Lego is quietly revolutionising its classic toy brand with new Smart Bricks, USB-C charged bricks that light up and make noises depending on the tags placed on it’s builds – and we’re among the first to give it a go
Lego Star Wars Smart Play: Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter
Lego hasn’t really changed at its core for decades.
While the Danish makers have become increasingly clever in how they’ve diversified the designs of their block toys, at the heart it’s all about fitting little pieces together in unique ways. Well that’s all changing.
Because for the first time ever, we’re now fully adding in USB-charged technology to give this absolute classic of a toy a whole new lease of life.
The secret is the brand new Smart Brick.
This is a traditional 4×2 brick with a see-through top that lights up, flashes and pumps out all sorts of wild noises based on interactions with unique mini figures and smart tags you add into your builds.
We were among the first to try out the Star Wars TIE Fighter set that includes a Darth Vader mini character.
It’s a lovely small-to-medium sized 473-piece build that took me and my two kids an evening to put together.
Lego lovers will know the drill, follow the easy-to-read build book you get in the pack which gives flat-pack style instructions on how to assemble the final space ship.
But this time the was the added instruction of plugging in a bright yellow USB-C charge pad to a socket and putting the fabled single Smart Brick in the centre of it to charge up while we were building.
And this craft fully came to life at the end when we added in a tag piece on the middle of the TIE fighter and the smart brick on top of it.
The Daily Star’s final build of the set
The tag works a bit like a unique QR code in that it gives the tech brick instructions on the interactions it can do with tat particular set.
As a result, when my daughter ‘flew’ the space ship around the room – instead of making her own flying noises – the brick emitted classic Star Wars swoosh noises and bright lights like a flying craft.
A lever we installed at the back, when pulled with a finger, also produced laser shooting sounds, so she could have a battle with the side-build Rebel Outpost which featured a firing rocket mechanism and a rebel minifigure.
When placed on the table, you could used an accompanying tiny green hammer to ‘repair’ your TIE Fighter, complete with authentic banging and bashing noises, by pretending to do so near the Smart Brick.
And to complete the fun, you can refuel your craft with the handy little fuel pipe in the same way.
It glugged down the juice, which made me giggle.
The Smart Brick lasts about 45 minutes per charge and shuts itself down after a few minutes of inaction. Then it’s a case of giving it a quick wiggle to wake it up again.
The kids hard at work building the TIE Fighter
It’s incredibly easy to use and gave me and the kids a lovely evening away from the usual screens to enjoy some toy building fun that we frankly need to do a bit more.
There’s a host of other Star Wars Smart Brick sets coming out now – from Yoda’s Hut to Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder – so this is going to be a massive deal for Lego fans across the globe going forward.
And based on just this smaller £59.99 set so far, it’s a brilliant evolution of a classic toy that brings technology into play but keeps the core facet of ‘play’ at its heart.
VERDICT 4/5