Lego is no stranger to oddball bricks, having previously made light-up and even augmented reality versions. The big new thing is Smart Play, a more intelligent series of sets that use new Smart Bricks, Smart Tags, and Smart Minifigs (the proper noun status was Lego’s idea) to enable more than just brick-building.
Whether the new range, announced at this year’s CES conference in Las Vegas, will have better shelf-life than the company’s recent Hidden Side range remains to be seen, but at least the Danish company is trying.
That’s the Smart Play
The launch of Smart Play does mean that, for the first time, your Lego set will require a charger. At least for some bricks, notably the 2×4 Smart Brick that does… stuff. Stuff like light up, replicate the colours of nearby bricks, emit sounds (this can be paired with the smart tag and minifig for sound effects while playing), with the changes appearing to be context-sensitive. Lego isn’t being too mean, however. It’ll include a charger in the box.
It’s a cool, if expensive-sounding, addition to the good old Lego brick, but since the launch sets featuring Smart Play parts were going to be expensive anyway, you might not notice. Three Star Wars-themed sets will take the lead: Luke’s Red Five X-Wing (584 pieces), Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter (473 pieces), and the Throne Room Duel & A-Wing set (962 pieces).
It appears that the number of Smart Bricks in each set will be limited (possibly to just one apiece), but the X-Wing set also incorporates three smart minifigs and five smart tags. Vader’s set features (at least) one Smart Brick and a smart minifig (the Sith Lord himself), which sees the “roar of the twin ion engines [come] to life, among other interactive features.” The largest set is also the murkiest, but at least three smart minifigs (Vader, Luke Skywalker, and the Emperor) and a Smart Tag cannon turret are included, presumably with one or more of the modular tech-filled bricks.
Pre-orders for Lego’s new Smart Play sets, along with pricing, start on 9 January. We’ll have to wait till then to find out if South Africa is fielding one of those “select retailers in launch markets.” If so, the new tech-focused Star Wars sets will launch from 1 March this year. We’ll probably see other themes launch during the course of 2026, too.
