Legos, anyone?

[sketchley]

4 hours ago, Bolt said:

Not sue if this has been seen yet..

wasn't able to post the link so here's a photo of the article..

 

"Lego unveils tech-filled Smart Bricks - to play experts' unease" appeared in the BBC in the last 12 hours:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmlnmnwzk2o

 

I have mixed feelings about the Smart Bricks.  It's great that Lego is continuing to innovate, but I'm not sure if this is the right direction...

[Bolt]

33 minutes ago, sketchley said:

"Lego unveils tech-filled Smart Bricks - to play experts' unease" appeared in the BBC in the last 12 hours:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmlnmnwzk2o

 

I have mixed feelings about the Smart Bricks.  It's great that Lego is continuing to innovate, but I'm not sure if this is the right direction...

Personally, I'm not going to rush out to get these. I think it's a bit of a gimmick. Admittedly, these "smart bricks " , that can react to each other with laser play and play SW music , may be fun, but I don't see this as a must have. But LEGO will probably make a killing on this new technology, as the younger generations will eat it up. And hey, they have to stay on top of their game, right? And i'm sure we will now be seeing the same technology in their Marvel, Ninjago, Harry Potter, etc. etc. offerings in the coming years.

Edited January 7 by Bolt

[M'Kyuun]

On 1/6/2026 at 8:23 PM, Bolt said:

Personally, I'm not going to rush out to get these. I think it's a bit of a gimmick. Admittedly, these "smart bricks " , that can react to each other with laser play and play SW music , may be fun, but I don't see this as a must have. But LEGO will probably make a killing on this new technology, as the younger generations will eat it up. And hey, they have to stay on top of their game, right? And i'm sure we will now be seeing the same technology in their Marvel, Ninjago, Harry Potter, etc. etc. offerings in the coming years.

I've never been a big fan of lights or sounds in my toys. It just never mattered to me, and the toys usually suffer concessions for it, especially from the 70s-90s when electronics were much larger, energy burning incandescent light bulbs were the only option, and the toy required a voluminous load of batteries to affect the functions. That said I own a number that have said gimmicks, and every now and again I'll activate them for a quick thrill and to make sure the batteries are still viable. My favorite of these toys is Transformers Animated Ultra Magnus: Jeff Bennett's Robert Stack impression is spot on and his lines, taken nigh verbatim from the show, are still smile-inducing. Second runner up would be Agent Knight with his William Daniels sound-alike delivering KITT's lines, and that pulsing scanner and the whoo-whoo sound effect. Good stuff, that.

However, smart bricks aren't the breakthrough innovation I would have asked for, either now or as a wee lad. A family of this, however- that would be game changing. 

[danth]

On 1/6/2026 at 8:23 PM, Bolt said:

But LEGO will probably make a killing on this new technology, as the younger generations will eat it up.

I don't think this is true, and historically, these kind of forced gimmicks fail. Vidiyo, Hidden Side, Dimensions...

The Mario theme is doing okay, I presume, probably due to the popularity of the franchise, and the quality of set designs, and if I had to guess, not at all due to the weird Mario/Luigi figures with the embedded electronics. For instance, I bought this set, but I have no interest in the Mario figure (shown faded out).

But even though I don't really like that Mario figure, at least it makes sense. Mario is basically the "smart brick" in these sets, and his expressions and speech change based on the tiles he interacts with. You move him around, he says things and makes faces. That makes sense.

But just having a brick, sitting there in a exposed in a weird spot, making primitive noises and flashing? That doesn't really work.

What's well integrated in Mario sets is weirdly forced into these Star Wars sets. 

Edited January 9 by danth

[M'Kyuun]

1 hour ago, danth said:

I don't think this is true, and historically, these kind of forced gimmicks fail. Vidiyo, Hidden Side, Dimensions...

The Mario theme is doing okay, I presume, probably due to the popularity of the franchise, and the quality of set designs, and if I had to guess, not at all due to the weird Mario/Luigi figures with the embedded electronics. For instance, I bought this set, but I have no interest in the Mario figure (shown faded out).

But even though I don't really like that Mario figure, at least it makes sense. Mario is basically the "smart brick" in these sets, and his expressions and speech change based on the tiles he interacts with. You move him around, he says things and makes faces. That makes sense.

But just having a brick, sitting there in a exposed in a weird spot, making primitive noises and flashing? That doesn't really work.

What's well integrated in Mario sets is weirdly forced into these Star Wars sets. 

Even the light-up lightsabers, which make more sense IMHO, were a very short-lived gimmick (that also crossed over to City as flashlights for police). It seems the build quality of the sets in which these smart bricks are being employed is rather substandard to poor; for my money at any age, I'd rather have the most accurate depiction of the subject matter over lights and sounds. However, that's just my own preference as an older LEGO fan growing up in the very analog days of the 70s and 80s. At any rate, you make a good point about LEGO's other attempts at integrating the digital into their regular building play pattern, and they've all ended with lackluster results. IMHO, LEGO is best as a construction toy, so ever-improving on that core tenant should be their focus.

Edit: I'll amend my comment about lackluster builds, as I bought a few of the Hidden Side sets, and while I cared little for the digital features, the sets themselves were good to downright excellent builds, judging from the few I own personally. Looking at the other sets, though, I thought the majority were brilliantly done, as they not only had the digital features on the periphery, but most of the sets themselves had transformative features built in to represent the haunted nature of buildings and objects. It was imaginative and well-implemented, IMHO, one of their better stand-alone themes.

