LEGO’s revolutionary Smart Play range has now been out in the wild for two weeks, allowing its intended audience to finally go hands-on with the Smart Brick and the first set of Smart Minifigures, via a swathe of sets based on LEGO Star Wars.
When the LEGO Smart Brick was announced earlier this year, opinion was a little mixed on the technology that LEGO itself said would constitute a major part of the company’s output for years to come. Indeed, LEGO said the addition of Smart elements would be as transformative as its introduction of the minifigure, all the way back in 1978.
It was bold talk from a company whose toys are already fairly interactive, and which are often praised for providing a more analogue alternative to computer screens and tablets. Smart Play is also screen-free (though there’s a smartphone app to update your Smart Brick firmware), but of course, the real judges would be the range’s main audience of kids and families themselves.
Launched this month, the Smart Play range now extends to eight main Star Wars sets, including an X-Wing, TIE Fighter, AT-ST, Landspeeder and the Millennium Falcon, plus the Death Star Throne Room, Yoda’s Hut and Mos Eisley Cantina. More will inevitably come, as well non-Star Wars Smart LEGO sets (at some point), but how are the first wave actually landing with fans?
“My son and I had a blast today just starting the X-Wing,” one fan wrote on reddit. “He got so caught up playing with the [refuelling] cart that we didn’t get finished. He loves it and I thought it was pretty awesome.”
“The Smart Brick IS NOT BAD,” wrote another. “I actually like that they don’t say phrases from the movie and the sets are meant for children. But, it’s insanely expensive.”
Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surpise that a LEGO range is geared towards a younger audience, though many fans have brought up the issue of pricing — that sets with Smart Bricks are more expensive, and even the “add-on” sets without their own specific Smart Brick start at $40.
“Good for kids,” wrote one fan in another discussion thread on reddit. “Priced for adults. I sense a disconnect.”
“The fact that these playsets come with a lot of additional figures and extra side builds is awesome,” said another fan. “It’s exactly how kids want to play with LEGO, and you’re right that LEGO hasn’t been including that stuff as much in recent years, and it’s nice to see it back. I agree with all that. BUT the fact of the matter is, kids don’t buy the sets generally. Adults do. And the Smart Bricks are a monetary add-on that push up the price of the entire set by a significant amount.”
The Smart Play X-Wing set (priced $89.99, 581 pieces) for example includes a relatively detailed X-Wing build, but also a refuelling cart, an Imperial gun turret, and Leia’s rebel base computer station. These contribute to the sense that this really is a set designed for interactivity and play, as each offer their own Smart tile with which the Smart Brick can slot on top of an interact with. But there’s no escaping the fact that for that number of bricks, you could buy a similarly licensed set for around $10-20 less. For comparison two Star Wars sets without Smart Play elements are the AT-AT ($64.99 for 525 pieces) and Jango Fett’s Starship ($69.99 for 707 pieces).
So what do you get for your Smart Play money? Building the set, instructions guide you through the various smaller builds and illustrate their Smart Brick capabilities, acting like a guide to the technology’s functionality. There’s some clever uses, for example the Smart Brick’s capacity to detect color, which is used to create refuelling noises when a blue refuelling nozzle is placed in the right spot, or mechanical noises when a green hammer is spotted. And then there’s the Smart Brick’s more basic functionality, of detecting Smart minifigures and movement — emitting swooping X-Wing noises as the main build is moved through the air, or R2-D2’s chatter as he’s placed in the cockpit. The Smart Brick’s movement sensor is clearly robust — able to detect rotation on the gun turret and the pressing of a button on the X-Wing to fire its lasers, with appropriate noises for each.
“In a nutshell, it’s not for adults that build sets, it’s for kids that actually play with what they build,” one fan concluded, surmising that if you’re looking to spend on a set that just sits pretty on a shelf, this isn’t the range you’re looking for. But for the younger fans looking for something more toy-like, if pricing isn’t too much of an issue, there’s fun to be had.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
