Overview

#45678 SPIKE Prime is an education-focused product aimed at ages 10+. It costs $359.99 (399.99€ / £359.99) for 523 pieces. This includes 1 control brick, 3 motors, 3 sensors, various LEGO Technic parts, 2 minfigures, and a storage tub.

The set can be expanded with the addition of #45681 Spike Prime Expansion Set, which costs $109.95 for 604 additional pieces. This includes one additional large motor, one additional color sensor, larger wheels, and a variety of additional parts.

First Impressions

I first received this set back in June 2020, well before the consumer-facing #51515 MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor was released, using most of the same Powered Up components introduced in this set. This was not a surprise; many folks had predicted that the next version of Mindstorms would use the “Powered Up” interface.

My hope in reviewing the set was to get a first glimpse at the new system for building motorized and programmable LEGO models, to offer an assessment of how well the set would work in a classroom setting, and explore how well the included storage bin works in everyday use.

The new LEGO Technic Large Hub (part 45601) is the heart of the system. (Photo: The LEGO Group)

Upon unboxing the set, I was pleased to see the cool-looking Powered Up components, the sleeker but possibly less capable hub (compared to Mindstorms EV3), and a decent selection of Technic parts.

a variety of colors that I hope will appeal to children of all ages and genders

I’m very pleased to see a variety of colors that I hope will appeal to children of all ages and genders, with stereotypically female colors (like 42Bright Reddish VioletMagenta / 322Medium AzurMedium Azure), stereotypically male primaries (like 21Bright RedRed / 24Bright YellowYellow / 23Bright BlueBlue) and neutral shades (White / Gray / Black). If anything, the color palette leans slightly female based on my own biases — which is only fair after (knowingly) creating products aimed squarely at young boys for years!

What is LEGO Education?

The LEGO Group has a long-standing tradition of supporting educators with products designed specifically for use in the classroom. This has included both sets containing standard bricks, and a range of programmable products beginning with LEGO Technic Control, a product for educators that was released 35 years ago (1985).

LEGO Education describes the focus of their effort around “Learning Through Play” which is in subtle contrast to the “playful learning” language used on consumer-facing sets (like the new #51515 Mindstorms Robot Inventor.) Without a deep dive into the grammatical differences in those two phrases, the key difference is that the education products put learning first, whereas the consumer products put play first.

What’s Included?

Here’s an overview of what you will find in both the core Spike Prime set and the expansion set.

#45678 SPIKE Prime

Let’s open #45678 SPIKE Prime and take a closer look at what’s in the box, and the box itself (unlike most consumer-facing LEGO sets, the higher-end LEGO Education sets come in a sturdy reusable plastic container).

#45678 Spike Prime – The reusable plastic storage tote comes in a plain brown box.

As you can see, the set comes in a durable plastic bin with two sorting trays containing four compartments each. Stickers are included to help keep the smaller pieces organized, and the larger parts fit comfortably beneath the sorting trays in the large yellow bin (with enough space to rummage around to find what you need pretty easily).

#45681 SPIKE Prime Expansion

If you want access to additional lesson plans, or want to build more complex custom creations, you may want to also get the #45681 Spike Prime Expansion Set. It includes 604 additional pieces for $110. (#45681 is a minor update to set #45680, which is the version I reviewed.)

#45680 / 45681 Spike Prime Expansion Set – Box Front and Back.

The expansion includes a lot of general purpose parts, as well as some useful parts which were not included in the core set at all.

Key extra parts:

• 1x – Large Angular Motor (part 54675c01)
  The core set includes one large motor and two small ones.
• 1x – Color Sensor (part 37308c01)
  The core set includes just one.

Some of the key new parts in #45680 / #45681.

