LEGO is pushing deeper into connected play, revealing a sensor-packed “Smart Brick” at CES 2026 that bakes intelligence into a standard 2×4 form factor.

The new brick anchors SMART Play, a platform from LEGO that lets physical builds respond to movement, orientation and context without phones, apps or internet access. The system combines the Smart Brick with Smart Tags and Smart Minifigures, all designed to recognize one another and exchange data locally.

Inside the brick is a custom 4.1mm ASIC chip running what LEGO calls its Play Engine. The hardware stack includes an accelerometer, LED array, speaker and copper coils that detect motion, direction and the proximity of other Smart Bricks. Audio is generated dynamically during play, rather than triggered from fixed sound clips.

Smart Tags — thin 2×2 tiles with embedded digital IDs — and Smart Minifigures provide context. They tell the brick what role it is meant to play inside a build, whether that’s a vehicle, character or structure. “The role of the Smart Tag is to tell the Smart Brick how it should play back with you,” LEGO said.

To tie the system together, LEGO has built a local wireless layer called BrickNet, based on Bluetooth and a proprietary positioning method it calls Neighbor Position Measurement. The goal is for Smart components to communicate directly, with no external controller and no setup. LEGO is positioning the experience as closer to traditional play than to app-driven toys.

Power comes from long-life internal batteries designed to survive years of inactivity. Charging is wireless, with shared pads capable of topping up multiple bricks at once.

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The company is launching SMART Play through its largest licensed franchise, Star Wars. Three initial sets skew smaller and younger than LEGO’s recent adult-focused releases. Pricing runs from $70 for a 473-piece Darth Vader TIE Fighter to $160 for a 962-piece Throne Room Duel & A-wing set.

Pre-orders open January 9, with shelves set for March 1. The debut at CES 2026 lands as toy makers experiment with embedding intelligence directly into physical products — while LEGO makes a clear bet that play should stay off-screen.