Innovation First, Inc and Revell Monogram LLC - Vex partnership
 

Re: Innovation First, Inc and Revell Monogram LLC - Vex partnership
 

Sounds cool!

I saw a link to it on Make, and it looks pretty cool. Looks like Vex is going pimp with their new wheels:


The chassis system looks pretty cool also, as does that mechanism onside the arm.

Re: Innovation First, Inc and Revell Monogram LLC - Vex partnership
 

It seems like IFI really has it this time. The two gripes I had about Vex was price and the sort of thrown-in-headfirstness of the kit if you don't have a specific goal in mind, or if some of the concepts are a bit over your head. (Sure, there are forums online, but some younger kids might have parents who are skittish about message boards.) Judging from the Robot Magazine article, those problems are reduced or removed.

The only question that lingers in my mind is that of backwards-compatibility, although it seems like the hardware is similar from the pictures. (Perhaps the revised system will somehow adapt to standard male pin headers?)

Re: Innovation First, Inc and Revell Monogram LLC - Vex partnership
 

The new Vex kits look much better for aiming to competitively sell Vex to the general public. In addition to the cheaper price, the ability to build a robot straight out of the box that can go and pick-up objects (such as the one above with the claw), will drastically help Vex gain widespread acceptance among the masses.

Since Innovation FIRST will continue to sell the traditional Vex kits, and with Revell marketing the new "consumer-friendly" Vex kits, everyone wins. More people buy Vex, and the people who already have Vex kits, as well as the FVC teams, can continue to use the more advanced/original kits. I personally cannot wait to see the new kits, in addition to all the new parts that IFI will be offering in the coming months. :p

Viva la Vex! :D

Re: Innovation First, Inc and Revell Monogram LLC - Vex partnership
 

Hobbico purchased Revell-Monogram in May.

Re: Innovation First, Inc and Revell Monogram LLC - Vex partnership
 

I talked with one of the guys at Revell at the FVC Championship in Atlanta and he said this new line of vex parts was mainly for consumer enjoyment.

Their goal was to have a robot out of the box and assembled and driving in less than an hour. Its merely for vex to get its foot in the marketplace again in a cheaper, simpler form.

As for backwards compatibility..I'm pretty sure that this new stuff won't be FVC legal..atleast he made the point that he thought it wouldn't be.

Jared

Re: Innovation First, Inc and Revell Monogram LLC - Vex partnership
 

So when will it be out? Or is it no longer going to happen?

Re: Innovation First, Inc and Revell Monogram LLC - Vex partnership
 

BotMag had a Vexplorer update last week:
http://botmag.com/articles/06-07-07_vexplorer.shtml