LEGO SMART Play – High-Tech Interactive ‘Star Wars’ Sets On The Way
New high-tech bricks and minifigs are arriving this year – starting with some classic ships from Star Wars. But do we really need them?
LEGO announced the SMART Play system at CES yesterday. The new bricks and minifigs are “packed with ground-breaking, world-first technologies” that allow builders to play and create in new ways. Pieces have a chip that’s about the size of a single peg and a tiny speaker built in that creates sound and light when used with other LEGO System-in-Play elements.
Designed to inspire children, LEGO SMART Play™ turns their imaginative ideas into reality, bringing their creations to life with moments of surprise and discovery. The combination of LEGO SMART Play™’s platform elements – the LEGO SMART Brick, LEGO SMART Tags and LEGO SMART Minifigures – react in real time to bring an interactive play experience to kids that is full of exploration and imaginative storytelling.
The bricks will debut in three new Star Wars sets on March 1st this year, with plans to expand across all ranges in the future. The sets feature some classic ships and battles from the original trilogy – an X-Wing, a TIE Advanced, and Luke and Vader’s lightsaber fight on the Death Star.
It looks like the smart pieces can be charged on a wireless pad with a USB-C connector.
Interactive Pieces Aren’t Entirely New
It’s newer tech, but not an entirely new idea. We got a look at this kind of interactive ability with the Super Mario sets that were introduced in 2020. They include battery-operated characters with animated faces that play sounds from the video games when they interact with action bricks. The initial run of sets let builders create their own custom courses for Mario, Luigi, and Peach to run through. They’re still around, but in smaller sets.
And if you want to go farther back, LEGO Dimensions offered interaction between figures and specially made video games via a USB pad.
Long-Time Fans Aren’t Sold – Including Me
LEGO is claiming that this will “breathe new life into play with this advanced, invisible technology,” but is it needed? Is it wanted?
One of the things fans love about LEGO is its analog nature, which lets us disconnect from the technology that has taken over modern life. The press release emphasizes that SMART Play is screen-free, but it adds the care and feeding of electronics into the equation. The underlying selling point for LEGO hasn’t changed much since the first official set was introduced in 1953 – because it doesn’t need to. Sets have gotten bigger and more complex since then, but it’s still about creating worlds with simple plastic bricks. No batteries required (most of the time).
And, rightfully, there is pushback because this will lead to already expensive sets becoming even more so. The price per piece has risen from around $0.07-$0.10 in the mid-2000s to $0.10-$0.14 today. Many sets are already beyond reach for a lot of folks, and don’t get me started on scalpers. They made $2.1 billion in 2024. It’s not like the lack of technological inclusion is hurting their bottom line.
We’ll see how LEGO decides to roll this tech out in the coming months. I get starting with Star Wars, but I’m hoping to see more open play sets like those in the demo video rather than a bunch of big IP sets. Maybe offer generic themed sound packs separate from sets that can be added to any build – animal noises, pirate catchphrases, space rocket sound effects, etc. There are possibilities here, but at the moment, it feels like a cash grab.
What do you think of the new tech-filled bricks?
