Lego debuts Smart Brick and Smart Play system that reacts as you play. Heres how it works.
At CES 2026, Lego has announced the upcoming launch of the Lego Smart Play system, an interactive technology the company is calling the biggest evolution to Lego bricks since the introduction of the Minifigure almost 50 years ago.
The new interactive platform will respond to players' actions with appropriate sounds, lights, and behavior, creating a responsive and screen-free play experience. And all you need is a single Smart Brick to enter this new world of Lego.
Available for pre-order starting Jan. 9 in select markets, the Lego Smart Play system includes three interactive elements that react as you build and play — Lego Smart Tags, Lego Smart Bricks, and Lego Smart Minifigures. At a keynote event ahead of CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Lego leaders showed off the smart bricks for the first time, promising that the new play system "brings Lego creations to life like never before."
With a single smart brick, the CES demo brought Lego creations, characters, and playsets to life. Lego cars revved their engines, a Lego duck quacked and even snored when placed on its side, and a Lego airplane pilot exclaimed "woah!" to being flipped upside down. When additional smart bricks were added to the mix, they created a "decentralized network" of interactivity between different characters and creations.
“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, according to a Lego press release.
The new Lego Smart Play system will launch on March 1 with three Lego Star Wars sets, and Dave Filoni, Chief Creative Officer of Lucasfilm, joined Lego for the announcement to preview the upcoming building kits.
What is the Lego Smart Play System?
Developed by the Lego Group’s Creative Play Lab, the Lego Smart Play system will make sounds and activate lights based on player movements and builds. Lego says the new platform "features more than twenty patented world-firsts," including a new custom-made chip that's smaller than a standard Lego connector stud.
The Lego Smart Bricks and Minifigures are the same size and shape as standard Lego pieces, but contain a variety of sensors, such as accelerometers, light sensors, and sound sensors. They also contain a miniature speaker with an onboard synthesiser and a wireless charging system.
These sensors mean that Lego Smart Bricks can tell the difference between colors and sounds, sense direction and distance, and much more. In one demo showcased on stage at the CES announcement, two kids raced their Lego cars to see who can reach the trophy at the finish line first. The trophy, equipped with a smart brick, was able to tell which car won the neck-and-neck race by displaying the color of the winning car. When the winning Lego vehicle was placed a top the trophy, the Lego smart bricks flashed and the crackle of fireworks could be heard loud and clear through the tiny speakers.
To kick off the launch of the first Lego Smart Play playsets, Lego brought their partners at Disney to the CES stage, which included Chewbacca, C-3PO and R2-D2, to announced the Lego Star Wars sets.
The upcoming Lego Smart Play Star Wars Sets include:
Lego Star Wars Smart Play: Luke’s Red Five X-Wing building set — This 584-piece set comes with two Smart Minifigures (Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia), a Lego Smart Brick, and five Lego Smart Tags.
Lego Star Wars Smart Play: Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter building set — This 473-piece set comes with "a brick-built Rebel Outpost and an Imperial Fueling Station, as well as a SMART Minifigure featuring Darth Vader and a Rebel Fleet Trooper Minifigure." Interactive features include engine sounds.
Lego Star Wars Smart Play: Throne Room Duel & A-Wing building set — This 962-piece set will let players "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. It comes with three Smart Minifigures (Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, and Jedi Luke Skywalker) and a Smart Tag-enabled cannon turret.
You can learn more about the upcoming platform at the Lego Smart Play website.
