LEGO 8547: Mindstorms NXT 2.0: Robot

I bought for my 11 year old son for Christmas, I had looked at previously but put off by the high cost, but price has come down slightly. I am really pleased with the set and my son thinks it's cool. I would recommend introduction to Lego technics first as it is quite difficult to put together.There is only 1 model to make in the included instructions , but you can down load about 4 more detailed instructions from the Lego website, but to be honest clicking on the computer to go to next page while building is a bit of a pain.You will also need to connect your creation to a pc to program it. The programming in lab view is quite straightforward but you can just download the programs from Lego. This is the best way how to understand how software works. You can connect via cable or via Bluetooth. If you read the blogs there are some Bluetooth compatibility issues not all work. Also it would let me install the software on my netbook (running windows 7 starter) which was a bit of a pain as this had compatible bluetooth . The only real benefit of Bluetooth really is for remote control- there are a few ways around this the simplest is to download an ap to your android smartphone- this is very basic but works a treat. You can also Download iPad ap but this only controls via a pc so you will still need a compatible pc. The phone ap is the cool option.This is a really cool set, once you understand the various sensors you can look to build your own models, there are lots of books available to give you ideas, plenty of bids on YouTube but often you need lots of extra pieces that you probably won't have. Lego don't seem to make expansion sets or general buckets of technic of mid storm parts. The Lego website sells motors, sensors and cables but very little it the way of parts. There are plenty of brick sites and e-bay but can be hit and miss and quite difficult to identify parts in some books.All in all an excellent educational toy. Lego just need to do more with expansion sets.

My 10 year old son spotted this in the Lego catalogue a while back. We told him it was too expensive but he saved every penny he got and asked for money for Christmas and birthdays and eventually accumulated enough to buy it.He is not disappointed.The brilliant thing about the Lego Robot is how it is designed to grow with you. The programming language is very visual and straightforward meaning that a ten-year old can do it himself. It's great at teaching logic and it reminds me of programming my old ZX81!Delve a little deeper and there is some really complex robotic functionality here, which is currently beyond him, but he will learn it over time.The motors, sensors and construction all appear to be at the usual high lego standard.Overall this is a great toy that is both highly educational and huge fun.It would have got five stars except for:1. It has a small memory which cannot be expanded using SD cards. This means that the number of images or sounds you can include in your programs is limited. With memory being so cheap this is pretty poor on a product costing this amount.2. It eats AA batteries. Again, at this price I would have expected a durable Li-on rechargeable battery.3. The Alpha Rex model, the humanoid robot you see in the pictures above, has a fault in it's design meaning that once you've built it the arms won't move. There are lots of fixes on the internet, but again, at this price band, this sort of error is unforgivable.

Expensive, but excellent value for money. There is enough here to keep any teen or adult who is interested in robotics occupied for years. My12 year old hadn't quite mastered the programming, but purchasing one of the unofficial Lego Mindstorms guides soon fixed that. The programming format of using blocks is quite simple, but sometimes has unexpected consequences. Debugging takes patience. The instructions are a bit limited, and there are only a few models, but there is plenty of support va the internet community. The models are really only there to demonstrate the basic functions, and show what it can do. The idea is to create your own robots or machines.A fabulous toy, if you can call it that

Interesting for a while, but the the lack of sensors and inputs on the controller become a limiting factor in the designs you want to create, so I kind of lost interest a little bit after trying a few of the default designs and some of my own. It's also a bit laborious to program.

Bought this for my 13 year old son.Opened the box - that is covered with pictures of various robots you can build.Not one instruction on how to build any of them. Just a basic little module for 'testing' the system.The instructions for the pictures all over the box are available online, but we don't have a computer in our living room... so what good is that.For £250... I expect an instruction book.Plus, its all just thrown in the box in plastic bags and a couple of boxes. No plastic vacuum formed tray or anything.So once you have opened the bags of very small pieces, you have nothing to keep them in.We ended up going out and buying a plastic box to store it all in, and another book of other things to build.Certainly not worth the money.

I bought this product for a 12 year old boy that has a lot of experience with Lego but not so much with computers. He loved and started quite fast to grab the concept, he did his first robot after 30 minutes and started programming few minutes later. Them he started to do more advance models and improve in his programming scheme. Amazingly easy to programming (this was his first programming experience)He definitely cannot stop and want to do more every day. Amazing platform that will allow an improvement with a lot of creativity and a lot of Bionecle old pieces.Strongly recommended. The negative paper manual is not very detailed but all what you need is in the disk) and is quite expensive.