After a 24-year run, LEGO MINDSTORMS is discontinued. The revolutionary platform, which allows you to build and control a LEGO robot, will disappear from stores by the end of 2022. Though as BrickSet reports, software support for MINDSTORMS will continue for at least two years.
We aren’t surprised by this news. LEGO hasn’t launched a MINDSTORMS kit since the Robot Inventor (51515) launched in 2020. Plus, most schools use LEGO’s newer robotics platform, the education-focused SPIKE Prime—we haven’t heard any exciting MINDSTORMS news in a very long time.
But it’s still disappointing to see MINDSTORMS’ death. Unlike SPIKE Prime, which is under the thumb of LEGO Education, MINDSTORMS was a generally-available product. Adults could easily access and build MINDSTORMS kits, and in-person events often encouraged people to build MINDSTORMS robots together.
LEGO says that it will funnel the MINDSTORMS team into “different areas of the business.” Presumably, some members of the MINDSTORMS team will work on SPIKE Prime, while others may build LEGO sets intended for adults, such as the over-engineered LEGO Mighty Bowser or LEGO Motorized Lighthouse.
At the time of writing, LEGO’s final MINDSTORMS kit is sold out. If you happen to own this kit, I suggest placing it in a nice container, as it will probably become a collector’s item.
Source: LEGO via BrickSet
