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Lego’s first-ever CES appearance brought a brand-new line called Smart Play, featuring a Smart Brick that lights up, interacts with motion and proximity, and has sound effects onboard. In one Star Wars demo, the brick glowed like a TIE fighter’s stare and played lightsaber whooshes — no phone or app needed. Even Luke Skywalker’s new minifigure can make his saber emit sound on its own, pointing to a broader shift in how Lego combines tech and tactile play.
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Lego Smart Brick lights like a TIE fighter, whooshes like a saber
Gregory Zuckerman
Last updated: January 5, 2026 11:16 pm
By
Gregory Zuckerman
Technology
7 Min Read
Lego’s first-ever CES appearance brought a brand-new line called Smart Play, featuring a Smart Brick that lights up, interacts with motion and proximity, and has sound effects onboard. In one Star Wars demo, the brick glowed like a TIE fighter’s stare and played lightsaber whooshes — no phone or app needed. Even Luke Skywalker’s new minifigure can make his saber emit sound on its own, pointing to a broader shift in how Lego combines tech and tactile play.
What the Smart Brick actually does and how it works
When turned off, the Smart Brick looks like an ordinary, clear, rectangular block. Awaken it with a shake, and it comes to life, sensing the surroundings via on-brick sensors that respond to light, color, and distance, before displaying patterns on its dynamic LED matrix screen and emitting on-brick RGB lighting and sound. And in hands-on demos, bricks changed color depending on how close they were to a board — or to each other — and made motion-appropriate sounds when connected to vehicles, from swoops to crashes.
A black and clear LEGO brick with glowing studs, surrounded by yellow concentric circles and a subtle smoky effect, set against a professional dark gray background with soft geometric patterns.
A tiny Smart Tag clicks into the center of the brick and tells it how to act in a play scenario. Consider the tag a mini play card: swap it and you hand control of that brick over from starfighter thrums to animal noises or racing effects. Lego hasn’t yet made clear whether a tag can hold multiple modes or if families will collect several tags to cover additional thematic content, but the physical “programming” metaphor is deliberately kid-friendly and screen-free.
Location-aware play was also on display. We moved the toy cars to a target, and the nearest one “won,” their Smart Bricks changing color as they were programmed. That form of lightweight spatial-sensing is the quiet innovation here — it lays rules on classic races, obstacle courses, or build challenges without driving kids to a companion app or complex setup.
The BIG BIG Questions is though.
Have they designed their own chip?
Are they using INTEL latest offering or have they gone with TSMC?
Lego’s first-ever CES appearance brought a brand-new line called Smart Play, featuring a Smart Brick that lights up, interacts with motion and proximity, and has sound effects onboard. In one Star Wars demo, the brick glowed like a TIE fighter’s stare and played lightsaber whooshes — no phone or app needed. Even Luke Skywalker’s new minifigure can make his saber emit sound on its own, pointing to a broader shift in how Lego combines tech and tactile play.
FindArticles
FindArticles > News > Technology
Lego Smart Brick lights like a TIE fighter, whooshes like a saber
Gregory Zuckerman
Last updated: January 5, 2026 11:16 pm
By
Gregory Zuckerman
Technology
7 Min Read
Lego’s first-ever CES appearance brought a brand-new line called Smart Play, featuring a Smart Brick that lights up, interacts with motion and proximity, and has sound effects onboard. In one Star Wars demo, the brick glowed like a TIE fighter’s stare and played lightsaber whooshes — no phone or app needed. Even Luke Skywalker’s new minifigure can make his saber emit sound on its own, pointing to a broader shift in how Lego combines tech and tactile play.
What the Smart Brick actually does and how it works
When turned off, the Smart Brick looks like an ordinary, clear, rectangular block. Awaken it with a shake, and it comes to life, sensing the surroundings via on-brick sensors that respond to light, color, and distance, before displaying patterns on its dynamic LED matrix screen and emitting on-brick RGB lighting and sound. And in hands-on demos, bricks changed color depending on how close they were to a board — or to each other — and made motion-appropriate sounds when connected to vehicles, from swoops to crashes.
A black and clear LEGO brick with glowing studs, surrounded by yellow concentric circles and a subtle smoky effect, set against a professional dark gray background with soft geometric patterns.
A tiny Smart Tag clicks into the center of the brick and tells it how to act in a play scenario. Consider the tag a mini play card: swap it and you hand control of that brick over from starfighter thrums to animal noises or racing effects. Lego hasn’t yet made clear whether a tag can hold multiple modes or if families will collect several tags to cover additional thematic content, but the physical “programming” metaphor is deliberately kid-friendly and screen-free.
Location-aware play was also on display. We moved the toy cars to a target, and the nearest one “won,” their Smart Bricks changing color as they were programmed. That form of lightweight spatial-sensing is the quiet innovation here — it lays rules on classic races, obstacle courses, or build challenges without driving kids to a companion app or complex setup.
The BIG BIG Questions is though.
Have they designed their own chip?
Are they using INTEL latest offering or have they gone with TSMC?
