eBay and Bricklink are happy to hear that $$$

From a business perspective the idea of rolling things out in certain locations/markets to start with and then expand over time is not unusual, though it does seem a little odd to only be learning this now. I think the communication around this 'transformative' change have generally been a bit poor. I'll reserve judgement on whether or not I think this will be successful until I've actually had a chance to interact with the technology hands-on, though it looks like that might be a while away yet.

I am curious to see what that pricing looks like, in Australian dollars. I don't really have an interest in Star Wars so I don't really have a horse in the race, but it'll be interesting to see how well they do.

Limited distro… fewer units in case they don’t sell well—and, I suppose… easier to clearance out.

(I imagine different regulation regarding small electronics in toys might also be a factor, of course.)

"They don't trust you Anakin."

Interesting but is that not probably almost all of their biggest markets anyway? China is a big exception of course but I don't know how popular Star Wars (or Lego Star Wars) are there. Canada is also kind of a strange exclusion since I always thought they pretty much just used the exact same supply chain as the US, but maybe it's not so simple.

This whole idea with the 80s tech brick is ridiculous and this is proof Lego already knows it will ultimately fail.

Is this Lego hedging their bets and seeing how poorly it sells in those markets?
So Australia is fine to be a test launch site, but not a good enough market to have proper distribution and availability of normal Lego sets year round?
Seems silly to not have New Zealand and Canada in the trial too, seeing how closely.tied they are to their neighbouring countries.

LEGO never ceases to impress. They should have said this day 1. Disappointing, although I wasn't planning to buy the Star Wars sets in particular. I do hope I can get my hands on some kind Smart Play set before summer.

Anyway, if I can't buy them at least have them available to try out somewhere. This is the kind of thing you really have to get your hands on to fully understand.

This deal is getting worse all the time.

I mean they suspended Bricklink operations across like half the globe, this shouldn't be surprising

@i_amtrunks said:
"Is this Lego hedging their bets and seeing how poorly it sells in those markets?
So Australia is fine to be a test launch site, but not a good enough market to have proper distribution and availability of normal Lego sets year round?
Seems silly to not have New Zealand and Canada in the trial too, seeing how closely.tied they are to their neighbouring countries."

Agreed. This is just an extremely rare example of Lego acknowledging Australia exists.

As you say, no idea why we are a target market for this and not for all the other products (including early/test launches).

They can give us Not-So-Smart Bricks but can't even give us a proper Lego store! (all our stores are only 'Lego-Certified' which is like a tribute band at a random pub instead of the original musicians)

All that hype for this.

Mostly I think it’s a little weird that Denmark isn’t on the list.

I thought the 3 City sets from 2024 was where Lego was testing the market in limited areas and to collect feedback: https://brickset.com/sets/tag-Smart-Brick.

Was the limited release going to be always the case or has Lego seen the online response and has changed plans. On the Lego (Canada) website you used to be able to see the 3 Star Wars Smart brick sets but the links to you to a 404....now they no longer appear on the website: https://www.lego.com/en-ca/themes/star-wars.

@RaiderOfTheLostBrick said:
"Also, Poland? No offense, but that seems like a bit of an outlier especially as I would have expected to see Canada and/or New Zealand over it."

Don't worry, I'm Polish and it also seems like a weird choice to me

Why are only we 6 being punished?

@ScholtzTKO said:
"This whole idea with the 80s tech brick is ridiculous and this is proof Lego already knows it will ultimately fail. "

Don't insult the old 80s light and sound system by comparing it to this.

They seemed to make a pretty big show of something that isn’t going to be widely accessible in the grand scheme of things. I don’t root for lego to fail, but I am kinda worried they have put the cart before the horse with this whole system.

This was probably planned all along, because every bit of new info that gets revealed gets a new article or video in de legosphere. At the same time, they're throwing a bone to the critics who like to see this fail, like some of the commenters above, who now think LEGO must've changed its multi-million dollar investment and retail strategy because of a few AFOLs ranting online about 'how awful' this is.

