Lego to discontinue Mindstorms robot line after a 24-year run
Enlarge / The Lego Mindstorms Robot Inventor kit (51515), apparently the last of the Mindstorms series. (credit: Lego)
Yesterday, The Lego Group announced it will discontinue its Mindstorms-branded products at the end of 2022, as first reported by Brick Fanatics and several other Lego fan websites. In an official statement, the company said it will redirect its internal Mindstorms team into "different areas of the business" and that its Mindstorms Robot Inventor App digital platforms will remain live until the end of 2024.
Lego Mindstorms debuted on September 1, 1998, as a breakthrough educational tool-originally developed at MIT-that allowed kids and adults alike to craft robotic systems using standard Lego parts and a computerized control brick.
The set gained a key part of its appeal by allowing owners to program the control brick easily on a personal computer using a drag-and-drop visual programming language, making sophisticated robots possible with a relatively simple set of parts. Over the years, hobbyists and researchers took the Mindstorms series in unexpected new directions while Lego itself iterated the product line with increasingly sophisticated offerings.