The Lego Smart Play system announced at CES 2026 earlier this week is a new adoption of digital technology that we’ve never seen from the company before. While the demo Lego showed off at its press conference on Monday is a good start to showing off what Smart Bricks are capable of, it’s really no substitute for an in-person visit. I was able to get an extended demo that answered a lot of my questions about how the system will work once Lego fans of all ages get their hands on the first Smart Play sets.
As I detailed yesterday, the Smart Play system contains three elements. The Smart Brick is packed with technology like proximity sensors, an accelerometer, color sensors, and a speaker, all powered by a small chip. It is crucial to know that every Smart Brick is identical at this point; To really bring a setting to life, you need to combine it with Smart Tags or Smart Minifigures. Tags and figures contain specific instructions that help the brick understand the context in which it is placed.
The demo started simply, with three small Lego constructions: a car, a helicopter and a duck. Each of these buildings had a unique smart beacon that the Smart Brick uses to understand how it should respond to real-world stimuli. The car started making the sound of an engine revving, and playing with it to drive it faster and more aggressively caused the engine to make more noise. Tilting the car would make it squeal like it was taking difficult turns, and flipping it would make the sound of a car wreck.
The Smart Brick can also detect which specific smart figures are nearby and react accordingly. Since the first three Smart Play sets are all based on Star Wars, it’s a little easier to explain how they interact with the Smart Brick. Take the Throne Room Duel & A-Wing set – it includes smart minifigs for Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and Emperor Palpatine, as well as smart tags that correspond to different actions the characters can take. If you place a Smart Brick behind Palpatine’s throne, the classic “Imperial March” theme will sound and Palpatine himself will chat a little. The figures don’t speak real words, but they can still embody their characters quite well. Vader, for example, offers his classic breathing sound and exclaims if he is defeated in a lightsaber duel.
This duel is a smart part of this set. There are movable stands you can place Luke and Vader on, as well as a Smart Brick. To complete the combat scene, a Smart Tag tells the brick to take on the characteristics necessary for a lightsaber fight. So when you place the figures in the mount, you’ll hear the classic sound of a buzzing lightsaber. And if you move the characters and smash them against each other, you will hear the sounds of battle. Finally, knocking a figure from its location will cue that character’s associated brick to emit its signature sound of defeat – in Vader’s case, it’s the iconic “noooooooo”.
The other two new Smart Play sets are Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter and Luke’s Red Five X-Wing – a great pair for some dogfights in space. The X-Wing shows how capable the Smart Brick is of handling multiple inputs. Adding it to the X-Wing will bring the ship’s sounds to life, thanks to the X-Wing-specific Smart Tile. Sit Luke in the cockpit and you’ll hear the Jedi theme music, and seating R2-D2 in the back will make the droid chatter in his familiar tones.
Pitting the two ships against each other further shows off the capabilities of the Smart Brick. By grabbing ships and throwing them into the air, the Smart Brick will make sounds that aren’t just generic engine noises – you can definitely hear the difference between the X-Wing and the TIE fighter. Each ship also has lasers that you can activate, and if two kids are in the same room flying ships and shooting lasers, you’ll also hear the ships taking “damage.” Firing enough shots while aiming at another ship will eventually cause it to emit explosion sounds to indicate that it has caught fire – models associated with the ship will also emit sounds of dismay.
At first glance, the sets themselves don’t seem much different from other smaller-scale Star Wars sets, but the people at the Lego Group who gave the demo pointed out a few notable features. Both the TIE Fighter and the The Throne Room set, meanwhile, features a detachable area where Luke and Vader can fight – you can remove it and reattach it to the throne area quite easily, but it’s good to separate it for more aggressive lightsaber battles.
All things considered, I’m very excited to see where Lego goes with its Smart Play system from here. Starting with simpler sets of a massive franchise like Star Wars is a logical way to introduce the system. There are obvious play scenarios that make perfect sense for showing off the Smart Brick. But I look forward to the time when Lego starts selling tiles and minifigures that can expand the capabilities of existing sets, whether licensed or not. And the idea of mixing Star Wars with some of the many other properties Lego has access to (Jurassic World? DC or Marvel? Despicable Me or Bluey?) sounds like exactly the kind of chaotic fun kids will love to have.
This is perhaps the most important point of Smart Play. While Lego has made major efforts to capture the hearts and wallets of adult Lego fans, Smart Play is very clearly aimed at kids right now. No screens, apps or setup are needed for Smart Play – it seems extremely easy to just pick up and start playing. Additionally, Lego is using this technology to make Lego sets more interactive, which the company hopes will encourage more social play among children. That’s a solid use of technology built into a Smart Brick if you ask me.
This article was originally published on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/lego-smart-play-hands-on-using-smart-brick-technology-to-get-kids-to-play-together-133000740.html?src=rss
