LEGO introduces the SMART Play Gateway at San Diego Comic-Con

Exciting stuff.

SMART Play
Set 2829 is "Nap Time"
Coincidence?

@Clutch_P said:
" @ToysFromTheAttic said:
"I don't really understand all the hatred for the SMART thing. I mean, I don't care for it either and the sets don't look particularly appealing to me, but I'm not the target audience, and neither are any of you, so who cares? There's enough going on in the world to get riled up about a dumb kids toy.

That Star Trek build looks great, though."

Jangbricks has a great video explaining why and how it doesn't even live up to what it's trying to accomplish for its target audience. Personally, I don't hate it because it's "unnecessary" or "childish." I dislike it because it's a poorly designed system that will likely bleed into other themes and greatly increase the price on a multitude of sets that would otherwise be much cheaper, assuming they continue down their current path."

I saw the Jang video, and I think we can all agree that it's not a great product. But if you don't like sets with the SMART stuff in it, don't buy it. It's that simple. In case it makes a set you really want more expensive, just wait for the inevitable sale that makes the price agreeable. Concerning Star Wars, I don't think there's much to complain, because most Star Wars things have already been released in LEGO form at some point, and most likely will appear in LEGO form again, so easy enough to skip the ones with a SMART brick in it. Perhaps the Pokemon fans are more open to the gimmick.

@Jack_Sassy said:
" @ToysFromTheAttic said:
" @HundoCetoddle said:
" @ToysFromTheAttic said:
"I don't really understand all the hatred for the SMART thing. I mean, I don't care for it either and the sets don't look particularly appealing to me, but I'm not the target audience, and neither are any of you, so who cares? There's enough going on in the world to get riled up about a dumb kids toy."

Come on, you must have been here long enough to know that's not how it works on here."

Just because I'm aware of it happening, doesn't mean I understand it. Half of the time when I'm reading the comments on here, I'm imagining Abe Simpson yelling at clouds. :'-)"

In all fairness, the sets those SMART bricks do appear in are a bit out of the intended audience's price range, even for the parents. I could not be bothered by this new feature but it would seem beneficial if LEGO released these bricks as separate packages. But aye, some of the comments do resemble the 2x2 tile titled ''old man yells at cloud''. :p"

Is that true, though? The most expensive Star Wars Smart Play set is, what, £140? Pokemon’s is £110. Most of them are well sub £100. I think we can generally agree that the primary audience for City kits is children and the most expensive City set released this year is £180. Not all parents will be able to afford these for their kids, sure, but there’s clearly enough of a market there that they’ve been selling more expensive kits in themes aimed squarely at children.

@Jack_Sassy said:
" @Hiratha said:
" @Jack_Sassy said:
" @ToysFromTheAttic said:
" @HundoCetoddle said:
" @ToysFromTheAttic said:
"I don't really understand all the hatred for the SMART thing. I mean, I don't care for it either and the sets don't look particularly appealing to me, but I'm not the target audience, and neither are any of you, so who cares? There's enough going on in the world to get riled up about a dumb kids toy."

Come on, you must have been here long enough to know that's not how it works on here."

Just because I'm aware of it happening, doesn't mean I understand it. Half of the time when I'm reading the comments on here, I'm imagining Abe Simpson yelling at clouds. :'-)"

In all fairness, the sets those SMART bricks do appear in are a bit out of the intended audience's price range, even for the parents. I could not be bothered by this new feature but it would seem beneficial if LEGO released these bricks as separate packages. But aye, some of the comments do resemble the 2x2 tile titled ''old man yells at cloud''. :p"

Is that true, though? The most expensive Star Wars Smart Play set is, what, £140? Pokemon’s is £110. Most of them are well sub £100. I think we can generally agree that the primary audience for City kits is children and the most expensive City set released this year is £180. Not all parents will be able to afford these for their kids, sure, but there’s clearly enough of a market there that they’ve been selling more expensive kits in themes aimed squarely at children."

Of course, there will always be children and parents who can afford the big sets, but quite often parents would rather not spend more than say 50 euros (or any currency) on a LEGO set. In me own experience from the childhood, the limit was 20. A lot of people have pointed out that it is quite unfair to include the feature in just the bigger sets. Someone will buy the 10 euro set and read '' SMART brick not included'', concluding they need to spend 70 more euros to get the brick. In summary, we cannot put all of the people in one boat, there will always be parents who can buy the 110 euro set and parents who can buy the 10 euro set. I am not sure LEGO itself knows what is the primary audience in this case."

