FOX Enterprise’ Jeff Flock reviews from Legoland in Goshen, New York, the place the youngsters’s toy model is making an attempt to encourage progressive and imaginative summer season studying.
LEGO is pushing past its conventional constructing blocks with a new screen-free expertise designed to make youngsters’s creations react, transfer and reply throughout play.
The corporate launched the innovation Monday at CES 2026, the annual shopper electronics commerce present in Las Vegas, the place it showcased how embedded expertise can carry bodily LEGO builds “to life” with out telephones or tablets.
The brand new LEGO SMART Play platform integrates sensors and interactive components into choose bricks and figures, permitting creations to provide sounds, lights and results based mostly on how they’re assembled and used.
LEGO says the method is designed to maintain youngsters engaged in hands-on constructing, whereas making bodily creations extra responsive throughout play.
GIFTS FOR ADULTS WHO LOVE TO BUILD: LEGO SETS, 3D WOODEN PUZZLES AND MINI MODEL KITS
The LEGO SMART Brick is demonstrated throughout a LEGO press convention forward of the annual Client Electronics Present in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 5, 2026. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP by way of Getty Photos / Getty Photos)
“The launch of LEGO SMART Play brings creativity, expertise, and storytelling collectively to make constructing worlds and tales much more participating, and all with no display screen,” stated Tom Donaldson, the senior vice chairman and head of inventive play lab on the LEGO Group.
“We actually consider we’re setting a brand new normal for interactive, imaginative experiences and might’t wait to see this innovation within the arms of children after we launch this 12 months.”
TEEN WITH RARE CONDITION USES LEGO BRICKS TO BUILD ‘IRON MAN’-INSPIRED PROSTHETIC ARM
A presentation takes place in the course of the LEGO SMART Play launch occasion on the Mandalay Bay Conference Middle in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 5, 2026. (David Becker/Getty Photos for The LEGO Group / Getty Photos)
LEGO SMART Play is predicted to launch March 1, starting with a lineup of Star Wars units that use built-in expertise so as to add sounds and results to builds.
“For the primary time within the historical past of LEGO Star Wars, with LEGO SMART Play units, the battle involves life, permitting followers to recreate iconic scenes and interactions, in addition to create new ones,” the toy producer stated on its web site.
Julia Goldin, chief product and advertising and marketing officer of the LEGO Group, speaks on stage in the course of the LEGO SMART Play launch occasion on the Mandalay Bay Conference Middle in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 5, 2026. (David Becker/Getty Photos for The LEGO Group / Getty Photos)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“Followers can unlock SMART options resembling Lightsaber hums with the SMART minifigures of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, the engine roar of the A-wing and even hearken to ‘The Imperial March’ with Emperor Palpatine sitting on his throne.”
The corporate stated the brand new platform is its “largest innovation” because the first LEGO minifigure in 1978.
