The LEGO SMART Brick is on the way — here are six ways it can go beyond the initial reveal of lights and sounds and truly revolutionise LEGO play.
A LEGO brick that reactively lights up and makes sounds is a great concept, offering a brand-new way for children (and adults) to play with their LEGO sets. The SMART Brick will be able to react to SMART Minifigures and Tags, letting LEGO X-wings swoosh through the skies and LEGO lightsabers clash in battle like never before.
Three sets will launch the new product in March:
- 75421 Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter
- 75423 Luke’s Red Five X-wing
- 75427 Throne Room Duel & A-wing
Only producing lights and sounds may seem like a bit of a disappointment for something marketed as heavily as the SMART Brick, but this is surely just the first step down a new technological path for the LEGO Group. Here are six ways that the future of the SMART Brick can go above and beyond and change LEGO play forever…
Be sold separately
Getting the elephant out of the room first, the three initial LEGO SMART Play Star Wars sets are expensive. This is because of all the SMART technology in the sets, but expensive is still expensive and high prices can bar children from experiencing a new system of play designed specially for them. So the first way LEGO SMART Play can revolutionise play is to be more accessible.
SMART Bricks could be sold as standalone products (with or without the charger), with SMART Tags sold as add-on packs reminiscent of LEGO DOTS sets. SMART Minifigures may be a little tricky to work into this sold-separately system but leaving them exclusive to sets — particularly ones priced without a SMART Brick included — wouldn’t be a bad thing. Selling the bricks separately would allow children to bring more LEGO builds to life, and extra tags would help as well.
Motorise, motorise, motorise
There’s something incredibly alluring about a LEGO creation that can move on its own — motorised builds are often the highlight of convention halls everywhere. So why not let the SMART Brick try its hand at controlling some motorised sets?
It’s likely not strong enough to provide any real, sustained power, but what it could do is trigger a certain movement in a mechanised model for a short, repeatable burst of motion. Something like making s-foils go into attack position or opening a dinosaur’s mouth for a mighty roar. Little bits of motion, coupled with sounds it’s already capable of, would go a long way for play.
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Combine themes
SMART Play expanding beyond LEGO Star Wars is already a given — there’s a reason the demo videos aren’t just X-wings and TIE Fighters — but one thing SMART Play could do to really make the different themes feel worth it is to ensure cross-franchise interaction.
So not only could a LEGO Harry Potter set include SMART Minifigures that can do all the Harry Potter things you want them to, but it could also make sure those Harry Potter SMART Minifigures have a novel way of interacting with LEGO Star Wars SMART Minifigures. Dumbledore vs Palpatine, anyone?
Integrate into LEGO Pokémon
LEGO Pokémon is launching soon and SMART Bricks seem the perfect thing to incorporate into the sets – imagine if a Pokémon could have the traits of its specific type, with tags telling the SMART Brick how to act? Caring for and training the creature could be a really fun play pattern and deliver something really different to Star Wars, but perhaps even more engaging.
Fit in everywhere
An aspect of SMART Play that has some fans on edge is the seeming divide between SMART Play sets and ‘regular’ LEGO sets. The distinction between the two is fairly apparent — the SMART Play X-wing is simplified compared to a typical play scale set. But SMART Play can really flex its play potential if it can easily be transferred to other sets.
Obviously, these are LEGO Bricks, so anything is possible if you put you’re mind to it. But giving regular play sets a clear but unobtrusive way to combine with a SMART Brick and Tag would help to bridge the gap between the two types of play. Bonus points if this is combined with sold-separately SMART products to make integration easier and cheaper.
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Be surprising
If SMART Play could be easily predicted and fully understood way in advance, there’d be no fun in each new announcement. This is a system the LEGO Group has been developing for years and knows inside out, with some surprises surely still down the road for the creatives behind it.
So let those surprises be passed on to the fans. Release a set with motorisation but also release one with a new feature that no one expected, really show the power of the SMART Brick. As for what these features could be — why predict the unpredictable? LEGO SMART Play is promising to swing big. So let’s let it shoot for the stars and see what it can do.
That’s the basics of LEGO SMART Play ahead of its launch in March 2026. If you’d like to learn more about the SMART Play platform, you can read Blocks’ in-depth look at how the SMART Brick works; coverage of the big announcement; and analyses of the upcoming March 1 SMART Play sets (plus some more teased ones). You can also check out relevant videos on Blocks’ YouTube channel.
If you’re interested in reading some different takes about how LEGO SMART Play will affect LEGO sets, you can check out Blocks Editor Graham E. Hancock’s outlook on the future of the SMART platform as well as Block News Writer Ryan Everleth’s thoughts on the prices of the sets.
To find out when new LEGO sets are announced, sign up to our free newsletter. Of course, if you really want to upgrade your LEGO hobby for the true insider experience, take out a subscription to Blocks, the monthly LEGO magazine for fans. Upcoming issues will feature everything SMART Play, including exclusive articles and reviews of all the launch day sets.
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