Notable new parts:

• 4x – Large wheel w/ integrated tire (part 49295c01)
  The core set only includes small wheels
• 2x – 60-tooth Technic Turntable (parts 18938 + 18939)
• 2x – 28-tooth Technic Turntable (parts 99010 + 99009)
• 8x – 35-tooth ¼ Circle Gear (part 24121)
• 1x – Chicken (part 95342)
• 1x – Technic 11×15 Electronics Frame (part 65817)
  Only included in the newest version of the expansion set – this part makes it easy to attach 3rd party electronics to your LEGO model.

Spike Prime vs. similar products

You have some other options no matter whether you are an AFOL, a parent, or an Educator. This section offers a quick comparison with both the consumer-facing #51515 MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor set, and the previous generation LEGO Mindstorms EV3 products, which debuted (way) back in 2013.

Mindstorms Robot Inventor (2021)

The obvious comparison is #51515 MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor, which is a consumer-focused product and was released one year after Spike Prime. Robot Inventor contains a lot more pieces (949 in total) for $359.99 (€359.99/£329.99) — The same as the current USA pricing for SPIKE Prime, but €40 cheaper in the EU and £30 cheaper in the UK. This makes Robot Inventor a better value for most families and AFOL’s, especially in Europe.

Note: When I first published this article, the USA price for Spike Prime was just $329.99, a significantly lower price than in Europe. I had attributed this lower price to unique pressures of the US market, since funding for education is at a local level in the United States (but typically at the national level in Europe). The price was increased to $359.99 in January 2022, bringing it closer to the pricing in Europe. (Remember, these are sticker prices – it is likely that schools can negotiate lower prices when purchasing in bulk.)

Since the 6-port Large Technic Hub and two of the motors are the same in both sets, you can purchase additional parts to supplement a SPIKE Prime set to have the same selection of parts as the MINDSTORMS set, or visa versa. (That said, you will need to ignore differences in part colors — for example, the SPIKE PRIME hub is 24Bright YellowYellow whereas the MINDSTORMS hub is 107Bright Bluish GreenDark Turquoise / Teal.)

Remember, you can use the Mindstorms app with the pieces from the Spike Prime set, and you can use the Spike Prime app with the parts from the Mindstorm set — there is no reason to buy both!

Mindstorms EV3 Intelligent Brick (2013)

But how does the new Spike Hub / Technic Large Intelligent Hub (part 67718) compare with the much older Mindstorms EV3 Intelligent Brick? (The EV3 was introduced in 2013 – an eternity ago in the fast-paced world of consumer electronics.)

The LEGO Mindstorms EV3 programmable brick is much larger, and (in some ways) more capable.

1. The EV3’s ARM926EJ-S CPU is rated at 1.1 DMIPS/MHz (per this forum post at community.arm.com), and an estimated 611 coremark (per zephray.me/coremark.
2. Performance estimates for the Spike Hub’s STM32F413 CPU come from st.com and lego.com.

A lot of folks will be quite surprised to learn that the new system is significantly less powerful than the EV3 in a lot of ways, most notably in raw CPU performance (about ½ the overall speed) and RAM (1/200th as much). That said, a ton of factors impact real-life performance — if you want to learn more, check out the optional section below…

Ultimately, the simpler experience, additional sensors, and smaller size of the new system makes it a better choice for simple projects and most educational scenarios. Only a small number of computationally-intensive projects would benefit from the more powerful EV3 system anyways. (The new system is probably less appealing to the maker community, but that market is already saturated with Raspberry Pi and Arduino products.)

Student & Educator experience

I built several of the robots using the curiculum materials that are provided in the LEGO Education SPIKE app. I observed that they were of a consistently high quality, with introductory videos, clear building instructions, and tips along the way to help you succeed.

Robot produced in the ‘Hopper Race’ learning module.

The curriculum materials are organized into two categories: There are five unit plans covering a single theme over between 5 and 8 different classes. There’s also a gallery of supplemental lessons you can use in your classroom. Alternately, you can go to the “Build” gallery to find building instructions for one of these LEGO models, and figure out how to bring it to life by writing a program from scratch.

