A Message from the Powered UP Team

great good news

This is gonna be such a power move, no pun intended! This'll definitely be helpful to those who don't really care for the sets associated with the Powered Up components and just want to use the components for their own builds!

Great news! Will this mean a firmware updatz for the move hub to gain compatibility with the control+ & spike prime motors?

Great news! But I have one question: will we get separate Powered UP remote controller for technic hub some day? I mean something like ability to control all four ports without mobile device and be able to control movement and steering in clear way at the same time? Something like more advanced version of 88010? Absence of clear way to control technic models without mobile device a little bit disappointing =(  Building program for 88010 in Powered UP App e.g. for 42099 is an option for sure, but doesn't look like mature approach. Usage of mobile device also has some limitation, as it is a screen, not physical control elements.

On 5/30/2020 at 8:18 PM, BrightestDelightfulToilet said:

Great news! Will this mean a firmware updatz for the move hub to gain compatibility with the control+ & spike prime motors?

Control+ and Spike Prime motors can be used with the Hub via the Remote Control: https://www.hispabrickmagazine.com/content/2020/06/01/powered-up-ix-remote-control-1/ More hardware will be supported in the app in upcoming versions

Let us do some maths here:

130 Euro for Set 42109 Technic Top Gear Car which include 1 Technic Hub, 1 XL Technic Motor, 1 L Technic Motor

150 Euro for 1 Technic Hub, 1 XL Motor, 1 L Motor (without any bricks)

How is that possible?

Another comparison:

1 PU M Linear Motor = 17 Euro

1 Technic L Motor = 35 Euro - this is twice the price of the M Motor

I had this pricing pointed out to me too. This is similar to how Mindstorms have been priced for years. Individual parts being quite a bit higher in price to getting the same parts in sets. I think of it as LEGO Education pricing.

8 hours ago, Dirk Frantzen said:

Let us do some maths here:

130 Euro for Set 42109 Technic Top Gear Car which include 1 Technic Hub, 1 XL Technic Motor, 1 L Technic Motor

150 Euro for 1 Technic Hub, 1 XL Motor, 1 L Motor (without any bricks)

How is that possible?

Another comparison:

1 PU M Linear Motor = 17 Euro

1 Technic L Motor = 35 Euro - this is twice the price of the M Motor

 

The set is 1 SKU sold through normal channels in great volume, buying the parts means buying three separate skus that are each packaged and labeled and stocked and picked for orders, if they're available at retail it's going to be in a fraction of the outlet that the sets are and managing to balance stock and demand is going to be much more complicated.

I discussed the high cost of these components in my recent review of the #42109 App-controlled Top Gear Rally Car.  One of the interesting observations that I had was that "The Bluetooth Hub is about $20 new on BrickLink, and both of the motors sell for $10."

• 1x – Powered Up Bluetooth Hub & Battery Box (part bb0961c01) in Medium Stone Grey /Light Bluish Gray
  20$ Bricklink, 90$ LEGO.com
• 1x – Powered Up L Motor (part bb0959c01) in Dark Stone Grey /Dark Bluish Gray
  10$ BrickLink, 40$ LEGO.com
• 1x – Powered Up XL Motor (part bb0960c01) in Dark Stone Grey /Dark Bluish Gray
  10$ bricklink, 40$ LEGO.com

It's always interesting to me when there is a massive disconnect between LEGO official pricing for a specialty part, and the market value on secondary markets like BrickLink. 

It's hard to diagnose whether this reflects massive mark-up at LEGO, or shockingly low demand on the secondary market. (My instinct is that LEGO has determined that they can charge a tremendous premium because it supports "fancy" technology like Bluetooth, when in reality that bluetooth connectivity is made possible by a chipset that can be bought in bulk for less than 1$.)

I had considered adding a comment to my article indicating that these can now be purchased separately from LEGO.com, but these prices are completely out of line with reality.

—Tom

19 hours ago, Tom Alphin said:

It's always interesting to me when there is a massive disconnect between LEGO official pricing for a specialty part, and the market value on secondary markets like BrickLink. 

