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Sales will begin on March 1, 2026, as part of new Lego Star Wars sets.
The Lego Group has announced Smart Brick — a microcomputer fully built into a classic 2x4 Lego brick. The company presented the innovation at CES 2026 as a major evolution of the entire Lego system. The first Smart Bricks will appear in interactive Lego Star Wars sets, reports The Verge. According to Lego, the Smart Brick responds to NFC smart tags embedded in new Lego bricks and minifigures, enabling sets to produce sounds, light effects and music.
Unlike previous interactive Mario toys, which mainly activated when cameras detected colors or barcodes, the new bricks do not rely on replaceable batteries and function autonomously. They feature wireless charging and a battery that, according to Lego, will retain capacity even after years of inactivity. Smart Brick includes light, sound and motion sensors, as well as Bluetooth connectivity. The bricks form a network, identifying each other’s position and orientation during play. Inside is a custom ASIC chip smaller than a single Lego stud, and its software can be updated via a mobile app. The brick also contains a microphone that does not record sound.
“It is often used simply as another touch-sensing point. It does not record any details — it only detects signals related to sound and reacts in real time to how children play with it,” explained Lego Group spokesperson Jessica Benson. She confirmed that Smart Brick does not include artificial intelligence or a camera, making it incompatible with Lego Mario sets, which rely on scanning codes.
The first Smart Brick sets will launch in the Lego Star Wars line, including Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter ($70), Luke’s X-Wing ($100), and “Darth Vader’s Throne Room Duel” ($160).
The new models are smaller than traditional minifigure-scale builds but cost more due to electronic components. Lego acknowledges that Smart Brick significantly increases set pricing. Company representative Jack Rankin noted that smart tags could inspire new styles of play, citing examples where children paired unexpected sound tags with different vehicles to create imaginative scenarios.
Lego calls Smart Brick “the most significant evolution of the Lego system since the introduction of the minifigure in 1978.” The company added that the Lego Smart Play ecosystem will continue to expand through updates, new launches, and evolving technologies.