Each of five unit plans explores a theme over several classes.

The lessons plans form the heart of the LEGO Education SPIKE app and the main way that many educators will use this set in their classrooms. Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell in the app which lessons require the expansion set!

Which unit plan can I build?

• Invention Squad – Core set only.
• Kickstart a Business – Core set only.
• Life Hacks – Core set only.
• Competition Ready – The first three appear to use the core set only. After that, it requires the Expansion Set, plus First LEGO League specific materials.
• Training Trackers – Core set only.
• Life Hacks – Core set only.

As long as educators avoid the Competition Ready lesson plans, they should not have any problems using just the core set. (I found this problem even more confusing when I first started playing with the core set in August 2020; it’s possible that they have reduced the number of lessons that require the expansion to address this concern.)

Custom Creations using Spike Prime

In addition to several of the learning modules, I have built several custom models using the parts included in Spike Prime and the expansion set. I’ve highlighted just two of the projects I built, as they highlight two main aspects of this product: Part Selection and Programming.

My Great Ball Contraption

One of the projects I attempted (while on a road trip with my family) was to build a GBC module using just the parts from these sets, plus a handful of the LEGO Soccer Balls (which are typically used in a GBC). This project did not rely on programming at all, but rather allowed me to test the limits of the part selection included in these sets.

I quickly discovered that even with the expansion set, experienced builders will need to find creative solutions using just the parts actually available in the kit — rather than leveraging their knowledge of common Technic parts to design a mechanism. Two specific examples I encountered were the lack of Cams (part 6575) to create a smooth movement for the stairs as the axle rotated, and the relatively limited number of parts of a given size. (Even basic Technic Beams are in relatively limited quantities.)

My Programmable Train

Many of the robots I built were designed to help entertain my 3-year old son. That’s why I decided to re-create the default logic of the DUPLO Train using the optical sensor, motors, and programmaing capabilities of this set.

As a recap for folks who may not have read my review of #45025 DUPLO Coding Express, the train starts driving when pushed, then responds to colored “programming bricks” placed on the track as follows:

• 28Dark GreenGreen – Reverses direction
• 24Bright YellowYellow – Beeping sound
• 1White – Turns headlight on/off
• 23Bright BlueBlue – Pauses for 3 seconds
• 21Bright RedRed – Stops driving

My custom train that responds to DUPLO Programming Bricks.

It took a few tries to combine the required sensors and wheels in a small chassis. My initial prototype (not pictured) was quickly assembled using several of the large 7×11 Open Frames (part 39794). The final version is radically more compact, wedging the color sensor in the middle of the model such that it reads the colors when it passes directly over the programming brick. This navigates curved DUPLO track more easily, but falls over backwards when attempting to go up a ramp.

I did modify the DUPLO train behavior slightly when implementing it using SPIKE/MINDSTORMS app. (You can see screenshots of the actual program in the next section.)

For simplicity’s sake, instead of pushing on the train to start it, you simply tap the train and it starts driving and tap it again to stop it. I also had some unexpected problems with the 24Bright YellowYellow color sensor – it kept registering 28Dark GreenGreen for a fraction of a second, causing the part of the program which changes direction to trigger instead. (I believe that this is caused by the combination of 194Medium Stone GreyLight Bluish Gray track and the 24Bright YellowYellow programming brick.) After switching the program to trigger on Black instead, it worked as expected.

To learn more about the program I wrote, keep reading? (I wrote the program for both the SPIKE and Mindstorms apps!)

Programming environments

As noted earlier in the article, you can purchase Spike Prime but use the superior Mindstorms app to write custom apps, or you can buy the potentially cheaper Mindstorms set and use the curriculum materials in the LEGO Education Spike app.

While your hub will work with either app, you will need to re-flash your hub with a different firmware when switching apps. The image which appears when you turn on the hub tells you which firmware is installed.

