Download a detailed image of the Move Hub, Interactive Motor and Color & Distance Sensor. Download a detailed product description, including technical specifications. The connected home experience you didn't know you wanted Everything you need in a phone, except the headphone jack Apple iPad Pro (9.7-inch) The best iPad ever can't quite kill your laptop -- yet LEGO® BOOST Building and Coding Set Unveiled at CES Empowers Children to Bring Their LEGO Creations to Life Building on the company’s history of merging digital programming and physical building, LEGO® BOOST will inspire a younger generation to build and code their way to limitless play. Today the LEGO Group announced LEGO® BOOST, a supercharged building and coding set that lets children bring their LEGO creations to life by adding movement, sound and personality. Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, LEGO BOOST will be previewed to members of the global media at Digital Experience on January 4 and will be demonstrated to CES attendees as part of the Kids@Play Kids & Technology Marketplace from January 5-8, 2017 at the Sands Expo.
With a suggested retail price of $159.99 (USD), LEGO BOOST will be available in the second half of 2017. Build the creation you want LEGO® BOOST combines the endless play opportunities of a traditional LEGO set with an endless variety of movement and sound capabilities made possible through an easy-to-use, app-based coding environment. LEGO BOOST has been developed for children ages 7 and older by an international team of LEGO designers. Using familiar LEGO elements and simple coding language, LEGO BOOST delivers an intuitive approach and opportunities for quick success. Powered by a Move Hub, a LEGO stud-covered brick with built-in tilt sensor upon which children can add LEGO elements, motors and a sensor that combines color and distance detection, LEGO BOOST brings movement to any LEGO creation. The set includes building instructions for five diverse models; Vernie the Robot, Frankie the Cat, the Guitar 4000, the Multi-Tool Rover 4 (M.T.R.4), and the Autobuilder, each designed to give children the basic building and coding skills needed to express their creativity by personalizing whatever they build.
“We know that children dream of bringing their LEGO creations to life, and our chief ambition for LEGO BOOST is to fulfill that wish. Once children build a LEGO creation, we give them simple coding tools to ‘boost’ their models by adding personality,” said Simon Kent, design lead for the LEGO Group. “We want children to first and foremost have a fun and limitless play experience, adding the coding opportunity is the means to get there.” Coding brings your creation to life LEGO® BOOST introduces children to coding through a free downloadable app that contains the guidance, building instructions and simple coding commands to bring to life five LEGO creations, one at a time. Much like building with LEGO bricks, children build behaviors and actions by linking digital coding blocks in an easy-to-understand horizontal layout. To further personify the experience, LEGO BOOST lets children add voice recordings to their creations, adding personality without requiring spelling and typing.
The app also includes more than 60 activities designed to inspire additional building, coding and play. Creative canvas lets you boost any LEGO® creation To further inspire creative building and coding, the LEGO® BOOST app includes a “creative canvas” that includes basic building instructions for three simple base models that children can use to customize their own LEGO creations. The three bases available at launch include: a walking base for making animals like a dragon or a pony, a driving base for building vehicles like a dune buggy or rover, and an entrance base so that children can make their own castle, fort, or even a futuristic space station. Once children are comfortable with building and coding the various LEGO BOOST models, they can use the kit to “boost” any LEGO creation – from LEGO CITY and LEGO Friends to LEGO NINJAGO and The LEGO BATMAN Movie. Combination color & distance sensor Playmat, calibrated to the app, designed to facilitate mini challenges to practice simple coding trials
Free, downloadable app is iOS and Android tablet compatible LEGO BOOST uses 6 AAA batteries. Alkaline batteries are recommended, but rechargeable batteries can be used, though may result in weaker power output. LEGO BOOST will be available at most stores and online shopping sites where toys are sold, through select consumer electronics retailers, and at LEGO Stores and shop. in the second half of 2017 and will have a suggested retail price of $159.99 USD $159.99 (EUR) and $199.99 (CAD). Jennifer Colton, Flashpoint PRI saw this on PC Advisor and thought you should see it too. 2017 kicked off with the 50th anniversary of CES, the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where companies from around the world showcased products coming out in 2017. While the likes of Nvidia, Sony and Samsung have stolen the headlines, Lego announced Lego Boost, a cool new Lego kit that looks to introduce kids (and adults!) to the world of robotic toys. Here’s all we know about Lego Boost so far including UK price and release date rumours, and a little explanation of what to expect from Lego’s latest high-tech kit.
Read next: Best upcoming games of 2017 As Lego Boost was unveiled during CES 2017, we imagine the kit is still a little while away from being released – as with most things at the Consumer Electronics Show. According to the official UK-focused Lego Boost website, the kit is due to launch in the UK in August 2017, although it doesn’t mention a specific date. It’s a similar story with pricing – while it has been given US ($159.99 USD), European (159.99 euros) and Canadian ($199.99 CAD) pricing, the UK is yet to receive official pricing. We assume it’ll be close to the US pricing, possibly even the same at £159.99. We’ll update this section as soon as we have more information, so make sure you check back regularly for the latest information. Read next: Best HTC Vive games of 2017 So, what exactly is Lego Boost, and why is it so different to the thousands of other Lego builds available around the world? Lego Boost is the first kit from Lego that allows users to make robotic toys without needing to know/learn any code, opening the world of coding and robotics up to a much larger audience.
The Lego Boost kit includes 840 standard bricks along with a colour and distance sensor, a power hub with embedded tilt sensor and finally, a motor. The provided components will allow Lego users to build five different objects – a robot, a cat, a guitar, a bulldozer and a Lego-stacking machine (of course!). Another aspect of Lego Boost that sets it apart from the competition is the inclusion of a companion app (iOS and Android) that lets you drag and drop different actions, rather than having to code them in manually. As well as being a huge timesaver, it eliminates the biggest barrier for both kids and adults interested in building robotic toys. The app also features instructions for each build, a simple feature but one that’ll make the lives of Lego users a little bit easier – especially if they’ve misplaced the physical instructions. It also features game-esque upgrade systems, as you’ll be able to unlock new ‘abilities’ for your builds as you go along (the cat will learn to wag its tail, for example) – according to Lego, there will be around half a dozen actions for each build that can be unlocked via the companion app.