If your FIRST LEGO League team runs on SPIKE Prime, take a breath: nothing breaks this season and nothing breaks next season. LEGO's January 2026 decision to retire SPIKE gives you a clear runway, because teams can keep competing on the hardware they already own through the 2027-28 season. So the smart move now is to plan the change calmly, buy a few spares before sales end, and protect the coding skills your students have built, rather than replace kits in a panic.

What LEGO actually announced

In January 2026, LEGO confirmed it is retiring the SPIKE Prime platform, and new SPIKE sales end on 30 June 2026. For competition, FLL teams may keep using SPIKE Prime through the 2027-28 season. In plain terms, the kits you already own stay legal for roughly two more full seasons, and there is no forced mid-season upgrade.

That is the whole factual picture at this point. LEGO has signalled the end of a product line, not the end of FIRST LEGO League, and not the instant obsolescence of your hardware. If you want the wider community background on the change, this write-up on life after SPIKE Prime is a reasonable starting point.

Why this matters for teams, schools and parents

Competition robotics kits are a real budget line. A single SPIKE set is a meaningful cost in rand, and most South African teams have built two or three seasons of lesson plans, mission strategies and student code around that one platform. The natural fear is that all of it is now wasted. It is not.

The bigger risk is over-reacting. A team that panic-buys a replacement in 2026 could spend scarce budget on hardware that is not yet the confirmed successor, and then have to switch again later. A coach who scraps the SPIKE curriculum today throws away two good seasons for no reason. The measured response protects both the money and the momentum, and you have the time to be measured.

What to do before 30 June 2026

The one genuinely time-sensitive task is spares. Once new sales stop, replacement parts get harder to find and second-hand prices tend to drift up. Do a stock take this term and close the gaps while parts are still on shelves.

• Inventory every kit, hub, motor, sensor and cable, and note anything already worn or unreliable.
• Order critical spares before the 30 June 2026 cut-off: large and medium motors, colour and distance sensors, spare hubs, charging cables and batteries.
• Budget roughly 10 to 15 percent of your kit value for spares and consumables per season.
• Back up all student code, programming notes and mission strategies somewhere off the classroom laptops.
• Label and store kits properly over the December break so nothing goes missing or corrodes.

Evaluating successors without gambling

You do not need to pick a new platform in 2026, so give yourself the full runway. As you watch the market settle, weigh the total cost of ownership rather than the sticker price of a starter kit: spares availability, sensor and cable pricing, software licensing, teacher training time, and how closely the coding environment matches what your students already know.

Keep two questions in front of every option. Does it lower the barrier for a new coach to pick it up and teach? And does it let students carry over the thinking they built on SPIKE, instead of starting from zero? A platform that scores well on both is worth waiting for; one that scores badly is not worth rushing into just to feel decided.

Protect the skills, not just the hardware

The most durable investment was never the bricks. It is what students learned. Sequencing, sensor logic, loops, gear ratios, controlled testing and the habit of iterating on a design all transfer to any platform. Keep that muscle working while the hardware question stays open.

Simulation is a cheap way to do exactly that. Students can keep writing and debugging robot logic in a browser with no physical kit at all, which helps when kits are shared or in storage; our block-coding simulator runs entirely this way. For students who are aging out of FLL, the next competition tier is worth planning for now, and we cover that step up through our FIRST Tech Challenge support. If you also want a lower-cost second hardware platform for general coding and robotics alongside your competition kits, the sheenbot∞ board is one option, with coaching available through the academy.

Takeaway

SPIKE Prime is being retired, not switched off. FLL teams can compete on it through the 2027-28 season, so treat 2026 as a planning year and not a replacement year. Buy the spares you need before June, back up your code, keep coaching the transferable skills, and let the successor question settle before you spend. Here, calm beats fast.