Vex IQ is a recently launched robotics construction system that is aimed at ages 8 and up. Pieces lock together using connector blocks or pins, a little like Lego Mindstorms. The heart of the system is the Vex IQ robot brain. This has twelve connections for a mixture of sensors and motors. Our kit includes 4 motors and 7 sensors, and a Playstation-like controller for wireless manual remote control. Our Vex IQ robots can sense touch, distance, colour and even which way they are pointing (using a gyroscope).
Vex IQ robots can be programmed using Modkit (which is very similar to Scratch), RobotC (a version of C that is designed for robotics applications) or a version of Python.
One very cool thing with Vex IQ is that the makers run competitions for teams, who compete to be the best at a particular robotics challenge. These happen mostly in the US, but events are happening in the UK and elsewhere now, as well.