LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 31313 Robot Kit with Remote Control for Kids, Educational STEM Toy for Programming and Learning How to Code (601 Pieces)

I am a seasoned RC vehicle veteran. Over the last several years I've owned and operated nearly 50 different RC vehicles, ranging from basic starter trucks all the way up to $500+ vehicles. My experience with RC vehicles led me to a Parrot AR.Drone, which has a few features on it that allow it to fly somewhat autonomously. These autonomous features made me start looking into ways to make a regular RC truck more autonomous, which of course led me to start looking into robotics. Years ago, when the very first LEGO Mindstorms set was released, I actually purchased one. Upon getting it home, I decided that it was probably too advanced for me, and I ended up returning it. Fast forward to this year. While looking into ways to start getting into robotics, I headed to the store to buy a Robosapien X. Although basic, the Robosapien X seemed like a good place to start with robotics, as it had a basic way of being programmed, and it had some options for modifying it to add features and accessories. While at the store, I saw the Mindstorms EV3 set. I was immediately in awe, as the box just draws you in. I liked the looks of the models that it was showing, and knowing LEGO quality I knew it would be a product that functioned as good as it looked. It was a bit pricey for me, so I passed on it initially. A few days later, I kept thinking about the EV3 set, so I just went ahead and ordered one on Amazon. It arrived quickly, as is the case for most of the things shipped from Amazon, and I was all set to get started. Upon opening the packaging, you quickly realize that the outside sleeve is a "course" for the robots that you are going to build to navigate on. It's a nice feature, and a good way to include something like this. The cardboard is more sturdy than just a poster that folds up, so it seems like it will last longer than if it was made out of regular paper and included in the box. After getting the box open, I started inspecting the things that were included. Lots of parts, the motors, sensors, and that all important "brain" type of brick. The instructions included are for building the first model, which is called Track3r. I set about following the instructions to get the Track3r built. It was a fairly quick build, with no real issues that popped up. As is always the case the instructions were clear and concise and didn't leave me guessing at any point. After getting the model built, I headed to my PC to download the EV3 software, which installed quickly and easily. I then went about following the instructions for setting up my first program. Now, I'm pretty tech savvy...however, I've never really tried any kind of computer programming. This was the part of the Mindstorms EV3 kit that had me a bit concerned, as I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to wrap my head around it. Luckily, the LEGO programming method is extremely easy to use. It's a graphic system where you drag and drop "blocks" that serve as the commands, and then in those blocks you change settings in order to change what the robot will do when it reaches that portion of the program. In a matter of minutes I had the first program written and installed, and the robot very quickly did exactly what it was supposed to do...it moved forward, spun a blade and knocked a tire off of a spot, then moved back to the starting point. I was impressed. I had managed to program a robot all by myself, and it didn't even seem to frustrate at all. Over the next several days, I continued using the EV3 software to progress through the different models and "missions" that went with the Track3r. I continued to not have many problems with the programming, and by about the third mission I realized something...the LEGO EV3 software was slowly, subtly, but surely TEACHING me programming. Each mission was bringing new variables to the table that required different programming blocks and options. It was so subtle that at first you don't even realize that you're being taught something, and to me this is ingenious. Any time learning can be disguised as fun, I feel that it's something that will be more easily recalled and will be something that people WANT to continue to do. After the first four missions, before even progressing to the final mission with the Track3r, I decided to give it a go at creating a program completely from scratch. What I wanted to do was effectively "reverse" the Track3r, so that it's back was it's front and it's front was it's back, so that it could use the IR sensor as an "eye." I then wanted the Track3r to move around on it's own, and when it came into a certain proximity of an object it would back up and turn around, then continue going. It took me a little while to figure out a couple of the functions, mainly because I wanted the speed it reversed and the amount it turned to be "random," but with the help of the great Mindstorms Community on LEGO's site, I was able to figure it out...and in fact, I figured it out while waiting for a response from that site, but then used the response just to check my own work. After about a night worth of work, I had managed to create a program that had the Track3r roam about on it's own. Whenever it would get within about 8" of an object, it would back up (at a random speed), growl, turn around (a random amount at a random speed) and then move forward again. With this program, the Track3r is effectively able to just autonomously roam around the room and not get stuck on anything. Success!!! I had built a robot, and programmed it myself with a program that I had built from the ground up. I've had so much fun tweaking and adjusting this program that I've made, that I haven't really felt a need to move on to any more of the models. That's not to say I'm not looking forward to moving on to those other models, I am, and I probably will start a new one this next week...but the ways I've been able to slowly tweak my program to do EXACTLY what I wanted it to do has been a lot of fun for me. I believe that even though I've only gone through a small portion of what this set has to offer, I'm already convinced of this set's awesomeness. This is, without a doubt, the best LEGO set I've ever had...and, dare I say, one of the best products I've ever bought, period. Is it pricey?? Absolutely, but I believe it is worth every penny. I've had so much fun with the first set of builds for the Track3r that I feel I've already gotten value out of the kit...and the fact that I have a ton of stuff left to do before I even start moving on to ground up models with ground up programs just says to me that this kit's value is through the roof. Highly, highly recommended!!

