would also suggest that the adult providing the assistance go thru the training exercises before attempting to assist his/her child.

In conclusion, this is probably the best designed educational toy that I have every come across. It is intuitive to program and use, and unlike other lego kits, is not simply a matter of following someone else's design - building the robot is only part of the solution - programming the robot is the other. There are also suggestions provided for increasingly more complex problems to solve.

I you are still thinking to invest $200.00 or $150.00 to buy one of the Mindstorms from Lego for yur kids or for you, please let me tell you that you are not only wasting time, you are wasting a precious opportunity for your kids and yourself to enjoy and learn with a different, really different toy (is the world "toy" still applicable to this product?). The Mindstorm has a a lot of fun, very high educational value, and endless possibilities; besides, it is so simple to use!

Believe me! The Robotics Sets are a real breaktrough in the products that we use to call toys. INVEST on it! You will NEVER regreat! The Product comes with a CD-ROM and several beautifully illustrated books. One Advice: A Multimedia PC is needed for the Mindstorms Robotic Invention System 1.5, and some experience with the PC will help a lot to enjoy Mindstorms faster and better. Also, Lego has an excellent website to support these products. But if you or your kids do not want to deal with a PC, then try the Robotics Discovery Set. With this you can also have very sofisticated projects and their use is simpler. I bough both and I am planning to buy another Robotics Invention System 1.5. My sons (boy, 13, and girl 15) were playing with them just 2-3 hours after they opened, and without any help! These Robotics Sets will make one of the most important and unforgetable gifts you ever made to your kids and even yourself. You need to see it to believe it. I STRONGLY recommend these Robotics Sets to all parents that really care how their kids invest their time, and toys that will help them to growth healtier, better, and one (or several) step(s) ahead of other's intelligence and creativity development. Enjoy it!

The term "toy" doesn't do the LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Invention System justice. It's so much more! I'd characterize it as educational, engaging, and fun.

It's certainly educational, and that's coming from a thirty year old software engineer. After building several models, many of the principles I was taught in college physics actually came back to me and made perfect, immediate sense. A child with experience from LEGO Mindstorms would have a leg-up in similar classes in middle school and higher.

It's engaging, too, for the same reason I always preferred LEGO toys to things like Erector sets as a kid: if the model isn't doing just what you want, or if a certain gear ratio isn't just right, it's almost no effort to swap pieces out and try other things. The same applies to the software programming of the LEGO robots. This instant feedback really keeps me involved for hours on end, and I'd wager that childrens' imaginations would be similarly engaged.

It's also fun! Addictively fun! From perfecting the physical design to debugging the programming of your automatons, every bit of it's a sheer joy! I'd rather be playing with my set now than being stuck at work.

There are only two minor drawbacks:

First, experienced computer users (and especially software engineers) will find that the graphic programming language that comes on the CD-ROM that accompanies the set is too limiting and too cumbersome to use. Children (or even adults) with no programming experience might feel right at home with it, but I certainly didn't. Luckily, there are a plethora of alternative programming environments available on the World Wide Web free of charge.

Second, the nature of the toy is so addictive, that I find I'm spending a lot of money on additional parts to build bigger and better robots.

These issues are so minor though that they cannot devalue the "toy" in any way! If you're parent of creative kids, I can't think of a better playtime investment.

And if you're an adult thinking of getting the set for yourself, stop trying to rationalize the decision and just buy it! You'll be so happy you did!

This kit is the pinnacle of the Technics world, giving independence to the creations of our youth! With a little skill at design, and a little fun with the computer interface, you can make some of the neatest things!

Be warned, though -- the 1.5 RCX is known to have no AC adapter port, which limits the time it can be off doing cool stuff. LEGO has not explained why this is the case, but if you really love playing you'll need to invest in a NiMH battery set (AA) and charger, or call LEGO and ask them to 'downgrade' your RCX.

If you get past the initial designs of the guidebook and software, check out additional books here (Dave Baum's Definitive Guide to LEGO Mindstorms/1893115097, The Unofficial Guide to LEGO MINDSTORMS Robots/1565926927, among others) for ideas and directions.

I reacieved Lego Mindstorms on my thirteenth birthday and I have been playing with it ever since. After learning the basic from the CD i strated making my own models(some succesful, some not) and I greatly enjoyed it. The best reason to buy this product for your kids is that it never gets old. You will never find the box lying in your kids closet after a few years because the replay value is infinite. The only reason i gave the kit a 4 on durability is that sometimes the legos like to fall apart but this problem can be easily fixed. You may be questionable about the price but is is really worth it. A true quality product. Make your kids happy, please buy them one!

This toy is definitively worth the price. It is definitely one of the coolest toys I've ever seen and the coolest LEGO toy. Basically, you build your own robots out of LEGO peices and then program it using the special software included. The programing language is very easy to use. There are basically no limits to what you can do with this toy. I've never run out of ideas of different things to try. There are also many challenges to overcome while programming your robot. But it's fun experimenting with different ways to make your robot do what you want it to do. So, this is definitively a product to buy. You won't regret it.

I was given a MindStorms RIS set for my 18th birthday. Though the included "RCX Code" programming language is rather limiting, there is a wealth of alternatives available on the Internet, from the slightly more complex Gordon's Brick Programmer to complete replacements for the RCX "programmable brick"'s firmware (such as legOS, which allows users to write programs for the brick in C/C++). This variety of programming options, providing a smooth gradient from the very simple to the very complex, combined with the limitless possibilities of LEGO itself, (especially TECHNIC) makes the MindStorms RIS a toy for all ages.

The set unfortunately only includes three sensors (two touch, one light) and two motors. I'm planning on obtaining more as soon as they become available seperately (on the legoworldshop website). Also, the documentation that came with my 1.0 set (which is functionally identical to 1.5) is rather sparse; I've been told 1.5 is slightly better on this count.

These small problems do not dampen my enthusiasm for the RIS in the slightest, however. Truly, a marvelous piece of work. I've been collecting LEGOS literally for my entire life, and they have managed to get more and more interesting with every passing year.

On a side note, this is also apparently compatible with the electric train sets (the one I have, at least), so the RCX brick can be used to control LEGO trains as well. Very cool.

I had originally used this in school (I am in middle school, 13 years old), and it was just the neatest thing I had ever seen in my life. I don't think any... eh... "toy" can be as educational as this. The amount of parts that come with the kit is quite plentiful, and expansion sets are available. The computer software used to program the robot itself - and the device used to 'beam' the data to the RCX brick - work great. I think that actually programming your robot is the best part, and the software included makes it so easy! I would recommend that every kid at all interested in electrical engineering and the likes [save up for a while and] buy this product!

This is the best $$ you will ever spend; it's like an engeering degree in a box... and until this product came into existence, you had to go to an engineering university to gain the same experience.

Children are natural engineers, and Mindstorms brings out the best in them. It gives them complete confidence in advanced systems thinking.

I can't wait to see what how the first Mindstorms generation changes our reality.