Smart Bricks Are Lego’s Biggest CES Reveal in Years. Which Preorder Sets Should Fans Grab First?
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
-
Lego unveiled Smart Bricks, the brand's first foray into smart tech integration, at this year's CES trade show.
-
The first Smart Bricks sets are already available for pre-order and will be released in March.
-
All three sets are Star Wars -focused and include iconic characters, vehicles, and scenes from the original trilogy.
One of the biggest announcements at this year's CES trade show came courtesy of an unexpected source— Lego . The iconic interactive toy company unveiled the Smart Brick, its first foray into smart tech . And even though the monumental innovation was just announced this past week, the first Smart Bricks sets are already officially available for pre-order on Lego's site. Unsurprisingly, the first sets to drop feature an IP as iconic as Lego itself: Star Wars .
Headlining the list is Darth Vader's TIE Fighter set, a 473-piece set that debuts at just $70—$5 more than the MSRP of the standard version . Users will be able to emulate iconic scenes from The Empire Strikes Back more realistically than ever.
Its light side counterpart comes courtesy of Luke's Red Five X-Wing Set. The Luke and Leia minifigs both feature smart tech, and the set features an additional smart brick and five smart tags. This one is a little pricier at $90, but it makes sense given the extra smart integrations and slightly larger size (584 pieces in total).
The big kahuna of the initial drop features none other than Emperor Palpatine. The 962-set depicts the vaunted Sith Lord atop his throne alongside an A-Wing ship of the Rebel Alliance. Smart tech integration is featured in the lightsabers and the A-Wing to mimic realistic Star Wars sounds. Another cool component: the throne will play the iconic "Imperial March" when Palpatine is seated atop his throne. The set will cost $160, all-in.
On its site, Lego hails its expedition into smart tech integration as "its most revolutionary innovation since the creation of the minifigure in 1978 ." The new system will enhance, rather than replace, the traditional Lego experience, allowing users to adopt the technology in whatever way they see fit.
The system is built with three core components: Smart Bricks, Smart Tags, and Smart Minifigures. The bricks contain sensors, lights, an accelerometer, and a sound synthesiser, along with an embedded silicon chip that enables the bricks to sense movement and respond to Smart Tags and Minifigures accordingly. Similarly, the Smart Tags and Smart Minifigures possess digital identifiers that coordinate different sounds and reactions when interacting with the other elements. A perfect example of the interactive system: the "Imperial March" plays when you sit Emperor Palpatine on his throne.
Other Smart Bricks sets are expected to be released later this year. These pre-orders, though, will ship out in March. Considering this is, in Lego's eyes, considered as monumental a drop as ever, we'd suggest securing your sets ASAP. We certainly are.
You Might Also Like
