- LEGO SMART Play brings brick-built creations to life with responsive lights, sounds and behaviours
- The system combines SMART Bricks, SMART Tags and SMART Minifigures that react to how you move and play
- SMART Play keeps the experience screen-free and remains compatible with the existing LEGO System-in-Play
- LEGO Star Wars became the first range to use SMART Play, with the system launching on March 1, 2026
LEGO has spent more than 90 years proving that you don’t need much technology to keep people entertained — give someone a box of colourful bricks and their imagination usually does the rest. But for 2026, the Danish toy giant has decided to make those familiar little bricks considerably smarter.
Unveiled at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, LEGO SMART Play is a new interactive system that makes brick-built creations react to what’s happening around them. Lights can flash, engines can roar, characters can trigger their own sounds, and a spaceship can respond as you swoosh it through the air — all while keeping the physical LEGO experience at the centre of play. LEGO describes SMART Play as one of the biggest evolutions of its System-in-Play since the Mini-figure arrived in 1978.
And perhaps the smartest part is that LEGO hasn’t added a screen just yet. You don’t need a phone or tablet sitting beside you while you play. Instead, LEGO has packed the technology directly into three new components — the SMART Brick, SMART Tags and SMART Minifigures — allowing the creation itself to react in real time.
The core of the system is the LEGO SMART Brick, and it packs a surprising amount of technology into something so small. It’s powered by a custom-made chip smaller than a standard LEGO stud and packed with sensors, accelerometers, light sensing, and a sound sensor, plus a miniature speaker driven by an onboard synthesizer. There’s even wireless charging built in.
All of that allows the brick to understand how a creation is being played with and respond accordingly. Move a spacecraft around, and it can produce engine noises and lighting effects; interact with different objects and the reaction can change. LEGO says the wider SMART Play platform includes more than 20 patented world-first technologies, with much of the clever stuff deliberately hidden away so the experience still feels like playing with LEGO rather than operating a gadget.
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The SMART Tags tell the brick what an object represents and how it should behave, while SMART Minifigures introduce their own personalities, sounds and moods when they’re brought close to a SMART Brick. Together,d LEGO creations can recognize what’s happening in a scene and respond as the story unfolds.
Importantly, these new pieces aren’t meant to replace the LEGO collection already sitting in your cupboard. SMART Play remains compatible with the existing LEGO System-in-Play, meaning the technology can become another ingredient in a traditional build rather than creating an entirely separate type of LEGO.
- Set number: #75421
- Age: 8+
- Pieces: 473
- Dimensions: The set measures over 4 in. (10 cm) high, 4 in. (11 cm) long and 5.5 in. (15 cm) wide
- Smart Play Components:
- 1x LEGO SMART Brick
- 1x LEGO SMART MINIFIGURE featuring Darth Vader
- 1x SMART TAG featuring the TIE Fighter
- Price: USD $69.99
- Set number: #75423
- Age: 6+
- Pieces: 584
- Dimensions: The set measures over 2 in. (6 cm) high, 8.5 in. (22 cm) long and 7.5 in. (19 cm) wide
- Smart Play Components:
- 1x LEGO SMART Brick
- 2x LEGO SMART MINIFIGURES featuring Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia
- 5x SMART TAGS featuring the X-wing, Imperial turret, transporter, command center and R2-D2 accessories
- Price: USD $89.99
- Set number: #75427
- Age: 9+
- Pieces: 962
- Dimensions: The set measures over 5.5 in. (14 cm) high, 11.5 in. (29 cm) long and 19 in. (49 cm) wide
- Smart Play Components:
- 2x LEGO SMART Brick
- 3x LEGO® SMART MINIFIGURES featuring Luke Skywalker, Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader
- 5x SMART TAGS featuring an A-wing, throne, Death Star turret and Lightsaber™ duels (2x tags)
- Price: USD $159.99
Availability: Pre-orders open 9 January 2026, on sale from 1 March 2026
If you’re going to show off LEGO creations suddenly reacting with lights, sounds and movement, Star Wars is about as perfect a starting point as you could ask for. SMART Play officially launched on March 1, 2026, with three All-in-One Star Wars sets — Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter, Luke’s Red Five X-Wing and Throne Room Duel & A-Wing — each including a SMART Brick alongside SMART Tags and Minifigures. LEGO then expanded the range with familiar builds including the Millennium Falcon, Luke’s Landspeeder, Yoda’s Hut, an AT-ST and the Mos Eisley Cantina.
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And this is where all that technology starts to feel less like a list of sensors and more like something you’d actually want to play with. Luke’s X-Wing can fire up engine and laser sounds as you fly it around, Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter responds with roaring engines and battle effects, while the Throne Room set can even play the Imperial March when Emperor Palpatine takes his seat. Compatible sets take things further again — the Millennium Falcon, for example, can unlock hyperspace, laser, holochess and lightsaber interactions when paired with a SMART Brick.
Star Wars is only the beginning. LEGO says SMART Play will continue to grow through new sets, updates and technology, and the current range has already expanded beyond a galaxy far, far away into Pokémon. That’s what makes SMART Play such an interesting direction for LEGO — it isn’t trying to replace the classic brick or turn play into another excuse to stare at a screen. It’s simply giving the things you build a way to respond to you. The LEGO brick isn’t going anywhere — now, it can play along too.