We have a ton of Lego kits so we are already Lego fans in my household. After you built enough Castles, Pirate ships and Fortresses, the models either get put away or they collect dust. I bought a used Mindstorms RCX kit used, 8 or 9 years ago and it was too much of a hassle with the IR tower and a working computer with Windows XP. My older son really was not interested in it after working with the NXT at School as part of a Robotics team. He was one of the main people on the team that understood how to make it work at crunch time in the competition, but Robotics was too nerdy for him. This Christmas I picked up the EV3 for my younger son. He was on the Vex team as a 6th grade student last year. I was hoping to do more on our own since the VEX team is not together this year. As aside note, I participated as a parent in the FLL with when my older son was in middle school and we made the trip with his team to compete at LegoLand. Last year I went to a Vex Tournament and I thought FLL was better at the middle school age group. The format was better and the kids really took pride being able to compete at LegoLand. Back to now - My son quickly built a couple robots that are on shown on the box and the kit got shelved till last week; we have many competing activities so finding projects that would capture his interest was the goal. We found the Mindcub3r Rubik's Cube Solver Robot. This one project really was fun and got my son really interested in the kit again. For us, the project was a medium difficulty level build. It used only pieces from the 31313 kit. Everyone who has seen this Robot is amazed and he was asked to bring it to school. Go to home depot and buy a large parts bin organizer or maybe even the DeWalt DWST14825 here on Amazon might work. It is easier to keep all the lego parts sorted and together. Before you buy any parts bin organizer you just have to make sure there a compartment that will fit the EV3 computer. You really need to go online and look for other projects and information as what comes in the box is good, but limited. We purchased "The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Discovery Book" and my son is already excited to take apart the Rubik's Cube Robot we built and start working on the workbook. Both the Rubik's Cube Bot and the projects in the workbook only need the 31313 kit. $350 might seem like a good chunk of change to put down on something like this, they resell well on eBay if it does not catch on with your kids, but I think as a parent you have to get involved too. I recommend getting the workbook with the kit. I have been looking through the woorkbook and it has some good information and good teaching moments. We are starting the workbook projects tomorrow, so I will update this review in the future.

