Out Now: Mindstorms NXT base set 2.0

Big news in the world of LEGO Mindstorms this past week: the original retail edition of the Mindstorms NXT kit has sold out (officially, anyway - local stock at various retailers will vary) and the NXT 2.0 kit has been released. Officially released on August 1st, the NXT 2.0 kit actually started showing up in store early and has already been tried out by many Mindstorms fan. For information on differences between the two kits, visit http://www.nxtprograms.com/help/parts/8547.html for the full list of parts included in the original kit but not in the 2.0 version. The 2.0 version has a very interesting assortment of parts as well - note the color sensor and Bionicle Zamor spheres and sphere launchers (said spheres and launchers are by far the easiest way to build a mechanical machine gun - something not easy but still doable with the original kit). Projects for both kits are available at http://www.nxtprograms.com/ - which, incidentally, you can subscribe to through RSS (a must for Mindstorms fans). Extensive coverage of the new NXT 2.0 kit can be found at The NXT Step (which will be featured in an upcoming post in my "Another Blog You Should Read" series).