On March 1st, 2026, The Lego Group will begin selling the most ambitious brick it’s ever made: a tiny computer that fits entirely inside a classic 2x4 Lego brick. When it detects NFC-equipped smart tags nearby, embedded inside new Lego tiles and new Lego minifigures, or when it sees other Smart Bricks, the company claims it will make entire Lego sets come to life — starting with the humming lightsabers, roaring engines, light-up blasters, and the music of Lego Star Wars.
These “Smart Bricks” and “Smart Play” initiatives, just announced at CES 2026, aren’t like the huge Lego Mario toys that required two AAA batteries and mostly only activated when their bottom-mounted cameras detected color or barcodes. They’re wirelessly charged, with a pad that can charge multiple bricks at a time and a battery that “will still perform after years of inactivity.”
Product tie ins happened.
Lego has only a few of their own properties now. Ninjago, City, Flower sets and some of the simpler technic models round out most of their self-contained IPs.
Now if you want pirates, you buy POTC like the Black Pearl or One Piece.
If you want space, you buy Star Wars sets. Fancier city sets? Marvel. Basic construction? Nintendo or Sega IPs.
They have some pretty nice city sets, and they’ve reissued some older space themes, which is cool. You’re right that in general the coolest sets are the tie-ins.
There are lots of other space sets besides Star Wars
The re-imagining of the Galaxy Explorer I got a couple of years ago was awesome.
To be fair, they were floundering without the tie ins as I recall. Weren’t they on the verge of dying around the turn of the century?
Yeah, that was more due to mismanagement at the top according to their PR story.