I’ve been a VEX owner/user/mentor since the days they sold the 0.5 Inventors kit in Radio Shack. Across that 21 year period (2005-2025) VEX did a great job protecting and supporting their customer base. The initial kits were $300 ($497 in today’s money) and they did things like offer bridge programs from the 72Mhz transmitters to the VEXNet sticks ( VEXnet backpacks for the win!)
There was also a trade-in program to help with the Cortex upgrades.
You are right, the big pain came with the V5 upgrades. It was expensive, but it was phased in across a multi year period. It came out at the April 2018 Worlds. At this point I’m a little disconnected from V5, but from what I can see about the robots, the platform isn’t being really pushed.
On the VIQ side, the first version was 2013. For the time it was very, very spiffy. The entire ecosystem is really well thought out.
It’s all compatible, not sure who would say not to use them. I run about 60 teams using V1 brains and controllers. About 3/4 of the motors are pre-2022. I’ve cycled everyone into the newer battery packs. I just looked at my inventory, I have 11 of the NiMH packs out there in my demo’s.
The new brains run a version of micropython, but from a programmer standpoint they are going to look the same. Programs can be bigger, but I’ve not run into anyone that it’s been an issue for. Some things like the new vision sensor won’t work on the V1 brains.
There have been big upgrades that I’d highly recommend. Toss the plastic axles into a bin and don’t use them for drive trains, arms, etc. The metal capped connectors and the ones with the rings on them are awesome. Buy the advanced connector and corner beam kits to make designs easier.
And even if you get V1 or V2 items, they are still going to have a long life time, I don’t think VIQ will do a big bang on motors or brains.
Reference point.:
(VEX Microcontrollers Through History - #6 by Art_Dutra_IV)