Bot Bench I'd Rather Be Building Robots
It seems that “due to unprecedented demand”, there is a world-wide shortage of EV3 hardware. This seems to affect the Educational set which some of LEGO’s distributors are marking as out of stock until March 2014. I currently have no info on what the situation is on the retail EV3 set. I’ll update when I know more.
I am surprised LEGO did not foresee this demand, this is going to leave quite a lot of people disappointed for Christmas and schools with major issues trying to migrate their curriculum to the new platform. This is not the first new robotics platform LEGO has released. You would think they would’ve gotten the hang of it by now.
I have no idea how this affects orders that have already been placed, but you may want to contact your reseller about yours.
Psst, anyone wanna buy a few EV3s?
I guess I am also a lucky one. I have received both the Educational version in August and the Retail version in September within a week of ordering the latter. The only thing that I have not received yet from the educational side are the 2 rechargeable batteries that must still be on backorder. I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones. Two EV3s in the stables with 4 NXTs, 4 RCXs, 2 RDS Scouts, and the one old Cybermaster set.
I’ll take some 8)
Amazon.co.uk has plenty of LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Retail Kits (#31313): http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BMKLVJ6
Forgot the Price! $US250.00 for non-UK residents…
The only impact that I have seen regarding orders placed in Jan and Feb 2013 are that I seem to be on the end of a queue for the EV3 rechargeable batteries from LEGO Education. Responses that I have received regarding inquiry into an ETA have been, “unknown at this time” and “We cannot state a definite delivery time.” So for now, I will continue to back Duracell and Eveready companies.