SPIKE shows a heart, MINDSTORMS shows a play icon.

Anton’s Mindstorms Hacks

At the time of this article, the Spike Prime app forces an update to the hub firmware to version 4.0.0.5 and the Mindstorms app forces an update to version 3.1.4.3 – These numbers do not appear to be sequential, but likely represent two different forks of the firmware with slightly different capabilities. (For example, the Mindstorms firmware includes some on-device sounds which you can use in your apps.)

While not meant to be an exhaustive comparison, I’ve provided a screenshot of each app and highlighted a couple of key differences.

‘LEGO Education Spike’ app

The LEGO Education SPIKE app allows you to write programs in three languages: using “Icon Blocks” (simple blocks with icons instead of words), “Word Blocks” (developed by MIT as the “Scratch” visual programming language), or “Python” (which is an increasingly mainstream scripting language.)

My Programmable Train written using “Word Blocks” in the ‘LEGO Education SPIKE’ app.

‘LEGO Mindstorms’ app

The LEGO Mindstorms app allows foregoes the simplistic “Icon Blocks” language offered in the LEGO Education product, but keeps the other two options: “Word Blocks” (developed by MIT as the “Scratch” visual programming language), or “Python” (which is an increasingly mainstream scripting language.)

My Programmable Train written using “Word Blocks” in the ‘LEGO MINDSTORMS’ app.

SPIKE vs. MINDSTORMS apps

Beyond the addition of an even simpler “Icon blocks” language in the LEGO Education Spike app, both offer similar capabilities when programming in the “Word Blocks” language (which is called Scratch and not exclusive to LEGO products). This includes use of the same basic shapes used in other Scratch-based apps (such as the “hat block” which triggers a sequence of events when a condition is met).

They both also support the popular Python programming language, which is a modern general-purpose programming language that prioritizes coding simplicity over highest-performance. That said, it is not a visual language — you will be writing your entire program in a text editor. (I did not experiment with Python while writing this review, because the Scratch-based language was sufficient for my simple needs.)

Key Differences when programming in Scratch (Word Blocks):

Storage Considerations

As noted earlier in the article, the core set fits pretty well in the included box, and the stickers do offer a good recommendation about where to store each piece. The problem is that the expansion set is required to build many of the lesson plans, and most decent custom creations because the core set is so limited, but the storage box is woefully unable to store all of the additional parts.

The base set fits comfortably within the plastic box that it comes in.

In a classroom setting

If you only have enough time in your school year to do a handful of simple lesson plans with your students, the core set may be sufficient. I’m pleased to report that the storage which the set comes with is perfectly adequate for the core set. It isn’t as well organized as I prefer, but the stickers for 8 categories keep the smaller parts organized well enough to find parts pretty quickly.

With the expansion set, the lid will barely close. Ziploc bags are needed to keep things somewhat organized.

If you do decide to purchase the expansion set to allow students to complete some of the more advanced lesson plans or build their own creations, you will also want to invest in a better storage solution. I tried to organize the parts a bit better using quart-sized ziploc bags, but the parts barely fit in the box and it’s still hard to find what I’m looking for. A tackle box with multiple removeable containers is probably your best bet if kids will be making more complex custom creations. (The Plano 137401 pictured below was a top choice for educators using the earlier EV3 system. I haven’t seen a consensus for Spike Prime since it is still quite new.)

A large tackle box with removeable drawers is the ultimate in portable storage.

The reason that I recommend a more advanced storage solution is twofold: to make it quicker and easier for students to find the parts they need, and a well organized storage solution makes it easier for students to discover the full range of parts at their disposal to solve engineering problems they encounter while building. (It also makes it easier to see when a part is lost or stolen.)

At home

If you already have a large LEGO collection you probably know how to incorporate all of these parts into your existing storage solution. (If not, you should check out LEGO Storage for Large Collections chapter of my LEGO Storage Guide.)

