Lego’s Smart Brick is a standard-sized brick with embedded electronics—sensing motion/orientation and playing contextual audio—designed to make physical play react in real time to what kids *actually do*, not just what an app tells them to do. Bravo Lego!
What was announced (and what’s actually new)
CES is full of “toy-tech” concepts that look flashy in a demo and disappear. Lego’s Smart Brick is different because it’s built around a simple but powerful idea:keep the play physical, keep the logic inside the bricks, and let interaction emerge from how kids build and move things.
According to Engadget’s CES roundup, Lego introduced the Smart Brick as a standard-sized brick with a 4.1mm ASIC chip inside, built to respond differently depending on the set and how you’re building it. Lego describes a “Play Engine” and integrated copper coils that allow each brick to sense motion, orientation, magnetic fields, and its relationship to other Smart Bricks, including distance and direction. Each brick also contains a tiny speaker for audio that’s “tied to live play actions,” not just pre-recorded clips on a timer.
Source: Engadget
The Verge’s CES live hub also highlights the Smart Brick as a standout of the show, calling it “electronics-packed,” and links out to deeper coverage and demos.
Source: The Verge
Why this matters: toy “interactivity” usually cheats
Most interactive toys are either:
1) App-first (the phone drives the story; the toy is a prop), or
2) Trigger-based (press a button; a sound plays; repeat).
Smart Brick pushes toward a third model: system-based play, where the toy reacts to state—how pieces are arranged, moved, oriented, and combined. That’s a much closer match to why Lego works in the first place: kids already treat a Lego build like a programmable world, even without screens. If Lego can keep this reliable and affordable over time, Smart Brick becomes a platform for: – richer role-play (audio and interaction that follows the story the kids invent), – cooperative building (two kids’ builds “talk” to each other), – accessibility (audio cues can support kids who prefer auditory feedback), – and eventually, creator ecosystems (custom behaviors, if Lego opens any portion of the system).
How it works (as described so far)
From Engadget’s reporting:
– Sensors & awareness:
Bricks sense motion and orientation, plus magnetic fields, and can detect their relationship to other bricks.
– Audio: each brick includes a speaker to play context-aware sound.
– Context objects: Lego pairs Smart Bricks with Smart Tags and Smart Minifigures that help bricks understand the “meaning” of what they’re doing in a build.
– Local wireless layer: Lego calls the local layer “BrickNet”, which helps smart components coordinate in real time.
Source: Engadget
That local-network detail is quietly important: “smart” toys too often default to cloud connectivity for basic behaviors. A local layer suggests Smart Brick can remain responsive even without Wi‑Fi (though Lego hasn’t fully specified what requires connectivity and what doesn’t).
The first Smart Play sets (pricing and what you get)
Engadget reports the first Smart Play partner is Star Wars, launching three all-in-one sets built around Smart Bricks, Smart Tags, and Smart Minifigures:
– 473-piece Darth Vader TIE Fighter $70
– 584-piece Luke’s Red Five X-Wing $100
– 962-piece Throne Room Duel & A-wing $160
These sets include audio effects like lightsaber swooshes, fighter sounds, and the Imperial March.
Source: Engadget
The Verge’s CES live hub also notes the Smart Brick as a major highlight and includes additional Lego-focused items inside the hub.
Source: The Verge
What a “Smart Brick” could do for learning (without turning into homework)
A lot of edtech mistakes “more tech” for “more learning.” Lego has historically been good at the opposite: *hide the complexity and let kids pull it out naturally.* If Smart Brick stays faithful to that, it can support:
– Cause-and-effect reasoning: “When I rotate this, what happens? What if I move it closer?”
– Systems thinking: behaviors emerge from multiple components interacting.
– Iterative design: kids will naturally rebuild to get different reactions.
– Cooperative play: shared worlds that respond differently depending on who’s doing what.
Crucially, it does this without requiring kids to “code” at age six just so a toy can blink. The “coding” is embedded in how the toy perceives state and emits feedback.
Real-world concerns: durability, battery, and “toy creep”
Because Lego’s Smart Brick is electronics inside a standard-sized brick, there are three practical concerns you should watch as the product reaches homes:
1) Durability & failure modes: Lego bricks are famously durable. Electronics change that equation. What happens after a drop, a bath, or a lost piece?
2) Power & longevity: Smart behavior implies power. Lego hasn’t emphasized battery details in the coverage above; it’s a major question for parents.
3) Privacy: even if BrickNet is local, some companion features may still go online. Parents will want clarity on whether microphones, accounts, or recordings are involved (the Smart Brick itself is described as having a speaker; the articles above don’t describe a mic in the brick).
Bottom line
Lego Smart Brick is notable because it aims to make physical play itself the interface—no “scan this with your phone” gimmicks required. If Lego keeps behaviors local, batteries sane, and the platform extensible across themes, Smart Brick could become one of the few CES “future toys” that actually changes what kids expect from a toy.