I'm not this negative. Toy companies need to innovate to keep kids interested. If they didn't, LEGO would still be making wooden toys, and I don't think anybody here would be particularly happy with that. Let's just wait and see how the intended target audience (KIDS!) respond, and how well sales are, before declaring another flop. Most toy lines that are introduced will flop, with just a few being successful for multiple years. If no one ever tries anything new anymore, companies just keep rehashing the same old stuff over and over -- so in that sense it's ironic that LEGO chose to introduce the SMART brick system with Star Wars...

With the way TLG has blathered on about this thing being the greatest invention since the dawn of time or whatever, one would think they'd have more faith in it.

This news suggests TLG is already prepping for a major failure. I thought this idea maybe had something to it, but this makes it sound like it is dead on arrival. That X-Wing also just looks horrible.

Good. Nobody else needs this.

@yellowcastle said:
"Why are only we 6 being punished?"

You know what you did. I don't think this is punishment enough. Go to your room and play with your SMART BRYQXZZZ until I feel you're sorry enough.

Can I just get 9v light and sound back including the current-carrying plates please LEGO?
That was actual "Smart Play"........

Launching in Germany but not Denmark?

Obviously Lego is more popular in Germany, regardless of what our German friend makes out.

AFOLs: "Who wants this? No one asked for this."
Lego: "We're not releasing in your country".
AFOLs: "I'm disappointed that I won't be able to buy it".

I don’t care about these myself, but it seems weird a Danish company isn’t releasing their new fancy gimmick in Denmark, their home country.

@Gataka said:
"LEGO never ceases to impress. They should have said this day 1. Disappointing, although I wasn't planning to buy the Star Wars sets in particular. I do hope I can get my hands on some kind Smart Play set before summer.

Anyway, if I can't buy them at least have them available to try out somewhere. This is the kind of thing you really have to get your hands on to fully understand. "

They in fact did say that on day 1. There is a statement 'The new sets will launch on March 1st, 2026, in select markets.' in the press note from January 5th. The only mystery was in which countries and they told us that 5 days later, not that bad.

"[...] spans our entire value chain, from R&D to manufacturing and retail. Owing to the complexities of launching this innovative new platform we’ve phased launch to ensure the best customer experience we can."

=

"We have production and quality problems."

"It wasn’t launched globally, as LEGO SMART Play is a major transformative company-wide initiative that spans our entire value chain"

What's so fundamentaly groundbreaking on a small blinking brick that it needs structural reformation of the whole TLG?

@Brickeric said:
"I’m not missing this. Will buy in a few years if available, affordable and interesting enough. "

Then the included batteries have degraded and are dead.

Those bricks have a limited time. After that: e-waste.

@yellowcastle said:
"Why are only we 6 being punished?"

Surveys have shown that kids in these countries have no longer any imagination. Unable to do any swooshing noises by themselves, the special needs brick comes to the rescue.

@MegaBlocks said:
"AFOLs: "Who wants this? No one asked for this."
Lego: "We're not releasing in your country".
AFOLs: "I'm disappointed that I won't be able to buy it"."

Well, we just said it marks up too much for no reason. Us from other countries won't be able to use those clearance sales that these are gonna be on in July

Absolutely ridicolus and utterly pathetic from the LEGO Group. I wanted to buy the cheapest one to test it for myself. But since I am based in Switzerland I can't. That makes me feel - once again - as a second Choice Customer. And I have spend a large Amount of my well earned Money in the past 53 Years for LEGO Products. Check your Database

So now I already made up my Mind and won't support this "Smart Idea" at all and will not buy any of these Sets even if they are available in the Future.

I can easily stick to normal Sets and make my own Sounds when swoshing them around. Which I do 53 Years now.

And I still have a funtional 6450 | Mobile Police Truck with "Light & Sound" in my Collection which is probably better than this.

Bravo LEGO. This has BIG FAIL written all over it already.

Greetings from a lifelong LEGO Supporter since 1973 from Switzerland which is sadly disappointed once more.

@ToysFromTheAttic said:
"This was probably planned all along, because every bit of new info that gets revealed gets a new article or video in de legosphere. At the same time, they're throwing a bone to the critics who like to see this fail, like some of the commenters above, who now think LEGO must've changed its multi-million dollar investment and retail strategy because of a few AFOLs ranting online about 'how awful' this is.

