[swe9]

I started with Mindstorms and there are a few things about the Vex that are inferior. 1) No start/stop button, the Vex will happily run off the table just because a new program was downloaded. 2) No way to maintain multiple programs on the Vex controller. This is *very* handy. 3) No LCD interface built into the controller. (I built the Palm Vex project at HobbyVex.org for just this purpose.) 4) The missing bevel gears etc mentioned earlier prevent a straightforward translation of many Mindstorms robots into Vex. 5) Screws and Nuts are very useful, but it would be wonderful to have some kind of quick connect/disconnect especially in hard-to-reach places. Imagine just snapping it all together in just a few minutes... 6) The kit doesn't come in a box that is very useful for holding all the parts while working on projects. 7) Only 1 starter project is provided with the kit, almost nothing is available elsewhere. 8) Although Vex interoperates with Erector Set/Meccano very well, the Lego parts are just not very compatible. It would be cool if there were some adapter parts that helped secure Lego parts to the Vex :-) Once a couple beams are attached you should be able to do anything.

Don't take this wrong, the Vex is great and has many advantages over Mindstorms (also mentioned previously in other threads.) Fixes to the things I mentioned above would simply make it unbeatable.