At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, LEGO Group launched LEGO SMART Play – tech-enabled LEGO that “brings play to life”.
What is the SMART Brick?
LEGO SMART Play has three elements – the LEGO SMART Brick, LEGO SMART Tags, and LEGO SMART Minifigures. The LEGO SMART Tags and LEGO SMART Minifigures are paired with the LEGO SMART Brick to allow creations to become interactive in real time, responding to actions with relevant sounds and behaviours.
To make this possible, the LEGO SMART Brick is powered by a 4.1mm custom-made mixed-signal ASIC chip that measures smaller than a standard LEGO stud. It’s also packed full of accelerometers, light sensors, and a sound sensor as well as a miniature speaker driven by an onboard synthesiser. Wireless charging is also available.
“For over 90 years, the LEGO Group has sparked imagination and creativity in children around the globe. As the world evolves, so do we – innovating to meet the play needs of each new generation. LEGO SMART Play is the next exciting chapter in our LEGO System in Play and something we are super excited about being able to bring to the world at this scale,” said Julia Goldin, Chief Product & Marketing Officer of the LEGO Group.
Tom Donaldson, Senior Vice President & Head of Creative Play Lab at the LEGO Group said: “The launch of LEGO SMART Play brings creativity, technology, and storytelling together to make building worlds and stories even more engaging, and all without a screen. We truly believe we are setting a new standard for interactive, imaginative experiences and can’t wait to see this innovation in the hands of kids when we launch this year.”
SMART Play sets
Asad Ayaz, Chief Brand Officer of The Walt Disney Company and President of Disney Entertainment Marketing, and Dave Filoni, Chief Creative Officer of Lucasfilm joined the LEGO Group at CES 2026 to announced that Star Wars will be the first building set for LEGO SMART Play. Builders can interact with key scenes and characters from the movie franchise.
“Our teams work hand-in-hand with best-in-class licensees to bring technology and innovation to products that continue our storytelling in new and unexpected ways,” said Paul Gitter, Executive Vice President of Global Brand Commercialisation at Disney Consumer Products. “This milestone in our long-time collaboration with the LEGO Group adds a new dimension to this legacy, continuing to help fans express their creativity and imagination by extending the Star Wars story through play.”
“We’ve worked with our incredible friends at Lucasfilm for over 25 years, and our focus has always remained on creating original, unique experiences for the fan community through our sets. With LEGO SMART Play, legendary stories and characters of the Star Wars galaxy will come to life like never before,” said Goldin.
The following sets will be available:
Luke’s Red Five X-Wing building set
A 584-piece set, including two SMART Minifigures (Luke Skywalker, in his iconic pilot suit, and Princess Leia), as well as Luke’s trusty companion, R2-D2, and Rebel Crew and Stormtrooper Minifigures.
This set includes an Imperial turret, transporter, and command centre, all of which unlock interactive features, such as laser-shooting sounds, engine sounds, and lights plus refuelling and repair sounds.
Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter building set
This 473-piece set features a brick-built Rebel Outpost and an Imperial Fuelling Station, as well as a SMART Minifigure featuring Darth Vader and a Rebel Fleet Trooper Minifigure. The roar of the twin ion engines comes to life, among other interactive features.
Throne Room Duel & A-Wing building set
Fans will be able to re-enact and re-imagine one of the most memorable moments from the original Star Wars trilogy, the final lightsaber duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader at the end of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. The 962-piece set comes with three SMART Minifigures featuring the characters Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, and Luke Skywalker (Jedi).
Additionally, the set comes with a brick-built A-Wing Fighter and Pilot Minifigure, two Royal Guard Minifigures, and a SMART Tag-enabled cannon turret to defend the Emperor’s Throne Room.
The LEGO SMART Play sets from LEGO Star Wars will be available for pre-order from 9th January and available to purchase from the 1st March from www.LEGO.com, LEGO Stores, and select retailers in launch markets.
Is ‘smart’ such a good idea?
However, the new platform has generated some concern that these ‘smart’ elements limit children’s imagination and creativity.
Josh Golin, Executive Director of children’s wellbeing group Fairplay told the BBC that these new bricks “undermine what was once great about LEGOS … children’s LEGO creations already do move and make noises through the power of children’s imaginations.”
Lucy Barnard, Editor of Electronic Specifier’s sister titles, IOT Insider and Automation News, and mum of 3 expressed to me that “this is the opposite of creativity. Rather than encouraging children to use their imagination and build creatively, this sounds to me to be prescriptive and expensive, limiting what you can do with your LEGO bricks. LEGO should think hard about enabling bricks to be used in multiple ways, like it already does, and that is why it’s beloved by many.”
LEGO influencer, Digging For_Bricks, said: “I am so against this idea … We don’t need technology worked into everything.”
Jude Pullen, who was a Tech Scout & Direction Designer at LEGO in 2017 said this project has been in development for a long time: “LEGO is taking a bold move to ask what ‘digital:physical’ play could and should be. It’s asking how families and friends can interact in new ways that avail of a globally connected world.
“Frankly, it’s going to get it wrong in some places, but it’s invested over a decade in care and creativity – trying to get it right. And that’s worth something in a world that rolls out AI-chatbots to the uninitiated – that perhaps needs to slow down, be a little more curious, creative, and caring.”
Ultimately, LEGO SMART Play highlights a clear tension between technological innovation and the open-ended play philosophy that has long defined LEGO.
On one hand, the new platform demonstrates how advanced electronics can be embedded discreetly into a familiar form factor to create responsive experiences rooted in storytelling.
On the other, it raises valid questions about whether technology constrains the imaginative freedom that many parents, educators, and fans value.
As LEGO prepares to bring SMART Play to market, its success appears likely to hinge not on the sophistication of the technology itself, but on how flexibly it can coexist with traditional bricks, allowing technology to support creativity rather than define it.
