January 13, 2026
Golden robots, spicy nostalgia
Going for Gold: The Story of the Golden Lego RCX and NXT
Fans swear these shiny robot bricks made careers — now they want LEGO to bring back the magic
TLDR: LEGO once made ultra-rare golden versions of its Mindstorms robot “brains,” and a fan recounts how they came to be. The comments explode with nostalgia, build brags, and a plea to revive real programmability over blocky apps, while collectors drool over RCX #000001
A fan retelling of LEGO’s ultra-rare golden Mindstorms “pBricks” — the programmable robot brains inside sets like the RCX — dropped with golden ticket energy, complete with trips to Billund, a jeweler, a Technic dinosaur, AFOL (Adult Fans of LEGO) superfans, and yes, cake. The community instantly turned the comments into a nostalgia parade and collector meltdown: mmmlinux swooned over “RCX #000001,” while others joked this was Willy Wonka’s brick. The strongest vibe? Mindstorms didn’t just teach robots — it made careers. Teknoman117 says getting the RIS 2.0 (the 2001 kit) was life-changing, and the homebrew scene was “legendary.” Cue drama: block-based drag-and-drop vs real code. One camp calls blocks “training wheels,” the other says don’t gatekeep the kids. Phaedrus turned the flex meter to 11 with a college “dragon” robot powered by three RCX units “networked” together — commenters dubbed it a LAN party for bricks. Busseio throws it back to LEGO LOGO and the OG rec.toys.lego crew, while patapong begs LEGO’s next “smart brick” to let fans code freely again. Meme moments include the RIS startup “lightning sound” as a Pavlov trigger and jokes that the golden brick was paid in cake. Verdict: wholesome chaos, spicy nostalgia, and a loud plea for hackable robot brains
Key Points
- •The article recounts the story of rare golden LEGO Mindstorms pBricks, notably the RCX and NXT.
- •“pBrick” is LEGO’s internal term for the programmable bricks in the MINDSTORMS product line.
- •The RCX was the first official MINDSTORMS central unit, released with set #9719 in 1998.
- •The author possesses a rare golden RCX and explains how it came into his hands.
- •Following the January 1998 announcement, the author applied for MINDSTORMS-related roles and interviewed at LEGO HQ in Billund.