New molds in LEGO® Star Wars™ SMART Play™ sets

In March this year, The LEGO Group launched a new play concept: LEGO® SMART Play™. This system consists of the SMART Brick, and tags hidden inside SMART Tiles and SMART Minifigures. Is that a whole lotta smart, or will the results really smart?

In this, our first article examining the system, the focus is on all the new molds the products introduce. Aside from the specific Smart Play molds, the sets also bring some general useful elements!

We were given this product by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.

Put simply, Smart Play is intended to enhance the play experience for younger builders by adding interactivity without the inclusion of screens. By scanning the tiles and minifigures found in the set using Near Field Communication (NFC), the Smart Brick can react to them with sounds and lights, bringing the model to life. Several bricks can be connected using Bluetooth to interact with each other, joining different models together in play.

The concept has received a large-scale promotion, but so far only 8 sets are available in 6 countries, to match production capabilities. All sets contain the interactive tags, but only 3 of the 8 sets contain the Smart Brick. More sets and wider availability have been hinted at without further detail.

Set 75420 on LEGO.com
Set 75421 on LEGO.com
Set 75422 on LEGO.com
Set 75423 on LEGO.com
Set 75424 on LEGO.com
Set 75425 on LEGO.com
Set 75426 on LEGO.com
Set 75427 on LEGO.com

The 8 sets are all in the LEGO® Star Wars™ theme, and later on we’ll be reviewing the sets, exploring the added value the system might bring to the target audience of children aged around 6 to 10. In a follow-up article, guest writer Twan will explore the options LEGO Smart Play could provide for your own builds.

The Smart Play components

Here is how the Smart Brick, battery and cable come packaged.

Smart Brick 2 x 4 x 1 ⅔ (118829)

Brick, Smart Play 2 x 4 x 1 2/3 in Black (6618029 | 118829)

The center of the system is the Smart Brick, slightly taller than a regular 2x4 which has the advantage of measuring the same height and depth of 2 modules, allowing for easy sideways integration. A lot of technology is crammed inside, including a NFC antenna to read tags, Bluetooth to connect to other bricks and an app for updates, a color sensor, an accelerometer to detect movement, a (disabled) microphone, lights, a synthesiser to generate sounds on the fly, and a 45mAh, 3.7V Li-ion battery.

One Smart Brick is included in sets 75421 Darth Vader's TIE Fighter and 75423 Luke's Red Five X-Wing, while 75427 Throne Room Duel and A-Wing contains two, for duelling action.

How about the 5 sets where you will not find a Smart Brick, though?

All-In-One vs Compatible explained

Being essential to the whole Smart system, it is important to point out the sets are divided into two categories: All-In-One and Compatible.

All-In-One, as the name suggests, contains all elements needed to start playing: the Smart Brick along with a charger, tiles and figures, used in a model designed to incorporate Smart Play.
Compatible are sets featuring a model that incorporates the Smart Play Tiles and/or Minifigures. Absent however is the main ingredient: the Smart Brick!

All-In-One Smart Play sets

Darth Vader's TIE Fighter™
Set 75421 on LEGO.com
Luke's Red Five X-Wing™
Set 75423 on LEGO.com
Throne Room Duel and A-Wing™
Set 75427 on LEGO.com

Being the most expensive parts, the brick and associated charger will drive up the price tag of any sets they appear in. Once you have purchased an All-In-One set or two, needing to invest in more bricks and chargers might seem redundant. So adding compatible sets to the lineup makes sense: once you have a brick and charger from an expensive set, you can now move over to the less expensive ones.

Compatible Smart Play sets

Luke's Landspeeder™
Set 75420 on LEGO.com
Yoda's Hut and Jedi Training
Set 75422 on LEGO.com
AT-ST™ Attack on Endor
Set 75424 on LEGO.com
Mos Eisley Cantina™
Set 75425 on LEGO.com
Millennium Falcon™
Set 75426 on LEGO.com

A major downside to Compatible is obvious; you will first need to buy that higher-priced set to be able to get the full play experience. If you are only interested in a Landspeeder, you will still need to shell out big bucks for a Throne Room, X-wing or TIE fighter. I hope this issue will be resolved soon by making the individual Smart Brick available as a Service Pack for purchase, or available in even cheaper sets.

The front of the box shows the Smart Brick is not included, but I wonder how many people will miss this crucial information?

Smart Play App

One of the major selling points of the concept is the lack of screens: the bricks are ready to go right from the packaging without charging. The Smart Brick does come with an app though, allowing for firmware updates for future sets, and most importantly for parents: adjusting the volume of the speaker. It also gives a precise battery charge level for bricks; the brick itself merely gives a “traffic light” color indication.