It's hard to diagnose whether this reflects massive mark-up at LEGO, or shockingly low demand on the secondary market. (My instinct is that LEGO has determined that they can charge a tremendous premium because it supports "fancy" technology like Bluetooth, when in reality that bluetooth connectivity is made possible by a chipset that can be bought in bulk for less than 1$.)

 

I had considered adding a comment to my article indicating that these can now be purchased separately from LEGO.com, but these prices are completely out of line with reality.

—Tom

I have also noticed this with BOOST sets. It seems that LEGO thinks that BOOST is awesome and people should pay a lot of money for those sets. However, on the secondary market, BOOST sets consistently sell for significantly less then the MRP even in brand new and sealed condition, and there is little demand for them. The secondary market can be a real eye-opener on what is actually popular and what isn't. I wonder if LEGO marketing every looks into that. Now that they have access to BrickLink's data, they could easily pull real numbers to get a reality check.

On 6/1/2020 at 3:29 PM, Tom Alphin said:

I discussed the high cost of these components in my recent review of the #42109 App-controlled Top Gear Rally Car.  One of the interesting observations that I had was that "The Bluetooth Hub is about $20 new on BrickLink, and both of the motors sell for $10."

• 1x – Powered Up Bluetooth Hub & Battery Box (part bb0961c01) in Medium Stone Grey /Light Bluish Gray
  20$ Bricklink, 90$ LEGO.com
• 1x – Powered Up L Motor (part bb0959c01) in Dark Stone Grey /Dark Bluish Gray
  10$ BrickLink, 40$ LEGO.com
• 1x – Powered Up XL Motor (part bb0960c01) in Dark Stone Grey /Dark Bluish Gray
  10$ bricklink, 40$ LEGO.com

 

It's always interesting to me when there is a massive disconnect between LEGO official pricing for a specialty part, and the market value on secondary markets like BrickLink. 

It's hard to diagnose whether this reflects massive mark-up at LEGO, or shockingly low demand on the secondary market. (My instinct is that LEGO has determined that they can charge a tremendous premium because it supports "fancy" technology like Bluetooth, when in reality that bluetooth connectivity is made possible by a chipset that can be bought in bulk for less than 1$.)

 

I had considered adding a comment to my article indicating that these can now be purchased separately from LEGO.com, but these prices are completely out of line with reality.

—Tom

On 6/1/2020 at 2:54 AM, Dirk Frantzen said:

Let us do some maths here:

130 Euro for Set 42109 Technic Top Gear Car which include 1 Technic Hub, 1 XL Technic Motor, 1 L Technic Motor

150 Euro for 1 Technic Hub, 1 XL Motor, 1 L Motor (without any bricks)

How is that possible?

Another comparison:

1 PU M Linear Motor = 17 Euro

1 Technic L Motor = 35 Euro - this is twice the price of the M Motor

 

On 6/1/2020 at 8:36 AM, Tom Atkinson said:

I had this pricing pointed out to me too. This is similar to how Mindstorms have been priced for years. Individual parts being quite a bit higher in price to getting the same parts in sets. I think of it as LEGO Education pricing.

I too took a look at the BlueTooth Hub (train version).  I spent some time last week motorizing the promotional 40th anniversary train (7810 / 40370) and have a short article on this on our club web site (https://www.cltc.ca/motorize-lego-7810-locomotive/); I was thinking that it would be elegant to use the BlueTooth Hub (88009) and the newer compatible medium motor (45303)... but almost C$100 is too steep.

As similar comparison of the dark blue passenger train (60197 - C$199)) to the PowerUp components which total C$117.97 (remote=C$29.99 + motor=C$17.99 + hub=$69.99).  It does not make sense to have the PowerUp components worth some 60% of the train set cost... and discourages the use of PowerUp components by young people wanting to explore robotics / automation.

I would encourage TLG to look at opportunities to make the PowerUp components more competitively priced to foster children to play with motors, controls, and automation.