I'm not this negative. Toy companies need to innovate to keep kids interested. If they didn't, LEGO would still be making wooden toys, and I don't think anybody here would be particularly happy with that. Let's just wait and see how the intended target audience (KIDS!) respond, and how well sales are, before declaring another flop. Most toy lines that are introduced will flop, with just a few being successful for multiple years. If no one ever tries anything new anymore, companies just keep rehashing the same old stuff over and over -- so in that sense it's ironic that LEGO chose to introduce the SMART brick system with Star Wars..."

Counter point, them not innovating and keeping the same simple brick system is why they’ve become the juggernaut they are. By just sticking with the system they have, and not really changing anything, they’ve managed to become a massive company in terms of profits and popularity. Things like this smart brick may just be a small bump in the road for them, but I suspect it will once again show that they’ve already figured how to stay relevant and don’t need to do gimmicks like this.

They're releasing in 6 countries and they're gonna flop in 6 countries

@monkyby87 said:
" @ToysFromTheAttic said:
"This was probably planned all along, because every bit of new info that gets revealed gets a new article or video in de legosphere. At the same time, they're throwing a bone to the critics who like to see this fail, like some of the commenters above, who now think LEGO must've changed its multi-million dollar investment and retail strategy because of a few AFOLs ranting online about 'how awful' this is.

I'm not this negative. Toy companies need to innovate to keep kids interested. If they didn't, LEGO would still be making wooden toys, and I don't think anybody here would be particularly happy with that. Let's just wait and see how the intended target audience (KIDS!) respond, and how well sales are, before declaring another flop. Most toy lines that are introduced will flop, with just a few being successful for multiple years. If no one ever tries anything new anymore, companies just keep rehashing the same old stuff over and over -- so in that sense it's ironic that LEGO chose to introduce the SMART brick system with Star Wars..."

Counter point, them not innovating and keeping the same simple brick system is why they’ve become the juggernaut they are. By just sticking with the system they have, and not really changing anything, they’ve managed to become a massive company in terms of profits and popularity. Things like this smart brick may just be a small bump in the road for them, but I suspect it will once again show that they’ve already figured how to stay relevant and don’t need to do gimmicks like this. "

Counter point to your counter point: licensed sets. LEGO was a juggernaut during the 70s, 80s and 90s, until it wasn't anymore, and it almost went under. Admittedly, branching out in too many directions in the late 90s and early 2000s was one of the main causes of that, but they needed Star Wars and Harry Potter licenses to regain interested in the 'simple brick system'.

I'm sure many long-time LEGO fans at the time weren't too fond of the idea of LEGO making licensed sets either, and it may not technically count as 'innovation', but it was a huge change for the company in order to appeal to a rapidly changing toy market. They had to do something to stay relevant, and adding outside franchises to its system turned out to be just that. But it's hard to predict these things in advance in a market that's different every year. That's why many toy brands crash and burn spectacularly.

In 2026 LEGO doesn't seem to have a direct need to stay relevant, since it's so big and beloved globally, but adding (appealing) play functions to their existing core products can potentially open up a customer base they probably think they're missing out on. They also need to entice kids at every opportunity they can, because nostalgia forms such a strong part of the fondness for the brand.

They have more data and research on the market than we have, so what might seem baffling to (some of) us, may make perfect sense to them strategically. It can still flop, sure, and it's easy to say it will if you don't like something, but I've hardly ever seen a fan base of a brand or franchise root so hard for something to fail than with LEGO's roll out of this SMART brick thing -- other than the sometimes rather toxic Star Wars fan community, that is. Here both fan bases are joined to spew their collective dislike of a thing that's not even intended for them. It's kind of weird.

Oh they're doing EVERYTHING they can to make this flop

@McKern said:
" @Gataka said:
"LEGO never ceases to impress. They should have said this day 1. Disappointing, although I wasn't planning to buy the Star Wars sets in particular. I do hope I can get my hands on some kind Smart Play set before summer.

Anyway, if I can't buy them at least have them available to try out somewhere. This is the kind of thing you really have to get your hands on to fully understand. "

They in fact did say that on day 1. There is a statement 'The new sets will launch on March 1st, 2026, in select markets.' in the press note from January 5th. The only mystery was in which countries and they told us that 5 days later, not that bad."

Get out of here with your facts!