LEGO SMART Bricks Unveil Screen-Free Building Adventure for Kids
LEGO’s new SMART Play system lets kids build interactively without screens, featuring responsive bricks and exciting sound effects.
Las Vegas: LEGO announced its new SMART Play system at CES on Monday. This system adds interactive and responsive features to the classic LEGO blocks. Now, kids can build without using any screens!
The SMART Play system comes with a special 2×4 brick, SMART Tag tiles, and SMART Minifigures. These SMART Bricks and Minifigures can sense the nearby SMART Tags. The SMART Tags are small tiles that have unique codes. These codes tell the Bricks and Minifigures what to do.
For example, if a SMART Tag belongs to a helicopter set, the Smart Brick will light up and make propeller sounds. This helps kids feel as if their helicopter is real! The Brick has a built-in sensor that knows when the helicopter is flying or even upside down.
The SMART Bricks work with a special chip that is even smaller than a LEGO stud. This chip helps the Bricks know the Tags around them. LEGO also created a way, called BrickNet, for these bricks to communicate with each other. This is safe and keeps kids’ playtime fun without worries about hacking.
The best part? Kids can use the SMART Play system right away. There’s no setup required to start playing. Parents will be happy to hear there are no screens in this system at all. However, LEGO did mention a SMART Tag for making animated LEGO toilets, which is sure to be a funny feature!
The first two SMART Play sets will be Star Wars-themed, launching on March 1. Preorders start on Friday. The “Luke’s Red Five X-wing” set will cost $69.99, while the bigger set, “Throne Room Duel and A-wing,” will be $159.99. These sets let kids animate characters like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia and even have Lightsaber duels!