Yes, that’s why I said not all parents can afford it, but it doesn’t really matter if they can so long as *enough* parents can afford it to make the product line profitable. The Smart Play price range currently available is well within the typical range for Lego playsets aimed at children — I think people forget that Lego has always been an expensive toy, honestly, and Smart Play genuinely isn’t special on that front.

(My own childhood price limit was more of a “you can get boxes of loose parts at jumble sales, why would you buy sets at all” sort of thing.)

@Hiratha said:
" @Jack_Sassy said:
" @Hiratha said:
" @Jack_Sassy said:
" @ToysFromTheAttic said:
" @HundoCetoddle said:
" @ToysFromTheAttic said:
"I don't really understand all the hatred for the SMART thing. I mean, I don't care for it either and the sets don't look particularly appealing to me, but I'm not the target audience, and neither are any of you, so who cares? There's enough going on in the world to get riled up about a dumb kids toy."

Come on, you must have been here long enough to know that's not how it works on here."

Just because I'm aware of it happening, doesn't mean I understand it. Half of the time when I'm reading the comments on here, I'm imagining Abe Simpson yelling at clouds. :'-)"

In all fairness, the sets those SMART bricks do appear in are a bit out of the intended audience's price range, even for the parents. I could not be bothered by this new feature but it would seem beneficial if LEGO released these bricks as separate packages. But aye, some of the comments do resemble the 2x2 tile titled ''old man yells at cloud''. :p"

Is that true, though? The most expensive Star Wars Smart Play set is, what, £140? Pokemon’s is £110. Most of them are well sub £100. I think we can generally agree that the primary audience for City kits is children and the most expensive City set released this year is £180. Not all parents will be able to afford these for their kids, sure, but there’s clearly enough of a market there that they’ve been selling more expensive kits in themes aimed squarely at children."

Of course, there will always be children and parents who can afford the big sets, but quite often parents would rather not spend more than say 50 euros (or any currency) on a LEGO set. In me own experience from the childhood, the limit was 20. A lot of people have pointed out that it is quite unfair to include the feature in just the bigger sets. Someone will buy the 10 euro set and read '' SMART brick not included'', concluding they need to spend 70 more euros to get the brick. In summary, we cannot put all of the people in one boat, there will always be parents who can buy the 110 euro set and parents who can buy the 10 euro set. I am not sure LEGO itself knows what is the primary audience in this case."

Yes, that’s why I said not all parents can afford it, but it doesn’t really matter if they can so long as *enough* parents can afford it to make the product line profitable. The Smart Play price range currently available is well within the typical range for Lego playsets aimed at children — I think people forget that Lego has always been an expensive toy, honestly, and Smart Play genuinely isn’t special on that front.

(My own childhood price limit was more of a “you can get boxes of loose parts at jumble sales, why would you buy sets at all” sort of thing.)"

Indeed, in LEGO's case most of the time set lines are produced according to the sales. Forgive me, I must have misread a line or two, very careless from my side.

A shame about your childhood price, that sounds rough. Whenever parents can minimise the family budget, they do it. >:)

They're STILL doing this. Huh.

Re: the current iteration of interactive bricks/sets, I respectfully decline. No thank you.

1. too expensive/not enough value
2. this approach essentially ruins the minifigures, especially those from licensed themes—the very figures that are most likely to attract the collectors and fans who buy licensed LEGO sets.
3. unimpressive play features

Smart play and smart bricks are a 100% pass for me. They tried but failed. I will not buy them.

I miss the days when they had cool sets at SDCC, that people wanted.

Please move on LEGO, us customers already have.

As hard as Lego is pushing this, why haven't they put this in City or Friends sets yet? It seems to me that those themes would be the most successful place for this technology.

I don't recognise Lego anymore. I wish they would do an expo thing for the stickers production line.

@Solostar said:
"Palm over face "
https://youtu.be/ahrBOvz1jzA?is=JF9Z4SyqUwFshxvR

@namekuji said:
"I don't recognise Lego anymore. I wish they would do an expo thing for the stickers production line."
Maybe we haven't noticed that TLG has secretly been bought by Panini.
;-)

@AustinPowers said:
" @namekuji said:
"I don't recognise Lego anymore. I wish they would do an expo thing for the stickers production line."
Maybe we haven't noticed that TLG has secretly been bought by Panini.
;-) "

That would be an upgrade in expectation and quality.

Nevertheless, if Lego is one of the largest sticker producers in the world, it would be interesting to understand the manufacturing processes and impacts, no?