If you are relatively new to LEGO, I recommend that you start with a simple storage solution, and scale up your storage as your collection grows. For example, if you decide to purchase the #45678 SPIKE Prime set (or consumer-facing #51515 LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor) but don’t plan to buy any other LEGO parts, I would recommend the same 4-drawer tackle box that works well in a classroom setting. For an even better experience, you can label each compartment using LEGO Brick Labels.

Conclusion

Since I spent so much time with this set, I have prepared a different conclusion for different audiences. I’ve also offered an overall assessment of the Powered Up system as a whole, since this set (and the recent #45345 SPIKE Essential Set) complete The LEGO Group’s transition to Powered Up.

For Students and Teachers: It it easy to recommend Spike Prime in a classroom setting because it allows students to build some cool robots and learn basic programming skills in an approachable way. It is meaningfully simpler than the EV3 system which it replaces. More importantly, it is designed with a more inclusive aesthetic and color palette — let’s get all students excited about engineering and programming!

#45678 SPIKE Prime is a better choice in the classroom since the part colors will match the curriculum materials.

Thankfully, my two biggest gripes can be easily fixed. The LEGO Group needs to fix the confusing app experience when you do not own the expansion pack — it should be trivial to hide learning modules which require the expansion set. The second concern is that you really need the expansion to create custom models, but the storage bin stops working with all of the extra parts. You can always get rid of the original box in favor of a Tackle box with removeable containers, but this is wasteful.

What will you build with #45678 Spike Prime?

For Families: #51515 MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor offers a better value for most families, since it includes more parts for a similar price. The Mindstorms app focuses more on fun than learning, which is probably more realistic in a household setting anyways. Do consider storage for either set, though. The same Tackle box with removeable containers would work equally well in the home, especially if you label the compartments.

#51515 MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor offers a better value for most families and adult builders.

For Adult Builders: If you already have a large Technic collection and want to build custom models, either set is fine… It really comes down to the color palette (which is personal preference) and cost (where Mindstorms offers a better value).

• The programming brick in the #51515 MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor has a nice 107Bright Bluish GreenDark Turquoise / Teal color and the motors are 194Medium Stone GreyLight Bluish Gray.
• In #45678 SPIKE Prime, the programming brick is the classic 24Bright YellowYellow color and the motors are 322Medium AzurMedium Azure.

I also wanted to offer a ‘review’ of the overall Powered Up system of Hubs, Sensors, and Motors from the perspective of the Adult Fan community. While acknolwedging that the new Hub is less powerful than the EV3 it replaces, the smaller size, Lithium-ion battery, and more versatile port design are nice upgrades. It is a better product for more casual buiders like myself, and worse for really advanced builders.

The selection of Powered Up motors and sensors also reflects an upgrade from the previous generation, largely due to the increased interoperability between motors within and outside of the Mindstorms product line. The biggest outstanding downside is the inability to run Powered Up off of a wall outlet using officially released LEGO accessories.

At the end of the day, It’s important to remember that the set I’m actually reviewing is intended for a classroom setting. In that environment, the core #45678 SPIKE Prime set alone earns a Good (3/5 star) rating as-is, hindered by the very low number of parts and the frustration that you can’t hide incompatible learning modules in the app.

#45678 LEGO Education SPIKE Prime

At about $500, combining the Core Set, Expansion set, and an alternate storage solution (with labeled compartments) would earn a higher Recommended (4/5 star) rating. the increased versatility of the extra parts and easier building due to the improved storage solution makes a difference. (If they offered a “complete edition” which combines the core set, expansion, and an excellent storage solution for $425, it would have likely earned top marks due to the better value and improved experience.)

Version History

This review has been updated to correct errors and add additional information.

• January 22, 2022 Updated pricing in USA from $329.99 to $359.99. (It was updated at LEGO.com in the past couple days – Thanks to Patrice for pointing out the new price.)
• January 17, 2020 First Published.