Lego to release new ‘smart’ sets that react to user input with sounds and lights

Lego is releasing in March its new “Smart Play” bricks, mini-figures and tags that interact with the user and are capable of playing sounds and displaying lights.

The key of the new Lego Smart Play sets is the Smart Brick, which contains “sensors, accelerometers, light sensing and a sound sensor as well as a miniature speaker driven by an onboard synthesizer,” and is charged wirelessly.

The bricks then recognize Lego’s Smart Tags and Smart Mini-figures. Information from the tags tells the brick what it should become and act as, such as a helicopter or a dinosaur.

Mini-figures react to the brick when they are placed near it, and each smart mini-figure will have unique sounds and reactions played through the speaker in the smart brick, Lego said.

In addition to its announcement Monday, Lego also previewed the new toys at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas being held this week.

Lego called the new toys, available for preorder Friday and for sale on March 1, “one of the most significant evolutions in the LEGO System-in-Play since the introduction of the LEGO Minifigure in 1978.”

The first Lego sets to use the new Smart Bricks, Smart Tags and Smart Mini-figures will be three “Star Wars” themed sets.

One depicts Luke Skywalker’s “X-wing” spaceship with accompanying mini-figures and costs $89.

Another depicts his secret father Darth Vader’s “TIE fighter” spaceship and mini-figures and will cost $69; and the third, showcasing the climactic throne room duel between the two in 1983’s “Return of the Jedi,” and including an “A-wing” spaceship, will cost $159.