Time for LEGO?

So, when I grew up we (me and my older brother) had lots and lots of LEGO. Thinking about it now, as a parent with kids of my own, I guess I am impressed with the quantity we had. Sure was fun to play with and it does have a huge re-use factor unlike other toys like the Quercetti Skyrail Rollercoaster with Elevator that my son(s) really wanted and got as a gift when they managed to sleep in their own beds and stay dry without diaper for a week. They still have fun playing with it, but the re-use factor and the stow-away factor are really not there.

A few weeks ago my wife found this LEGO place in San Anselmo and we sure had fun there. But, at home, we do not have much LEGO and especially no motorized LEGOs. As I am a gadget and computer geek, I have been searching ebay and Craigslist for used Mindstorm kits (the robot kits with a computer). But they are rare and go for almost new price. So when I saw that the new LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 kit is now available, I am wondering if it is time to oder one. Like I said, this price, $279 for the brand new one is really jusy $20-50 more than you would need to pay for a used one. The older kits also have the disadvantage of needing a serial port (RS-232, for RCX 1.0) and cannot be controlled by neat things like bluetooth (check here for what cell phones can be used as a remote, very cool).

Here is a preview of the new kit:


Can anyone provide a comment on the age range this is fun for, if the boy is really good at technical stuff and interested in anything that has a motor :)