Have more details come out about the software to suggest this? I’m trying to stay as up-to-date on this new pseudo-Mindstorms system as possible.
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i’m just seeing lego continue to hire for ai positions, leaning in on ai more in generally
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Let’s hope they don’t hire the (adjectives removed) people on the Speed Champions subreddits who keep posting awful AI car concepts as Studio 2.0 builds (at least, the images before being photoshopped onto boxes are made to look Studio renders). We don’t need more model kit kitbash parts for cars…
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It’s rightfully flopping everywhere and what’s even funnier is they are agressively pushing commercials on tv and radio for these sets
Biggest embarassment for the company in a while
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They need an EV3-equivalent, not a glorified sound brick. That’s actually how they marketed the Smart Play system in the ads, as something as tech and advanced as Mindstorms, and it’s rightfully flopping hard when everyone realizes that all it does is play sounds.
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They’re trying to do that, I’ve heard. Apparently, they’re making a new system that’s going to be similar to Mindstorms, but filled with the AI crap we despise. Here’s what I’ve found:
All motors and sensors will be connected together via Bluetooth and are independently rechargeable. The actual “brain” will become the software on whatever laptop/computer you use to program the components. Found the product page here, you can see that it’s also brick-based instead of Technic-based, dumbing down the engineering aspect even further.
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Automatic failure, the sensors on any system don’t need to have their own power sources. Redundant, adds more things that can fail… can’t wait for the second “We almost went bankrupt again guys” from LEGO after they botch all their attempts at tech-based systems that are worse-designed than Chinese knockoffs of Stormtrooper minifigures.
Really gotta love how they can’t even advertise FIRST using their new system (it still shows them using EV3 and Technic).
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…Is it? A bit early to declare that. It has Vidiyo to compete with.
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The only people who seem to push it are influencers, sets on the store shelves look barely touched
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Vidyo was just cringe. It wouldn’t have flopped so hard if it had gone for anything other than punk/glam rock character designs that were clearly based on Fortnite’s music concert mode. Smart Play is just badly overpriced at its core, since it’s just a sound brick with unnecessary sensors (and sounds that aren’t even accurate for some sets featuring the piece, ie. Star Wars sets where it just plays generic laser sounds instead of sound files from the movies). Charging at least $20 for the brick alone on top of the cost of the standard parts is ridiculous. No one is paying $160 for a 950 part set, because that’s not even remotely a good price per part.
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Well yes, it hasn’t been available for very long and non-partnered persons are only starting to give their thoughts on it now that they can purchase and test it. It’s still the opening gambit. But let’s ignore that the sets haven’t been on shelves for very long as the appearance of well stocked shelves isn’t a sign of anything.
Here’s the thing about shopper psychology - if shelves look bare, customers won’t buy. Doesn’t matter if you have the item they want, or even a lot of that particular one item they want, if the rest of your shelf-space is sparse the customer is less likely to buy. It makes it appear as though the store is unreliable, because it doesn’t keep good enough stock of items that should otherwise be available. That customer isn’t going to ever buy those items, but it will lead them to question things subconsciously, if not outright conscious. After all, if those items are gone, is the item they’re there to buy and is available actually of quality or in the state they expect?
If you need anecdotal evidence, then run a garage/yard sale and you’ll find a similar thing happens. The space needs to look open and well stocked, kept together close enough to look like there could be plenty of hidden treasures. But not so crammed that it appears you really are just trying to get rid of junk, and not so spread apart that they can see everything and also come to the same conclusion that it’s junk.
So if a product is selling well, they’ll have more of it in stock and keep the shelves restocked constantly. If a product is missing, it could be that they didn’t expect it to sell as well as it has and thus have nothing to replace it. For similar reasons, this is why products in the back are pulled to the front of shelves. It’s not to make it easier for customers to grab but to give the illusion of a full space that can readily supply whatever they need, whenever they need it. Meaning, unless you or some tool you’re using is keeping as good as, or better than, the store’s own inventory tracking for those products, you can’t rely on looking at the shelves. It is in a store’s best interest, both physical and online, to obfuscate how well a product is truly performing.
Don’t think of fad or hot ticket holiday items that became impossible to find and buy. Those are exceptions and gambles. Even waiting to see how much of an item gets moved to a clearance section might not be the best indicator. It at least tells you that one particular store overstocked too much on one product expecting it to sell. Though depending on their deal with the manufacturer/supplier, might have sold too much to reasonably send those remaining units back. I see tons of Lego Disney Princess sets in clearance aisles all the time but no one talks about that line flopping.
