On the occasion of Fan Media Days that took place online a few days ago, LEGO was telling us about the future of the home motorization ecosystem Powered Up and unveiled some avenues for the future of this set of components which allows certain products to come to life and extend the possibilities for play or education.

The manufacturer has understood that it is becoming necessary to guarantee a certain sustainability to this ecosystem of physical components and applications to obtain the support and the confidence of consumers and is actively working on the regrouping of all these elements under one and the same. banner: the official application Powered Up. All the components, including the elements of the Mindstorms universe, can therefore eventually be controlled and potentially programmed via this application, with the exception of the DUPLO Hub.

Products that until now had a dedicated application such as LEGO Star Wars sets 75253 Boost Droid Commander et 17101 Boost Creative Toolbox will be integrated into the application when the time comes to stop their marketing and to ensure the follow-up of the software part, but LEGO does not guarantee that all the original functionalities will be transferred.

Even if the grouping of all the more or less interactive products within a single application, the development of which will be monitored over time, is good news for the future of the various products concerned, it could only be a question of transfer of basic functions and the user will undoubtedly lose some specificities of the original product in the process.

Other products, such as sets 10273 Haunted Houses, 10277 Crocodile Locomotive, 21323 Grand Piano or even 71044 Disney Train and Station, more or less interactive but whose functionalities did not justify the creation of a dedicated control interface when they were marketed, are already integrated into the application. They will therefore be gradually joined by products which until now have benefited from a dedicated application.

As for the physical elements of the Powered Up ecosystem, no new components have been presented but LEGO confirms the arrival of additional products this year, no doubt via the launch of the novelties of the LEGO Technic range scheduled for the month of October.

Another important file LEGO is working on: the visual overhaul of the programming system based on numerous icons, some of which are often difficult to interpret. LEGO promises that this evolution will be available by the end of the year, let's hope that these changes are not only aesthetic and that the pictograms of some icons become a little more explicit.

The manufacturer also announces that it is working on the possibility of doing without a smartphone or a tablet to take advantage of the functionalities of a product: this emancipation will go through the availability of virtual machines which should in principle make it possible to program actions and then send the sequence to the hub which will execute it. There is no question for the moment of a physical controller in the form of a possible remote control which could receive and store these predefined sequences.

Here too, the durability of a "hard" programmed product would be better assured over time and the implementation of this functionality should pave the way for further automation of certain combinations of actions. LEGO was also talking about the concept of Behavior Building, an idea that would allow, for example, the youngest to enjoy their robots without going through laborious preliminary programming phases, this is already the case for certain models of the LEGO Boost ecosystem.

In the area of ​​purely cosmetic innovations, LEGO promises a visual evolution of the control interface via the addition of new widgets, some of which are based on LEGO parts, and some customization elements such as the theme representing the "painting board "of an electric vehicle.

Finally, the manufacturer admits that all these products are sorely lacking in documentation, even if the user community has long produced many tools that allow you to take advantage of the programming interface. LEGO promises tutorials, contextual support and extensive documentation of the programming interface. It took a long time, but LEGO seems to understand that the potentially educational aspect of some products does not necessarily mean the complexity of their use.

Upon arrival, we feel that LEGO has understood the need to guarantee the longevity and accessibility of these products which offer a certain level of interactivity. It will always be necessary to have a relatively recent smartphone on hand to take advantage of all the features offered, but the desire to group the digital portion under a single banner seems to me likely to reassure those who were worried about the gradual abandonment of applications dedicated to each of these products. It will remain to verify what really remains of the initial interactivity specific to the products which will be gradually transferred to the Powered Up application.

Good news for fans who were desperate to get the new Battery Box Powered Up so far only supplied as part of the LEGO Technic set 42113 Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, a box whose marketing has in principle never taken place but which is negotiated on the secondary market at indecent prices: This new battery box which allows two motors to be controlled via the integrated selectors will be available for sale at the 'unit. 6 AA batteries will be required.

