For decades, LEGO has thrived precisely because it stayed stubbornly analog in a world racing toward screens. This week at CES, the brand revealed a new system that feels like a careful evolution rather than a disruption: SMART Play, interactive LEGO bricks that respond to how kids play, without apps, tablets, or screens.
At the heart of SMART Play are three new elements: a classic-looking 2×4 SMART Brick, SMART Tag tiles, and SMART Minifigures. The magic happens through proximity. SMART Bricks and Minifigures can sense nearby SMART Tags, 2×2 studless tiles embedded with unique digital IDs, and react accordingly.
Build a helicopter, for example, and the SMART Brick can light up and emit propeller sounds. Thanks to a built-in accelerometer, those effects respond to real play: tilt the helicopter upside down, zoom it through the air, or land it hard, and the Brick reacts in kind. It’s physical play, augmented, not replaced, by technology.
Under the hood, LEGO is packing serious innovation into something nearly invisible. The SMART Bricks run on a patented ASIC chip smaller than a single LEGO stud. Using near-field magnetic positioning, the chip recognizes nearby SMART Tags, while also powering a miniature speaker, LED array, and accelerometer.
To connect multiple SMART Bricks together, LEGO developed BrickNet, a Bluetooth-based protocol that allows Bricks to recognize and respond to each other in tandem. LEGO says the system is protected by enhanced encryption and privacy controls, a sign of the times, even in the toy aisle.
Crucially, there’s no setup required. No pairing, no accounts, no companion apps. Kids can just start building. Parents, meanwhile, may appreciate that SMART Play keeps screens out of the equation entirely.
LEGO’s first two SMART Play sets lean into familiar fandom. Both launches are Star Wars-themed and arrive on March 1, with preorders opening Friday:
- Luke’s Red Five X-wing will retail for $69.99
- Throne Room Duel and A-wing will come in at $159.99
These sets use SMART Play to animate characters like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, enabling Lightsaber duels and interactive moments driven entirely by physical play and hidden tech.
SMART Play feels like LEGO threading a very specific needle: embracing interactivity without surrendering to screens, apps, or digital dependence. It’s not about turning LEGO into a video game, it’s about making the bricks themselves feel a little more alive.
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