I can’t say it any better than the Mindstorms FAQ:

LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT is a robotics toolset that provides endless opportunities for armchair inventors, robotics fanatics and LEGO builders ages 10 and older to build and program robots that do what they want.

Lego Mindstorms allows you to build machines using Lego’s classic TECHNIC bricks, but adds the ability to easily program your robot to respond to its own environment. You can build a robot, then using Lego’s development environment and programmable ‘brick’ microcontroller, teach it how to follow a path, avoid obstacles, pick up and move objects or any other number of actions. Lego is leveraging its fan base in developing new projects and applications for the system, and has a website set up for sharing new projects. Many schools, from high school all the way up to the top engineering schools in the world already use Mindstorms in their curriculum, so in addition to being a low-cost hardware prototyping system build on standard components, a generation of engineering students is being trained with the system and is becoming very facile with it.

The real power of Lego Mindstorms in terms of simplicity is its intuitive programming interface. Actions can be programmed in Lego’s custom graphical programming environment on a PC (Or Mac!) and beamed over bluetooth or USB connection to the brick. For advanced users, programs can also be written in Java or C. This allows rapid testing and re-development of projects, which is one of the reasons why it is so useful for education.

Examples:

This guy used Mindtstorms to build a digital camera head to take panoramic photos. Check out his VR turntable as well.

This thing solves a rubik’s cube.

And finally – a 3D Chocolate Printer

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