We have purchased a lot of LEGO® MINDSTORMS® kits from Amazon in the past. My wife who teaches kids grades K5- 8 uses these kits to help them prepare for FIRST LEGO League (FLL) competitions as well as impart knowledge and spark interests in kids who wants to pursue Robotics in the future. These LEGO® MINDSTORMS® kits are must and provides the necessary building blocks for kids to get started with robotics. The previous model LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 (8547) was popular with kids for several years which is now seen replaced with LEGO Mindstorms EV3 31313 . From my understanding This is the third generation of the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® platform and the "EV" stands for evolution, hence EV3 in the product name. The NXT 2.0 seems to have been discontinued by LEGO® but in comparison I think EV3 is an natural evolution of the product as we move forward in sparking interests in kids. There are some common parts that you need to identify as your child gets into building robots using this LEGO® MINDSTORMS® kits the most important part of this kit is known as "BRICK" - The LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 Brick is a programmable intelligent Brick that you can refer to as 'The brain' of your robot - This BRICK controls motors and sensors to make it move, walk and talk; as well as provide wireless communication through Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It is powered by QTY 6 AA batteries. There are several other parts that comes with this kit like Building instruction for the starter robot, 'TRACK3R' Connecter cables, 1 USB cable for programming the brick, LEGO Technic Elements: Total of 594 pieces 1 EV3 Brick, 2 Large Interactive Servo Motors, 1 Medium Interactive Servo Motor, 1 Touch Sensor, 1 Color Sensor, 1 Infrared Sensor, 1 Infrared Beacon. So what can you do with this kit? - There are five robots which you can build straight out of the box - the building instructions along with accompanying programs are available in the EV3 Software. In addition there are many more 'fan-made' bonus robots that can be accessed via the EV3 Software Lobby or via the LEGO website - all additional fan-made designs can be built using the elements from the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 (31313) set sold here. Apart from this if your child gets creative then they can make their own design. Also, If your child wants to participate in First Lego League then you must visit FLL website to determine this year's design and build a challenging design to compete with others in the same category. The year 2014's challenge and past years challenges can be found in my comment section. Please note: The new software for 'EV3' is bloated and runs very slow even on high-end laptops. The previous generation of LEGO product used to use 'NXT' software. As stands, It is not possible to program this new 'EV3' Brick with the old 'NXT' Software which kids & educators still love. However, you can program your old 'NXT' Intelligent Brick using the new LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 Home Edition Software. Having said, as seen in practical classroom uses by kids not all Software features are supported by the old NXT Brick and can be frustrating at times. So we ended up having both the old 'NXT' software and the new 'LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 Home Edition' Software side by side and preferably on a different laptops in order to co-exist with the new generation of bricks moving forward. As far as using The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Sensors with the old NXT kit please be aware that the new sensors are completely digital and therefore will not work with the old NXT Intelligent Brick. However, LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Brick uses the same RJ12 connector cables as the old LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Brick therefore LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 Sensors be used together with old NXT Sensors. If you have a classroom wherein you have a mixture of old and new sets I strongly recommend that you keep them apart in separate storage bins and do not mix match the critical parts. We always purchase Sterilite 18748606 Clear Nesting Showoffs Box to keep the kits safe after opening them. Hope this review proves useful to you. Cheers!

Summary: Owned this a couple of weeks now. Great toy, some annoyances, buy it (as long as you realize its expensive to buy, maintain and expand!) The good: Great toy to learn the concepts of building, gearing, and programming. Very good documentation available between LEGO website, YouTube videos, some great books etc. Can build a wide array of machines and use the sensors, remote control etc. to control them. Really, really fun. The annoying: There are some very small pieces included in the kit; these pieces are easily lost so IMHO the kit should include more of them. While you can buy replacement parts, they must be bought in groups of parts (forcing you to buy pieces you don't need) and they are expensive (typically $15-$30). Also this home kit has pieces unique to it that are not in the education kit and visa versa. So if you try to build a machine from another kit, you likely will run across pieces you don't have. You usually can figure out work arounds, but it is annoying. The sensors make the kit really cool to work with, but the education and home editions both come with a different set of sensors and buying additional sensors is expensive ($30-$40). The main brick usually is "built in" to your machine, so changing batteries requires taking the machine apart... The 6 AA batteries don't last long and the LEGO rechargeable battery pack (that allows you to recharge without taking the machine apart) is about $100. The really annoying: LEGO has not maintained their initial programming language, so you cannot download it if you have the latest operating system installed (at least on a Mac, as of 4.3.2020). What you can download is a Scratch-based software. This Scratch-based software is just as capable as the original LEGO programming language and I like it a lot. HOWEVER, the interface is incomplete and does not work properly. You cannot cut and paste sections of the code between workspaces (this is really annoying, since you can get a piece of logic working the way you want but cannot reuse it, you must recode it). You cannot control how and when your program is saved (it is autosaved continuously). So, if you accidentally remove code you cannot go backwards to a previously saved version of your program. The state of the code right NOW is what is saved.