I get why people don’t like the Smart Bricks and want to see them fail. But can we please stop using empty metrics as evidence?
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Alternatively, do you see people in the current economy going out of their way to buy sets that are overpriced by over $20? Most of the Smart Play sets are abhorrently priced even for Star Wars sets (see the Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter set for example), and we already have people complaining that $25 Speed Champions sets averaging 250 pieces are too expensive. And if these $100+ sets aren’t flying off the shelves within the next month, it’s probably because people decided to wait until Christmas to spend that kind of money.
It’s far, far worse to send consumers the idea that a single part can add $20 to the cost they have to pay than any other issue here. Lego already charges enough that a lot of non-Lego fans see them as bordering on premium/boutique-level pricing, adding these electronic parts that single-handedly add a massive cost on the shelf price does not send the message that these are “kid-friendly” or “playset” items. It’s like comparing the prices of mainline Transformers and 3rd-Party figures: the mainline is priced so that people buy it even if it’s junk, while 3rd-party charges competitively for the collector market.
You don’t dump $100+ for a set that has fewer than 900 parts unless it’s a very screen-accurate/well-designed model. Making the consumer pay for a glorified sound brick plus a Star Wars set that isn’t even proportional (in the main build) doesn’t appeal to the kind of people who can spend that much money on a toy.
If they were to make the TIE Fighter look massively better, scrap the royalty-free audio tracks on the brick itself, and make it look like you’re not just paying for a gimmick, it would have a lot more backing. But if you sell a toy based purely on a gimmick, it shouldn’t be sold at a collector price point with the design effort of a 1980s Micromaster figure.
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See, now that’s speculative reasoning as for why it might not succeed. That is perfectly fine. Personally, I do see plenty of people buying them. To the degree that it will meet the LEGO Group’s definition of a success? No idea, but I do know this isn’t the end of it.
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The smart brick idea is not objectively bad… but the prices undermine everything they seem to be aiming for. If the technology was more impressive, maybe the prices would be justifiable. But no kid can afford these, and while parents obviously buy stuff for their kids, parents are often critical of actual value.
I have toys from the 90s and 2000s that sound better and work on vaguely similar principles (context based interaction) while the technology is more advanced here, it sounds awful and looks cheap. And the fact that they don’t include a smart brick in each set is appalling, especially since the cheapest way to get one is a 70$ set.
I want them to make stuff for kids. Their most creative themes and products were aimed at kids. But “made for kids“ is never a valid excuse for bad quality. Especially not at Lego’s price points.
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Maybe it should be its own topic, but since it is related…Uh oh.
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This is such sad news! First LEGO League was never perfect–the seasonal timing was very inconvenient for school club teams and always seemed slanted against non-school teams to me. However, I still have such fond memories of it.
Well, at least it was around for as long as it was. I do hope this has nothing to do with Smart Bricks, though I’m not sure how.
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There are a couple theories bouncing around the FIRST community, but none of them have to do with Smart Bricks.
To me, it looks like this just comes down to a divergence in goals between Lego and FIRST. Ever since the EV3 got discontinued, Lego has been putting more and more emphasis on making computer kits for classroom lessons. While this is great for the students in class, it doesn’t really work that well for how students build robots in FLL. This already became pretty apparent with the announcement of the new CS/AI kits and the reveal of the resulting FLL “Future Edition” a few months back.
That being said, it’s kind of odd that the end of FLL would be announced so soon after said reveal; it kind of seems like this was an unexpected decision from Lego.
You can read a lot of more insightful discussion here:
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I really hope they consider bringing back EV3/NXT-style kits… kinda wondering how long it’ll be before we get 3rd-party versions of these, seeing as Lego seems to be moving away from making products that even have the capability to do the same functions.
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never did I think Id see a cheif delphi link on these boards…
though it only makes sense itd happen in this discussion I suppose
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There’s a few companies already going in that direction. The Xiaomi Mitu Mi sets (10/10 name btw) seem to be the most advanced so far - more limited compared to Mindstorms/Spike, but fairly capable and seemingly expandable. However, their distribution is very limited and even just information on the internet is few and far between. I’m surprised this market hasn’t already taken off, considering that the home consumer Mindstorms set has been out of production for over two years now.
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