CES 2026: Lego’s new Smart Brick system makes its bricks react to you

At LEGO Group’s CES 2026 showcase, the world’s most recognisable plastic brick picked up a nervous system. The company unveiled Lego Smart Play, a new interactive system powered by its Smart Brick technology that allows Lego creations to respond to how they are built, moved, flipped, raced, or even knocked over.

Lights glow, sounds trigger, characters react, and all of it happens without a screen in sight. Lego calls it its biggest leap since the Minifigure. Judging by the demo floor reaction, that claim does not feel like marketing bravado.

Launching globally on March 1, the Smart Play system will debut across three Star Wars building sets, with pre-orders opening January 9.

A single smart brick changes everything

At the heart of Lego Smart Play is a new Smart Brick that looks and fits like a standard Lego element, but hides a surprising amount of technology inside. Developed by Lego’s Creative Play Lab, the system uses a custom chip smaller than a Lego stud, along with accelerometers, light and sound sensors, wireless charging, and a tiny onboard speaker with its own synthesiser.

The result is Lego that understands context. A car knows when it is racing. A pilot reacts when the plane flips. A duck quacks when upright and snores when tipped onto its side. Add more smart bricks and the behaviour becomes shared, forming what Lego describes as a decentralised network of reactions between characters and builds.

During the CES demo, two Lego cars raced toward a trophy fitted with a Smart Brick. The system detected the winner, flashed the matching colour, and celebrated with fireworks sounds when the car was placed on top.

Julia Goldin, Chief Product and Marketing Officer at Lego, described Smart Play as the next chapter in the Lego System in Play, designed to evolve with how new generations imagine and create.

Star Wars gets the smart brick treatment

Lego is launching Smart Play with three Lego Star Wars Smart Play sets, revealed on stage alongside Lucasfilm leadership, including Dave Filoni.

The lineup includes Luke’s Red Five X-Wing, Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter, and the Throne Room Duel with an A-Wing. Across the sets, Smart Minifigures react to motion and placement, engines roar to life, and key moments from the original trilogy can be re-enacted or reimagined with dynamic feedback baked into the bricks themselves.

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Importantly, the system does not require an app, phone, or tablet. Everything happens in the physical world, reinforcing Lego’s long-standing belief that imagination does not need a screen to feel alive.