{"id":497520,"date":"2026-01-06T22:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T22:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/497520\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T22:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T22:52:11","slug":"lego-introduces-smart-bricks-with-sound-and-light-effects-to-new-star-wars-sets-lego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/497520\/","title":{"rendered":"Lego introduces \u2018smart bricks\u2019 with sound and light effects to new Star Wars sets | Lego"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may be time to retire that hyperspace zoom noise you perfected while playing with Lego<\/a> spacecraft. No longer must you \u201cpshww-pshww\u201d to convince your playmate their enemy space station has been doomed by your lasers. \u201cSmart\u201d bricks, with play-sensitive miniature speakers, are being added to the arsenal of the Lego enthusiast in a move the Danish toy giant believes will combine creative play with technology without the need for a screen.<\/p>\n

The smart bricks \u2013 in the shape of a normal two-by-four Lego brick \u2013 are being launched in three Star Wars-themed sets and are powered by a custom-made chip smaller than a single Lego stud. When installed in Luke Skywalker\u2019s X-wing fighter, they make the required \u201cwoosh\u201d noises, depending on how the player twists and turns the craft through the air. The hard-to-impersonate bleeps and blips of the droid R2D2 are also replicated.<\/p>\n

If a second smart brick is installed in Darth Vader\u2019s TIE fighter, then when the Imperial starship engages the Rebel Alliance craft in a dogfight, each will make sounds to signal if they have been hit by the other\u2019s lasers.<\/p>\n

The smart bricks communicate with each other and will even decide whether enough accurate laser blasts have been delivered to achieve destruction. The smart bricks also emit light and play music. At a demonstration of the new toys, a Lego executive explained that, when playing with Darth Vader\u2019s craft, \u201conce in a while you get The Imperial March, just to get the vibe going\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lego executive vice-president Julia Goldin was joined by Chewbacca from the Star Wars saga during the launch of the new \u2018Smart Play\u2019 technology at the CES in Las Vegas. Photograph: Abbie Parr\/AP<\/p>\n

Such fun comes at a price. Skywalker\u2019s X-wing \u2013 with smart Luke mini-figure \u2013 will retail at \u00a379.99, while Vader\u2019s TIE fighter comes in at \u00a359.99. Some play experts have wondered if such technological advances risk undermining the historic strength of Lego, which has always served to harness a child\u2019s own imagination.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can go \u2018swoosh\u2019 and \u2018pew-pew\u2019 too,\u201d commented one user on Reddit. \u201cUnimpressed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another wrote: \u201cIf this is a \u2018smart\u2019 brick, does that [mean] all the other bricks are \u2018stupid\u2019 bricks\u201d?<\/p>\n

Another fan was more enthusiastic, however, wondering when a Lego Titanic \u2013 complete with a smart brick playing C\u00e9line Dion\u2019s My Heart Will Go On \u2013 might hit the market.<\/p>\n

The Danish toy giant, which has been producing the bricks for 70 years, launched the new technology at the CES consumer electronics show in Las Vegas. The move comes against a backdrop of rising engagement by children with screen-based games. Roblox, the user-generated gaming platform, has approximately 150 million daily users.<\/p>\n

Tom Donaldson, senior vice president at the Lego Group, claimed the new smart brick system \u201cbrings creativity, technology and storytelling together to make building worlds and stories even more engaging, and all without a screen\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It may be time to retire that hyperspace zoom noise you perfected while playing with Lego spacecraft. No…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":497521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-497520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-technology","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115850611535741200","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}