@AustinPowers said:
" @ToysFromTheAttic said:
"I don't really understand all the hatred for the SMART thing. I mean, I don't care for it either and the sets don't look particularly appealing to me, but I'm not the target audience, and neither are any of you, so who cares? There's enough going on in the world to get riled up about a dumb kids toy.

That Star Trek build looks great, though."
We may not be the target audience, but
a) we might be the ones who are supposed to pay for the sets for the target audience and
b) the reactions from the members I know in the actual target audience was "not interested"

Maybe they should have named it Light&Sound Reloaded or 2.0 or something.
Harken back to the nostalgia for the former while hinting at some new capabilities.
After all, what more is Smart Play than Light&Sound plus motion sensors (that arguably are overengineered for what they actually accomplish)?"

That's the best way to think of it and that's the way we would all think of it if it hadn't been launched in Star Wars and Pokemon because reasons. It has potential, it's just been grossly mismanaged. The Smart Brick was just the thing to complete my Studio revamp of an old Light and Sound set from Classic Space, the XT Starship. I still need to buy the parts for that to build it physically, though. Not looking forward to shelling out for the Smart Brick, Smart Tile, and wireless charger; probably won't actually build my XT Starship remake.

@R0Sch said:
"Just wake me up when Smart Play ends."

To the tune of Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends"

Lights and Sound have come to pass
Forty years has gone so fast
Wake me up when Smart Play ends

LEGO can’t lose. If smart is a win they make a ton of cash. If smart is a flop they raise prices a little across the board and the fans make a little noise but then still pay the inflated asking prices regardless the next time they see a set they really like. Loyal repeat customers are the gold mine which funds adventures like this. And LEGO cannot be criticised for trying something new to branch out into a new arena. That the reception thus far has been a convincing ‘no’ is something for them to ponder in-house when putting together their next sets of focus groups. Of course they’re going to put effort into marketing the beast. The Pokémon sets took everyone by surprise whilst they were choking on their reviews of the smart SW sets. Who knows what’s round the next corner for smart?

@AustinPowers said:
" @namekuji said:
"I don't recognise Lego anymore. I wish they would do an expo thing for the stickers production line."
Maybe we haven't noticed that TLG has secretly been bought by Panini.
;-) "

The sandwich!? :o

@johleth said:
"Stop trying to make fetch happen, I mean make SMART happen."

"Stop trying to make 'estaté' happen!"
Please reply if you get that reference.

@Baby_Yoda said:
" @ToysFromTheAttic said:
"I don't really understand all the hatred for the SMART thing. ... There's enough going on in the world to get riled up about a dumb kids toy."

I mean, this is the comments section of an article about a dumb kids' toy. If I wanted discussions about the housing market or the environment, I would look elsewhere."

LOL. Believe me, I'm all here for the dumb kids toys and people's comments on it, but seeing adults getting this angry at something that's clearly not intended for them is both strangely fascinating and slightly worrying.

@AustinPowers said:
" @ToysFromTheAttic said:
"I don't really understand all the hatred for the SMART thing. I mean, I don't care for it either and the sets don't look particularly appealing to me, but I'm not the target audience, and neither are any of you, so who cares? There's enough going on in the world to get riled up about a dumb kids toy.

That Star Trek build looks great, though."
We may not be the target audience, but
a) we might be the ones who are supposed to pay for the sets for the target audience and
b) the reactions from the members I know in the actual target audience was "not interested"

Maybe they should have named it Light&Sound Reloaded or 2.0 or something.
Harken back to the nostalgia for the former while hinting at some new capabilities.
After all, what more is Smart Play than Light&Sound plus motion sensors (that arguably are overengineered for what they actually accomplish)?"

Well...
a) You don't have to. There are plenty of other LEGO sets or other toys out there.
b) Anecdotal evidence aside, that's still no reason for adults acting this angry about a kids product.

I previously made a comparison to the Light & Sound sets of yesteryear, because that was what the SMART brick reminded me of, but does linking this product to something from the 80s make it 'alright'? I mean, that would be kind of hypocritical. Also, I really don't think any kid cares about what toys 40-year olds played with in the 80s, so harkening back to a small range of LEGO sets from that era really doesn't make any sense whatsoever. But kids in general seem to like toys that make lights and sounds, so incorporating that into LEGO doesn't feel out of the ordinary to me.

@WizardOfOss said:
"The one thing this all makes me think: Why not incorporate Smart Play features as an option in more sets? Not front and center, but just as a bonus feature. Like to create sounds in that Donkey Kong set.

