I’ve reading a few different articles about the new robotics kit being sold at Radio Shack. PC Magazine had a review of the new VEX Robotics Design System.
At about $300, it isn’t exactly cheap, but it is definitely a lot better than getting a kit that makes only one kind of robot. Those kits are usually not more than toys. VEX RDS is inspired by the kit handed out for the FIRST Robotics Competition. I never took place in the competition, but I can imagine it is a lot of fun.
I always wanted to build my own robot, but I never wanted to use the kits I had seen before. It would be like writing code but being told you can’t do anything but copy it from a page in a book. Sure it would be cool the first time, but I would want to be able to make my own creations. Now I can.