> I always thought that some sorts of meccano based kit with an MCU board & unified sensor/motor fixtures (preferrably even 3d-printable!) would be a total mass

> I always thought that some sorts of meccano based kit with an MCU board & unified sensor/motor fixtures (preferrably even 3d-printable!) would be a total massive success. I would tend to agree with you on this, but the closest thing to that (mBot) is Chinese and frankly a total mess. You need quality hardware element and kit design, you need a holistic ecosystem approach, you need a solid, continous software investment/strategy, you need great product management, you need great documentation etc. None of that is present there. In a way I guess it's similar to our software platform wars (i.e. Mac OS vs Windows, IOS vs Android etc).