Possibly one of the most exciting announcements to come from CES this year is the official Lego Smart Brick. It's an advanced 2×4 brick that looks identical to a traditional Lego piece, yet is packed with technologies (and a miniature speaker) to elevate play and bring your Lego sets to life.
This might not mean much to those who build Lego sets purely for display purposes, but as far as interactivity goes, Lego has claimed, 'We've created a brick that plays back', which is incredibly cool (and certainly wasn't on my 2026 bingo card).
Accompanying the Smart Brick is an entire Lego Smart Play experience, with Lego Smart Tags and Lego Smart Minifigures adding to the immersiveness when used together. The Smart Brick contains a tiny 4.1mm custom ASIC chip, which has an accelerometer to interpret motion such as tilt and gesture.
It can also respond with limitless reactions thanks to the built-in play engine, including ambient colour-sensing LED lights, and produce real-time audio during play with build-relevant noises to match the characteristics of the sets.
The Lego company has not made any major redesigns to its brick since the debut of the modern brick in 1958, so this is pretty big news. But what does it mean? In a continuation of screenless play, Lego is not trying to make the brick something it isn't, in this case, but simply offers an elevated experience for all ages.
The Smart Brick has the ability to emit the same colour as accompanying bricks, and sense the positions and orientations of connected bricks, allowing sets to communicate with one another. Don't worry, this won't be a Small Soldiers situation where toys take over, and it has been confirmed that the new Smart Lego technology does not involve AI in any capacity, which is refreshing to hear.
The first Lego Smart Play sets to launch will be three upcoming all-in-one Star Wars sets, including Luke’s Red Five X-Wing building set, Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter building set, and a Star Wars Throne Room Duel & A-Wing building set.
Star Wars Smart Play sets will no doubt be more expensive than traditional sets, and are available for pre-order from Lego's website starting January 9th, and will be available to purchase from select retailers beginning March 1st.
How do you feel about the new Smart Lego Brick? Let us know below.