The Polish brand Bonito Reference this product at the public price of 159.99 zlotys, or around 36 €. This Battery Box is currently not listed on the official online store which only offers the Hub Powered Up 88012 with its 4 ports and Bluetooth connectivity at the retail price of € 79.99.

For those who are interested, know that the new LEGO Technic motorization elements available so far only in sets 42099 4x4 X-treme Off-Roader (€ 229.99), 42109 App-Controlled Top Gear Rally Car (139.99 €) and 42100 Liebherr R9800 (449.99 €) will be available for sale separately from June 1st:

The other product available today on the LEGO Shop will allow anyone who has purchased one of the new sets equipped with the Powered Up system to add some light to their model. This is the kit 88005 LED Lights (€ 9.99), which as its name suggests incorporates two LEDs powered by the new hub Powered Up via the new connector.

It is the first accessory of the new LEGO ecosystem Powered Up to be marketed separately. Items already delivered in sets 60197 Passenger Train (€ 139.99), 60198 Freight Train (199.99 €) and 76112 App-Controlled Batmobile (€ 99.99) will also be retailed in the coming weeks / months.

With the marketing of several sets integrating the new engine ecosystem Powered-UP, many fans are now worried about the new components being backwards compatible with those in the range Power Functions.

LEGO has just clearly answered the question: Backward compatibility will not be guaranteed by the manufacturer. In the best-case scenario, it will be up to fans or third-party manufacturers to try and come up with solutions. In my opinion, it would take a massive mobilization of fans / customers to convince LEGO to develop a technical bridge between the two ecosystems, and yet it is far from being won ...

The arrival of a system using Bluetooth technology is anyway excellent news, current products deserve better than an outdated infrared connection with limited performance.

The concept Powered-UP will therefore eventually replace the range Power Functions, doomed to be definitively withdrawn from shelves but whose different modules will continue to be marketed for an undefined period. So life goes, the two concepts are logically not intended to coexist in the LEGO catalog in the long term.

In short, if you don't want to invest in modifying all your trains, buy Power Functions as long as there is on sale. If you envision a gradual transition within your budget, you can get it started in the coming months by purchasing Power UP items at retail. Public prices for each of these items have not yet been released.

All of the manufacturer's ranges are affected by this change in technology, including DUPLO and Technic. Compatibility with products from the MINDSTORMS NXT / EV3 universe is not clearly defined even if we already know that the connectors of the two systems are different. LEGO seems to indicate that possibilities will exist via some unspecified "modifications".

LEGO also communicates some technical details on the possibilities offered by the Powered UP ecosystem. in a frequently asked questions, but remains for the moment very vague on many points.

The average customer will be content to know that he can control his train, his Batmobile or his future LEGO Technic crane via the basic remote control (Smart Controller) or via the LEGO application. Powered-UP (iOS and Android) which will be updated over time.

For the rest, know that LEGO does not close the door to any evolution, even if the current Bluetooth hub is only equipped with two connectors limiting the possibilities. To put it simply, the new system makes it possible to electrically identify the type of module which is connected to the hub (motor, sensor, etc.) and to maximize interactions depending on the module detected. No more chaining possible, but the promise of increased interactivity, in particular thanks to the possibility of updating the firmware of the various hubs (except that of the WeDo 2.0 hub which is not upgradable).

The communication interface is Open Source, its specifications will be made public in the more or less near future. The Bluetooth hub cannot currently be used as a simple battery, but we are only at the beginning of the commercialization of the Powered UP ecosystem and many developments are to be expected via the hub's firmware update. itself or via the various smartphone applications that will be available in the coming months.

Note that the remote control supplied in the LEGO CITY sets 60197 Passenger Train et 60198 Freight Train can be connected to a future smartphone application which will then allow specific functions to be assigned to the various physical buttons.

LEGO only mentions the possibility of using rechargeable batteries in the Powered Up hub so far, but it is obvious that a compatible rechargeable battery will be released sooner or later.

The full answers provided by LEGO to questions asked by fans can be found at this address.