“I am obsessed.” “That is even cooler than I imagined.” “I am a Lego nerd, so I am psyched to place these to the check.” These are simply a few of the reactions my fellow CES colleagues made concerning the Lego Sensible Bricks I noticed at CES 2026 in Las Vegas. The tech-packed toys embrace an array of sensors able to detecting different close by constructing blocks, lighting up and enjoying music. There’s additionally the best Star Wars sound impact tie-in, however you will should learn on for extra on that.
Star Wars Lego units made with the brand new good bricks arrive on March 1. And sure, meaning TIE Fighters and good Star Wars minifigures that can work together, making sounds and activating lights.
Lego has had complex robotics kits before in several iterations — I bear in mind when Lego had color-aware sensors in bricks and accelerometers. And I performed with the Super Mario Lego sets that had little figures that would bop on different bricks and play video games. These new good bricks appear like a fusion of a few of these concepts, however they’re additionally a extra superior manner of getting bricks acknowledge and activate inside large builds. Learn on to be taught concerning the good brick units Lego is displaying off at CES 2026.
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Sensor-studded bricks know the place they’re
The brand new Sensible Bricks, components of what Lego calls a Sensible Play system, are common 2×4-stud dimension, however have their very own application-specific built-in circuit, or ASIC, chips inside. There’s an array of sensors: an accelerometer measures tilt and motion. There are audio system and synthesizers onboard to generate sounds on the fly, and ambient LED lights. They convey with one another over Bluetooth. And there are magnetic coils that sense proximity to different particular Lego Sensible Tag tiles and Sensible Minifigures, which have their very own embedded tags that the bricks can sense close by.
The bricks might be utilized in a number of Lego units, and may acknowledge a number of Sensible Tags and Sensible Minifigures without delay. Each can ship code to the brick to generate completely different lights and sounds.
What does this all appear like whenever you’re enjoying? Nicely, I have never demoed it but, however I’ll quickly. I am going to replace this story after I do. However I’ve seen Lego’s executives displaying off the way it works at CES on stage throughout a keynote presentation, and it really works fully by proximity. Positioned on completely different colour bricks, it may acknowledge these colours. Or a number of bricks can join and mirror one another. The bricks can acknowledge distance in 3D house, even at a distance. To activate them, it appears to be like such as you give the bricks a bit of shake earlier than enjoying.
What’s wild to me is that Lego is promising a distributed community throughout as many bricks and tags as you need to attach with, or video games you can invent the place the autos know their distance from one another. Or, who is aware of?
Star Wars units will work together with all of the good tags, minifigures and bricks.
Star Wars units are getting Sensible Brickified
The brand new Star Wars Lego units coming March 1, which is able to debut all this tech, vary in worth from $70 to $160. There is a $70, 470-piece TIE Fighter set with one good tag and one good minifigure (Darth Vader), a $100, 584-piece X-Wing set that has 5 good tags and two good minifigures (Luke and Leia), and a $160, 962-piece Throne Room Duel and A-Wing set, which has 5 good tags and three good minifigures (Luke, Palpatine and Vader).
The Sensible Play ships can gentle up and make pew-pew taking pictures sounds as you fly them round one another, and the lightsaber battles work with minifigures getting shut to one another as you maintain them on sticks. It appears to be like fairly nice, actually, and the Star Wars kits look centered on utilizing the bricks to make autos really feel like they’re up and operating, making Lego units really feel extra like a fancier premade toy. It is bringing again my spaceship toy fantasies from after I was a child.
The place will it find yourself subsequent?
What it appears to be like like, to me, is a manner for Lego to begin getting a few of that activated tech inside a wider vary of kits, taking a step past the particular and bigger Mario figures within the Nintendo units that dealt with the tech components earlier than. However not one of the introduced Sensible Play units coming in March are robotics-focused. As a substitute, it is Star Wars that is getting Sensible Brickified first. I am kind of shocked by that, and I’m wondering if robotics can be coming sooner or later. There’s much more potential for sensor-studded bricks like this than simply play units.
And I am additionally curious what number of Lego units will get these Sensible Bricks and Sensible Play techniques… and the way lengthy they’re going to final. The bricks promise years of play and have contactless recharging utilizing a mat. I have already got a bunch of tech-enabled Lego units from years previous, together with fashions Lego does not make anymore. Legos final for many years, however will Sensible Play be capable of deal with the lengthy lifespan of toys? I am curious to know extra.
