Lego, long celebrated for its iconic building system, is ushering in a groundbreaking era with its new Smart Play system and the revolutionary Smart Brick. This innovation signals a profound shift for the company, moving beyond traditional toys to offer an ‘iconic experience.’ Many are curious, how do Lego Smart Bricks work to transform the classic building experience without relying on screens or complex apps? The answer lies in seamlessly integrated technology designed to enhance physical play, adding an entirely new dimension to Lego sets, particularly those within beloved themes like Star Wars.
What is Lego Smart Play? Lego Smart Play is an advanced interactive system that integrates microchip technology directly into special Lego bricks, minifigures, and tags, enabling them to respond to their environment with lights, sounds, and actions without needing a separate screen or app.
This significant evolution has been a long time coming. According to Julia Goldin, Lego’s Chief Product & Marketing Officer, the project to develop Smart Bricks began eight years ago. The decision to launch now isn’t about solving a problem, but rather a testament to the team’s readiness to deliver truly great innovation. This extensive development period was crucial not just for miniaturizing the sophisticated technology, including a custom chip small enough to fit inside a standard Lego brick, but also for ensuring the Smart Play system could function as a robust, future-proof platform.
Crucially, this new system is designed to be fully additive to Lego’s existing play universe. Goldin emphasizes that everything developed for Smart Play remains an integral part of the overarching Lego system, integrating cohesively rather than creating a separate, closed ecosystem. This approach highlights Lego’s commitment to enhancing, not replacing, the tactile joy of building.
This philosophy sets Smart Play apart from previous interactive offerings, such as Lego’s Super Mario sets. While the Mario sets incorporated Lego bricks, they relied heavily on a custom Mario figure with a screen and scanner, largely existing within its own distinct ecosystem. Lessons learned from the Super Mario launch directly informed the design of Smart Bricks, leading to a deliberate decision to eliminate screens, power buttons, and the need for complex setup, ensuring a truly seamless experience that is compatible with any existing Lego set.
Lego now views itself less as a mere toy company and more as an ‘iconic experience company.’ This shift in perspective is key to understanding the design choices behind Smart Play, which intentionally avoids many of the pitfalls associated with connected toys. There’s no screen embedded in the brick, no mandatory app, and no segmented ecosystem requiring additional purchases. Instead, the intelligence is housed within the brick itself, designed to elevate physical play rather than compete for attention.
During hands-on demonstrations, the impact of Smart Bricks is immediately apparent. A classic Lego set, perhaps Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing, transforms when a Smart Brick is inserted and awakened. Characters like Luke can trigger authentic sounds as they approach the ship, click into place, or even execute dynamic flight maneuvers, all through the embedded technology. This interactive depth adds layers of storytelling and engagement.
The learning curve for the Smart Brick, Smart Minifigures, and Smart Tags is remarkably low, making them accessible to a wide audience, including those new to advanced Lego sets. Tom Donaldson, Head of Lego’s Creative Play Lab, explains that screens tend to be highly immersive, and the team was deliberate in preserving the core love for building with physical Lego bricks. This focus on magnifying the existing play experience guided many of the advantageous design choices.
Looking ahead, the potential for Smart Play is vast. While current Smart Bricks primarily offer responsiveness through light, sound, and basic interaction, Goldin believes the platform is only scratching the surface of its capabilities. Future iterations could introduce even more sophisticated interactions, further blurring the lines between physical and digital play without losing the essence of Lego.
The sophisticated sensing technology within the Smart Brick, enabled by custom ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) silicon, is crucial. This custom chip allows the brick to intelligently understand its surroundings, detecting nearby Smart Minifigures and Smart Tags, recognizing their relative positions—including height and distance—and triggering appropriate, instantaneous responses, whether a flash of light, a sound effect, or a character’s unique reaction.
This level of integration, Lego asserts, would have been impossible without dedicated custom silicon. The ability to achieve the required size, cost-effectiveness, and integrated performance necessitated a tailored approach. This strategy of hiding complex technology within a familiar, simple brick is central to Lego’s vision for Smart Play, ensuring that builders can simply stack and play without needing to learn new, intricate systems.
For now, Lego is focused on establishing a robust foundation. The initial launch features Smart Bricks that fit seamlessly into existing systems, Smart Minifigures and Smart Tags that enhance traditional play, and a platform built for evolution while staying true to the simplicity, creativity, and reusability that have defined the Lego brick for decades. Preorders for the first Star Wars Smart Play sets have begun, with prices starting at $69.99 for Vader’s TIE Fighter, which includes a Smart Brick and Charger, a Smart Minifigure, and a Smart Tag.
The fundamental question of how do Lego Smart Bricks work is answered by their intuitive design, integrating advanced technology directly into the play experience. This innovative approach promises to redefine what it means to build and interact with Lego, solidifying the company’s position as an iconic experience provider for generations to come.
