I recently received an email from Søren Lund at the LEGO Group pointing to a pair of LEGO-produced “Candid Camera”-style video clips they put together showing a Mindstorms NXT robot startling some people in an innocuous retail setting.

One clip shows an NXT shattering the glass of a mall display, while the other features a robot grabbing at the hands of unsuspecting shoppers as they attempt to poke at the truculent bot.

Unleashing robotic mayhem on the unsuspecting sounds like an intriguing premise for other hijinks, ranging from spraying interloping pets with water (to keep them out of your garden) or startling the mother-in-law at the next family get together. Add some suggestions of your own by clicking on the “comments” link below this post.
(Source: Søren Lund/LEGO Group) – [Jeff James]

The ubiquitous Energizer bunny — who has obviously been going, going and going for some time now — has teamed up with the LEGO Group to offer Mindstorms NXT purchasers a special offer this holiday season.

During the month of December, LEGO and Energizer have joined forces to offer a free NXT Power Pack  – which includes a light sensor, a tounch sensor and an 8-pack of Energizer e2 Lithium batteries — simply for providing proof of purchase of a new Mindstorms NXT set purchased between December 1 and December 31 from the following retailers:

• Amazon.com
• Apple – Apple.com
• Best Buy – BestBuy.com
• CompUSA – CompUSA.com
• eToys.com
• Target – Target.com
• Toys “R” Us – ToysRUs.com
• Wal-Mart -Wal-Mart.com

Purchased separately the items would be worth about $50, so prospective NXT purchasers may want to check this one out. Visit the NXT Power Pack site for more info and a downloadable offer form. (Source: LEGO Group) – [Jeff James]

^{photo: © Energizer}

PC hardware enthusiast site Ars Technica recently took a look at the new Mindstorms NXT (back in August, actually) and posted a lengthy multi-page review by Nate Anderson. 

The review includes quite a few photos and screengrabs — including one or two of Nate’s “Frumious Bandersnatch v1.2” robot (seen below) – as well as a few quicktime video clips of a NXT robot in action. 

• Ars Technica LEGO Mindstorms NXT Review 

(Source: Ars Technica) – [Jeff James]

^{logo/photo: © Ars Technica}

As always, if you know about a blog or website that covers Mindstorms, the new NXT or hobby/consumer robotics in general, drop us a note and we’ll add it to the blogroll. – [Jeff James]

With the first retail NXT sets now making their way into the hands of consumers, some initial product reviews of the newest member of the Mindstorms family are beginning to appear.

Gadget site Gizmodo was one of the first to post their initial review of the NXT, with some personal impressions and opinions by Joel Johnson. Check out Joel’s review for more information. (Source: Gizmodo) – [Jeff James]

HiTechnic Products has been making custom sensors and accessories for the original RCX for years. Now they’ve expanded their product line to support the new NXT as well, and have announced two NXT-ready products: a compass sensor and a color sensor (latter pictured above).

Here’s some additional info on the compass sensor from the HiTechnic website:

HiTechnic announces its first NXT compatible sensor, the HiTechnic Digital Compass Sensor which operates with the new LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT system.  The Digital Compass Sensor connects to an NXT sensor port and is capable of operating in full digital mode.   The Digital Compass Sensor outputs a magnetic heading from 0° to 359° and with an internal accuracy of better than 1°.  Heading values are rounded to the nearest 1° assuring excellent navigational characteristics.

Both sensors should be available for sale in August. Check out the HiTechnic website for more information. (Source: HiTechnic Products) – [Jeff James]

Everyone loves to see a giant row of dominos getting knocked over in perfect sequence, with lines of the falling tiles snaking off into every direction. Everyone loves to see the finale, but what about all the hard work that went in to lining up thousands of those blasted little things? Robot builder Dave Astolfo came up with a solution: the RCX-powered DominoBot.

Astolfo explains on his website that some aspects of the build were particularly challenging, especially coordinating the actions of the three motors to properly place the dominos on their edges:

“Without giving away too much, DominoBot consists of sub-sections that are built seperately and the combined into the final model. The biggest challenge that I faced was using three motors to drive, steer, and lay the dominos. I met that challenge with the Loader mechanism (seen below), which has the ability of dispensing and placing each domino with one motor and sensor.”

The original DominoBot took Astolfo rough 20 hours of testing and experimentation to complete the build, as well as additional time to create the building instructions. Astolfo’s creation was featured as one of 10 Mindstorms robots featured in the LEGO Mindstorms Ultimate Builder Projects book by Syngress Publishing.

An updated version of DominoBot based on the new Mindstorms NXT (DominoBotNXT) has been created by Astolfo as well. (Source: Dave Astolfo) – [Jeff James]

Filip Verhaeghe’s excellent bNXT site has now added a listing of German NXT blogs for Mindstorms fans that prefer deutsch.

The list isn’t very long at the moment, but this handy listing joins Filip’s other useful link resources for Spanish, Portugese and Dutch NXT news as well.

Check them all out over at the bNXT community news page. – [Jeff James]

The official LEGO Education site has a nice comparison chart showing — in detail — the differences between the exiting RCX Mindstorms system and the new NXT product.

The chart has been up for a while, but a quick lookthrough may be useful to those of you intrigued by the differences between the new and the old Mindstorms systems.

Check out the page in question at the official LEGO Education site here.  -  [Jeff James]

Additional online retailers are also participating in the pre-sell program, including ToysRUs, Fry’s, Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart and others. The official LEGO Mindstorms site will post updates on the pre-sell program over the coming weeks as well. 

Check out the offer in the LEGO shop here. – [Jeff James]