Lego’s Smart Play Pokémon Sets Can Train and Battle, But Still Miss the One Feature That Would Make Them Truly Interactive

When Lego announced its tech-packed Smart Bricks at CES, we were impressed by the potential — enough to give it our Best in Show award. But when the first Star Wars sets actually launched in March, we were less enamored. All that promise of clever interaction and creative play ultimately boiled down to a few gimmicks that felt more like tech demos than true play innovations.

The Smart Brick Promise

Lego’s Smart Bricks were positioned as a major leap forward for the brand. The core idea was simple: embed sensors and connectivity into traditional brick builds, allowing sets to respond to touch, motion, or proximity. At CES, the company demonstrated how a single brick could trigger sound effects, light sequences, or even connect to a companion app for guided builds. The technology seemed tailor-made for franchises like Pokémon, where training and battling mechanics could translate naturally into physical play.

Star Wars Launch Disappoints

When the first Star Wars-themed Smart Brick sets hit shelves in March, the execution fell short. Instead of the rich, interactive experiences teased at CES, buyers got a limited set of pre-programmed responses. The Millennium Falcon, for example, could detect when the hyperdrive was “attached” and play the iconic engine hum — but only that one sound, with no way to customize or chain effects. The app integration was clunky, requiring near-constant Bluetooth re-pairing, and the promised “build your own adventure” mode was absent at launch.

Pokémon Sets Arrive with Training and Battling

Now, Lego is trying again with Pokémon. The new Smart Play Pokémon sets include built-in sensors that let players train their brick-built creatures by performing specific gestures — like raising the model to simulate a “tackle” or tapping its head for a “quick attack.” Battling works by bringing two sets close together; the bricks recognize proximity and trigger pre-recorded battle cries and damage animations. The Pikachu set, retailing at $79.99, includes a light-up cheek that flashes during battle. The Charizard set, at $129.99, features a motorized wing flutter.

The Missing Feature

Despite these additions, the Pokémon sets still lack what would make them truly interactive: user-programmable behavior. Each set ships with a fixed set of actions — three training moves and two battle responses. There is no way to teach a Pokémon new tricks, no way to link multiple bricks into custom sequences, and no way to save a creature’s “progress” after a battle. The companion app, while improved since the Star Wars launch, still doesn’t allow users to script their own interactions. Without that, the sets remain expensive novelties rather than the open-ended play system Lego originally promised.

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