Edited January 9 by M'Kyuun

[M'Kyuun]

Joe Meno, AFOL, friend, and most notably the creator and chief editor of Brickjournal, an AFOL based LEGO magazine, elucidated on the properties of the new "smart bricks". 

Here's a quote from his Facebook page:

Did some reading on the LEGO Smart Play system (nope, not at Vegas to see it - and won't be at New York either for Toy Fair to see it) and have some thoughts on it.

The first thing to note is that the system is not targeted to AFOLs - it's specifically pointed at kids. The system is basically a very tricked out Light and Sound System from the 80s (I think) that got sized down to a 2x4ish brick. It looks 4 plates high, so it's a touch larger than a brick.

It's an action/reaction system using minifgures and tags that has the potiential of lots of interactivity on a certain level. The tags are on tiles and specialized minifigures with RFID chips, which is pretty clever - that places memory on the tiles, which reduces the overhead of the smart brick.

The smart brick is a slave to the tags - it has some basic startup functions at the start (shake to activate and blinky LED to indicate activation) but needs the tags in the minifigures and tiles to react. The actual chip is less than the size of a stud, which is pretty impressive on a tech scale, considering there's a accelerometer and a processor to load the tag info. There's also a light sensor and a speaker in the brick.

This appears to be a closed system, so hacking may not be allowed. That would be a reflection of target market. However, the other implication is that all the hackable areas would be in the RFID. Memory, firmware...it could all be done in the RFID. This makes it easy the brick to stay relevant for years - it's the tags that get updated.

The interaction shown was dogfighting or lightsaber duels, which is okay, I guess. Would like to see other ideas, especially for groups. The set seem to expect individual play.

But the wierdest thing is the charging pad. It's not LEGO compatible. That makes NO sense. A user has to place the brick into this tray on the charger plate to charge....why couldn't the charger be a piece or baseplate? That is a trip in design process.

[F-ZeroOne]

Yeah, I've got the impression ever since being revealed these are clearly aimed at kids. While Lego has increasingly earned a reputation for being aimed at adults, its not the only demographic they serve and flashy lights and sounds appeal to children, even though part of me is a little sad they'll be less inclined to provide their own whooshy sounds. Another thing thats been pointed out about the chargers is that I understand one is included with each set so over time theres potential for households to be stuck with a lot of these very specific use items.

[M'Kyuun]

25 minutes ago, F-ZeroOne said:

Yeah, I've got the impression ever since being revealed these are clearly aimed at kids. While Lego has increasingly earned a reputation for being aimed at adults, its not the only demographic they serve and flashy lights and sounds appeal to children, even though part of me is a little sad they'll be less inclined to provide their own whooshy sounds. Another thing thats been pointed out about the chargers is that I understand one is included with each set so over time theres potential for households to be stuck with a lot of these very specific use items.

Well, I think the sounds will vary, and I doubt kids, or adults for that matter, will ever stop vocalizing engine sounds, pew-pews, etc. I still do it at 54, and I've no intention to quit. As to the useless stuff, I look back at all the little fig bases for Dimensions (I've got a Tupperware container full of those figs and the little builds for that game), and the myriad brick separators that I've attained over the years. Granted the separators are useful, but at this point, I have a lifetime supply of them already, and 20-30 more years of buying sets and accumulating more separators.

[renegadeleader1]

Looking at what's beend unveiled so far, the quality, and the price point I get the feeling this is going to be a very terrible year for them. These sets so far are terrible with terrible gimmicks, and way overpriced for what you get.

[M'Kyuun]

3 hours ago, renegadeleader1 said:

Looking at what's beend unveiled so far, the quality, and the price point I get the feeling this is going to be a very terrible year for them. These sets so far are terrible with terrible gimmicks, and way overpriced for what you get.

Well I concur, but I also look at these particular affected sets in the perspective that they are aimed at young children (ages 6, 8, and 9 respectively). The problem, of course, is the costs of these sets. Already, you're dealing with the Lucasfilm markup, but then the additional cost of the new technology makes them a hard pill to swallow. For AFOLs/TFOLs who are more advanced in their tastes and building ability, these sets, admittedly offer little bang for the buck, with simpler builds and low piece counts. If kids are interested, I feel bad for the parents, grandparents, aunts, or uncles buying these for them due to that high price tag. And if the kids lose interest after five minutes, like many do, it'll be a monumental waste of money for a so-so gimmick.

It's a shame that LEGO didn't introduce this technology in a homegrown theme like Creator or Friends where costs could be minimized by virtue of the lack of licenses. The smart tech would have affected prices, sure, but perhaps the financial impact wouldn't be so severe.

That said, I wouldn't judge the entirety of the year's success based on one new technology. LEGO has plenty of very successful themes, and if the January wave is anything to judge the rest of the year by, I foresee another successful and profitable year for them, as they can afford to absorb some amount of loss through experimentation. Friends was an experiment, too, after multiple failures, so I wouldn't write anything off yet. Who knows, SMART Play may end up being a roaring success, especially if they unveil AFOL oriented applications of the technology later in the year.

Edited Wednesday at 03:14 AM by M'Kyuun

[Scyla]

New Lego Zelda set announced:

3 mini figs, 1003 pieces, $129.

https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/ocarina-of-time-the-final-battle-77093