Lego’s New ‘Star Wars’ Smart Brick Sets Look Like a Big Risk

Lego took to the stage at CES for the first time this year to announce what it’s framing as the biggest innovation in brick building since it introduced the humble minifigure: a series of tech-enhanced “smart” bricks, tags, and minifigures that will bring new levels of electronic interactivity to its playsets. That sounds all well and good, but it’s choosing to launch it with the help of Star Wars… and that only makes one of the company’s most controversial sticking points even more of a headache.

Today Lego announced that its brand-new “Smart Play” system would debut across three Lego Star Wars sets. The technology incorporates three Lego formats with electronic enhancements. The primary aspect of the system is smart bricks, which feature a microchip smaller than an individual Lego stud built within them that can be used for sensors, accelerometers, light and sound sensing, and a speaker.

These bricks work in tandem with smart tags and smart minifigures, which can pair with the bricks in specific ways to respond to sound, light, or motion. While the pieces are universal and usable with standard Lego, it’s currently unknown how the various pieces in the currently announced sets will interact with each other outside of their specific functions within their own sets. Gizmodo’s consumer tech editor Ray Wong was on hand at the keynote to see the tech in action:

Demo of the Lego Smart Brick in action #CES2026 pic.twitter.com/HieJFiHCYb

— Ray Wong (@raywongy) January 5, 2026

It’s far from the first time that Lego has incorporated electronic elements into its sets—individual light and sound bricks have existed for years, as have motors to power vehicles too. Lines like the company’s Super Mario range have also encouraged play through digital enhancements through similar ideas with the smart Mario minifigures, but the new system is the first time in a while that this level of electronically enhanced interactive elements has been incorporated so seamlessly into otherwise standard Lego formats.

All that sounds well and good, but it comes with a bit of a problem: naturally, the addition of “Smart Play” into Lego sets is going to make them more expensive than they currently are. And when you debut that kind of addition in a line like Lego Star Wars—which has perhaps more than most Lego lines weathered the most criticisms for its high prices compared to the perceived value of a given set in recent years, between general price creep and its nature as a brand crossover instead of an original Lego series—that means our first look at “Smart Play” in action comes with quite a bit of sticker shock.

Of the three Star Wars sets revealed today, the smallest, a replica of Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced from A New Hope, clocks in at $70 for just 473 pieces and two minifigures (a “Smart” Darth Vader and a standard Rebel Fleet Trooper). The middle set, a similar X-Wing coming in at $100 for 584 pieces, at least includes five total minifigures—”Smart” versions of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, a Rebel ground crew officer, R2-D2, and a Stormtrooper. The priciest of them all is a whopping $160 for the Throne Room Duel & A-Wing inspired by Return of the Jedi. The only set to come with multiple smart bricks, it also features three “Smart” minifigures of Luke, Vader, and Emperor Palpatine, alongside regular minifigures of an A-Wing pilot and two Royal Guards. Each set will also include a charger for the smart bricks.

The electronic features in all three sets at least sound pretty cute, unlocking sound interactions like engine roars, blaster fire, and lightsaber clashes (the best is arguably getting the Imperial March to play when the Emperor sits on his throne in the Throne Room Duel set), or light-up features to replicate blaster bolts, and so on. But the sets themselves are unlikely to really excite many Lego Star Wars fans, offering compromised spins on sets Lego has offered many times before, with smaller piece counts or that bundle midi-scaled vehicles with small generic ancillary side-builds.

The emphasis on playability is great for kids, but the high prices for these playset-driven sets are only going to outprice parents even more than current sets do. And while adult Lego fans are used to paying premiums for sets, the bang for their buck on playsets rather than detailed dioramas or grander-scaled builds will only have them grumbling at paying a lot for very little in the way of meaningful perceived additions from the smart technology.

Maybe “Smart Play” would’ve gone down a bit easier if it was introduced on a smaller scale, across original Lego lines like Friends, City, Speed Champions, or any other number of Lego series where there isn’t necessarily the extra baked-in price demands of a licensed line before you get to the electronic enhancements. As it stands, debuting what Lego wants to position as a fundamental, evolutionary aspect of its products on the same level as the minifigure itself across three relatively basic but very expensive sets feels like a gamble that may not yet pay off.

The three Lego Star Wars “Smart Play” sets go on pre-order January 9, ahead of their release on March 1. In the meantime, stay tuned to Gizmodo for more updates, brick-based or otherwise, from CES 2026!

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.