If one thing, the Pokemon greatly improved over the Star Wars sets by just being decent sets even without a Smart Brick. Which considering how hard it is to get those is a major step forwards!. So now take it one step further, and spread out slowly over the entire product portfolio. Make people who would avoid any set specifically branded as Smart Play curious about it through normal sets.

But as it is right now.....good luck...."

Because the SMART elements would drive the price of the set up. People on here already endlessly (and tiresome-ly) complain about prices. I don’t think adding SMART play elements would make any difference to the echo chamber.

@GotMeBrickedUp said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
"The one thing this all makes me think: Why not incorporate Smart Play features as an option in more sets? Not front and center, but just as a bonus feature. Like to create sounds in that Donkey Kong set.

If one thing, the Pokemon greatly improved over the Star Wars sets by just being decent sets even without a Smart Brick. Which considering how hard it is to get those is a major step forwards!. So now take it one step further, and spread out slowly over the entire product portfolio. Make people who would avoid any set specifically branded as Smart Play curious about it through normal sets.

But as it is right now.....good luck...."

Because the SMART elements would drive the price of the set up. People on here already endlessly (and tiresome-ly) complain about prices. I don’t think adding SMART play elements would make any difference to the echo chamber."
Then again, usually economies of scale would dictate that higher production volumes equal lower unit costs, and every other piece of electronic seems to corroborate that theory, since comparable electronics cost cents to produce. Only LEGO treats electronic stuff like it's worth its weight in gold - and has always done so even though it's totally illogical.

@Jack_Sassy @Hiratha @HundoCetoddle

Sadly, there have always been parents who haven't been able to buy (certain) toys for their kids, so that nothing new. I'm sure that back in the day many of us were pining over LEGO castles or pirate ships that were simply out of reach for us. Then again, those sets were never intended for every kid, but for those whose parents were well-to-do and could afford sets in the premium price range. The fact that so few kids ended up getting them only made them more desireable, and I think LEGO is aiming to do something similar with the SMART brick sets.

Of course, the premium price strategy doesn't always work, and the product has to be good enough to warrant that premium price tag. Then again, it's not 1992 anymore, and the shelf life of LEGO sets is a lot shorter, meaning that many of the more expensive sets inevitably will go on sale or even on clearance, so hopefully they will end up in the hands of kids who really want them.

@GotMeBrickedUp said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
"The one thing this all makes me think: Why not incorporate Smart Play features as an option in more sets? Not front and center, but just as a bonus feature. Like to create sounds in that Donkey Kong set.

If one thing, the Pokemon greatly improved over the Star Wars sets by just being decent sets even without a Smart Brick. Which considering how hard it is to get those is a major step forwards!. So now take it one step further, and spread out slowly over the entire product portfolio. Make people who would avoid any set specifically branded as Smart Play curious about it through normal sets.

But as it is right now.....good luck...."

Because the SMART elements would drive the price of the set up. People on here already endlessly (and tiresome-ly) complain about prices. I don’t think adding SMART play elements would make any difference to the echo chamber."

Would it really? The way I meant it was not by including the brick, charger and all the stuff (those should be easily obtainable separately), but they could just including one or more Smart Tags. Or depending on the set maybe a Smart minifig. Can't imagine those costing a fortune. If a couple of Smart Tags would have such a significant effect on the production cost that it should result in an increased price for what are already pricey sets, Lego really should go back to the drawing board....

And obviously it's not just about the Smart emelements, but also including some features to use them for. But that's just a matter of letting the desiger being creative and maybe a handful of regular pieces.

Adding those tags would add some possible extra value for the customer, and from a marketing point of view could work as an incentive for people to eventually get into Smart Play. I'd say they got nothing to lose here, even more so after the less than stellar reception of the system.

The system as it has been presented up to now has been pretty underwhelming, and the first SW wave even downright baffling. But I do still think the system does have its possibilites. Lego just has to find out how to make the most of it. And stop pretending that it will revolutionize it all....

These smartbrics are an excellent opportunity to introduce a Porygon set. Think of it, having dozens of kids in that Pokemon pavilion with hundreds of smartbricks flashing and flashing and flashing... what could possibly go wrong?

Honestly, that obnoxious and incessant blinking (due to the color sensor?) is IMO the most unlikable aspect of these smartbricks. There's just no way to add them to a model in any remotely elegant fashion when they demand your constant attention this way, it's like some ultra-annoying kid jumping up and down going "Lookatme-lookatme-lookatme! Iamsmart-Iamsmart-Iamsmart!" - it only gives you an urge to shove him head-first down the nearest toilet.