This is our family's new way to spend a weekend night! Instead of doing the usual watching a movie, we build an amazing robot together! My kids, 8 and 5, are very capable at helping in major ways. We just guide them along. They about pee their pants every time we finish a robot and it works! This product is very educational! Programing, robotics, following directions, logic, etc. are naturally learned by building these robots. I HIGHLY recommend purchasing the book that goes with it (the set includes directions to build one robot and then provides a website to download more directions). The book is awesome (especially for beginners). http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593275323?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00 I also highly recommend a large tackle box to organize the pieces into. We bought this and it works well. But, we still need a shoe box to put other larger parts into. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005QWYF?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00 What's awesome is that the set contains everything you need to build SO MANY robots! The possibilities are amazing! You have the option to buy more parts...but you don't need to! I know the price seems high...but it's a great deal when you realize all that comes with it and learn all the possibilities! I know my kids will enjoy this for years and years to come as we are able to build more sophisticated robots.

I bought this for my robotics class and it is perfect for what I need it for. I’ve had lots of EV3 robots throughout the years and this one performed just as I had expected. You can choose several different programming languages but we use the mind storms app that comes with it on the chrome books. It’s easy for sixth and seventh graders to program with minimal help from me. If they’re struggling, what I usually do is just ask them to read me back the code that they wrote and they’ll catch their mistake. It’s easy to build, it comes with instructions or you can be creative and do whatever you want. The only thing that I don’t love about it is the fact that it doesn’t come with a Rechargeable battery. You need to buy one if you are going to be using this a lot. It can drain the battery and the battery compartment is at the bottom which means you’re going have to tear apart the whole robot to get to it. I wish it came with this, but you can buy one after market for $150 roundabout. Overall it’s a great robot for kids to learn how to program and it’s a lot of fun to have. We also use this robot with our first Lego league team and it does great with the slight modification of adding a rechargeable battery pack.

A few years back my son learned how to build robots using the NXT 2.0 version of Mindstorm in a Mathobotix camp. He loved it and wanted his own Mindstorm kit but my husband and I didn't feel he was ready for the responsibility of such an expensive (cue the "clean up your room"!!). Four years later he's now in middle school in the MESA program (Math Engineering Science Academy) and entered a robotic arm at a MESA competition. So we felt it was time to invest in this kit. By now, its EV3 (3rd generation) and is a more comprehensive kit then the NXT (the NXT was less expensive because you had to pay for the programming separately which was another $100 or so. Now, everything is included in the EV3 so the end price turns out to be pretty equivalant). I like that Lego doesn't release new versions very quickly so you have time to really work with this program and it stays relevant a lot longer unlike other technologies. The building part is easy because of my sons prior Lego building hobby but he's learning more advanced programming of the robots he's building and he's doing a lot of research on how to hack they system to make the rotations go from 360 to 720 (I think?) which is a doable hack because Lego has a program for it called EV3.14. Unfortunately he's quickly outgrowing the kit and needs more parts. Which you can buy individually or as a expansion kit. The expansion kit is sold on Amazon for a ridiculously high price. You can find it on the Lego Education site (just Google "EV3 Expansion Kit" and look for the Lego education URL), you can't find the kit on the standard Lego website but you can find some parts there, not a lot. Now my daughter is wanting to learn and I'm very excited about that because women are entering the technology workforce more then ever. We recently had 5 female STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) Valedictorians graduate last year from the highschool my kids will go to. According to a recent event our girl scouts went to at a local Navy base the US will have over 3 million STEM jobs to be filled in the next 5 years and its estimated only 200,000 college graduates will qualify. If you want to help your child grow in engineering and technology Mindstorm is worth every penny! And there's a great opportunity for some family quality time here too :)

My 10 year old son and I love the set we've been using since Christmas. We had the NXT2 and had lots of fun with that over the years, but the look of the pieces and included robot (instructions) in the EV3 set are excellent. The R3PTAR has especially mesmerized my son. My one big gripe is the software makes it too easy to skip learning any programming. When you go to program it gives you two options: Open Finished Program or Follow Step By Step Programming Instructions. Hmmm.. if you are a 10 year old and can have the instant gratification of not having to spend time programming your robot why bother learning? I strongly suggest this option be hidden in future releases of the software, so kids will spend the time learning what I think is an excellent intro to programming. For me the programming justified the price of the kit. It makes it much more than a typical Lego set. So far I have kept the Finished Program option away from my son and he has enjoyed the programming, but if he sees he can just run the completed program before he gets the programming "bug" I fear it will be "Game Over". Please fix this Lego! Make a parent mode that can open the finished program (it can be handy) or just bury the option in a menu. Otherwise it's a great set. If you buy one and need a storage box (and you will) I recommend to Plano 5231 organizer. I use them for both NXT2 and EV3 kits. One of these and a label maker and all your pieces are organized in a durable, compact box. The EV3 book by Daniele Benedettelli is also good if you want to learn more about the EV3 without staring at the computer screen. Some great additional projects as well.

This product was not available in India, Through amazon i got it from USA, Price was expensive, LEGO EV3 is an amazing product, its an expensive toy, The quality is superb, Building is really fun, Myself and kids enjoyed still there is lot to build, its an really educative toy, pricing is slightly expensive, everything is in plastic cover, But lego should give proper box to store,

本体のファームウェアを教育版の1.09Eに書き換えることでデータロガーも動きます。相違を別途補えば、教育版と同等に持っていけます。充電池まで揃えるなら割高です。ジャイロ、タッチセンサー、超音波センサーの他、キャタピラーなど細かいブロックは、対比すると色違いも含め結構あります。代わりの機構があれば絶対同じに揃える必要はないですが、教育版の落下実験では、落下する剛球を受けとめる弾性ゴムのパーツを使わないとタッチセンサーを痛めてしまうのでブリッカーズなどで別途調達することが必要です。スクラッチに慣れた子なら、iPadのアプリを使って遊び感覚で1人で組み立てて動かせます。落下実験は、1000分1秒で50cmの高さからの自由落下時間を測ります。重力加速度を計算で求めると9.77m/s^2 ぐらいの値も出ますし、機械のブレも体感できます。

Lejos de ser un juguete mas, este paquete de LEGO esta practicamente enfocado al estudio y aprendizaje de la robotica, siendo un herramienta esencial para estudiantes o simplemente para quien quiere aprender algo nuevo y con buen reto. Lo recomiendo ampliamente, no solo es crear los modelos que vienen prediseñados si no que habre una ventana de posibilidades a nuevas aplicaciones, la programacion es intuitiva aunque a mi punto de vista lo que mas se necesita es tiempo y paciencia para poder disfrutarlo al 100%. El contenido en linea es bueno y la comunidad de LEGO es amplia asi que es una compra recomendada tanto niños o adultos. El producto llego 1 dia despues de la compra en perfecto estado, el empaquetado muy bueno, todo en orden. Gracias Amazon

The item was a special gift for a young grandson who was beyond hopeful that he would receive the LEGO robot. He was of course thrilled with its arrival, and his grandparents, for whom the item was an expensive but special gift, were extremely happy it had arrived in time to put under the tree on Christmas Eve. I was impressed with the tracking system, as I was able to reassure them that it’s arrival on the 24th was assured. Happy smiles all around!

Perfect product, totally met expectations, delivered fast and in good condition. Very nice entertainment for both young and less young, cmvery customizable and can be giverned from iphone/android. Really good !!!!