Smart Play Charger (111989)

Charger 8 x 14 x 1 2/3, Smart Play (111989)

The Smart Bricks can be charged wirelessly via induction on this charger pad, and come in the same sets the Smart Bricks come in. Two bricks can be placed at the same time, reaching full charge after about 2 hours, for about 45 minutes of intense play using all of the available capabilities.

The manual advises to keep the bricks on the charger whenever you’re not playing with them, to make sure they are always fully charged.

Despite lacking any LEGO System connections, I am happy to find the pad does fit into the LEGO System grid. The charger measures 8 x 14 modules and is 5 plates high, with the rounded corners fitting inside a 2x2 curved brick or plate. This is great attention to detail, as it makes it much easier to integrate the charger into a model that needs constant recharging.

Along with the charger comes Cable, Smart Play USB in Yellow (6589126 | 116016), which can be attached at the square-cornered end.

Smart Tags

In order for the Smart Brick to know what model it is interacting with and what it should do, it needs to scan NFC tags, which come hidden inside of minifigures and tiles. Think of them as the instructions to the Smart Brick.

Tile Special 2 x 2 with Smart Tag (102349)

The Smart Tiles look like normal 2x2 tiles, until you notice the rounded indentations in the sides that allow for even easier detachment than the classic grooved 3068b from the 1970s.

Inside the plastic, a NFC tag is embedded. The tag consists of a coiled antenna and a small chip which stores information for the Smart Brick to read. The decoration, pre-applied as a sticker similar to LEGO® Super Mario™ barcodes, shows you the function the tag can perform. In general, these tiles are used in a model to create interactive locations or vehicles. The R2-D2 tag is an exception, as it is attached to the figure instead.

Underneath the tile we find the usual markings like the mold number, the mold position and a copyright – in this case revealing showing this element has been in development since at least 2022. It is noteworthy that the mold number is identical regardless of the different tags inside, suggesting they are molded with blank chips which are later programmed.

New to the underside markings is an icon showing these tags should not be tossed out with the regular trash, and 2 further numbers.

The black number is, I assume, the batch number, found on most pre-assembled parts like LEGO® DUPLO® figures, to track back any assembly errors. I found the same number on several tiles, with different stickers applied, which seems to support this theory.

The yellowish number is new to me, and across the sets I have I haven’t found any doubles. They might tell us more about the data on the chip?

Smart Minifigure (116406) & Smart Minifigure with Medium Legs (118267)

Minifig Body with Smart Tag (116406)
Minifig Body with Smart Tag, Medium Legs (118267)

Not only can the tiles instruct the Smart Brick; so can the minifigures! To fit the NFC tag, a new Smart Minifigure body has been introduced, coming preassembled with hands, arms, and either regular or medium legs. A design on the back indicates this is a Smart Minifigure.

Like the tiles, everything appears to be normal with these molds on the outside. The size is identical, but the legs can not detach from the torso. I assume this is because the tall connectors on top of regular hips take up too much space inside the torso for the tag to fit? So while each leg seems identical to the existing versions, the hips would be a new mold.

Since the arms and legs are unchanged, I suspect it will be possible for the even shorter legs or prosthetics to be utilized too, with a little adjustment to the top of the hips.

Aside from the back of the torso, the only visible difference can be found underneath the arms: here we spot the same 'no trashing' logo and numbers as seen underneath the tiles. You can lower your arms now, folks, Timmy is getting dizzy.

I tried reading the tags using my phone, but there is not much information provided.

The tags can activate the generation of complex sounds like music and sorta-speech, so my guess is the tags only contain an identifying code, while the Smart Brick stores all the data linked to that ID.

I am sure that at some point some clever folks will be able to crack the brick’s software and allow us to load our own sounds.

Other new molds

The Smart Play aspect gets so much attention, you would almost forget there are more bricks to be found in the boxes. Across the 8 sets, we’ve found 7 all-new molds to examine.

Windscreen 4 x 6 x 2 Sloped (7790)

75423 features a new windscreen:

Windscreen 4 x 6 x 2 with Light Bluish Gray X-Wing Cockpit print in Trans-Clear (6530829 | 111778)

Where some windscreens come with wild shapes and curves, this version is decidedly normal, with all angles matching existing sloped bricks. In the front we find a 2:1, the sides are 1:2, and the back is a 1:1 slope.

Windscreen 5 x 6 x 2 2/3, Curved Top (7812)

Another new(-ish) mold comes with set 75426 Millennium Falcon.

Windscreen 5 x 6 x 2 2/3, Curved Top with Millennium Falcon Cockpit print in Trans-Clear (6599437 | 116864)

The front side has a 4 module-wide circle, matching the curve of Brick Curved 1 x 2 x 1 ⅔ (5907). The back is 6 modules wide and matches both Brick Arch 1 x 4 x 3 (80543) and the exciting new Brick Arch 1 x 4 x 2 1/3 Curved Top (5844; the blue bow above).

If you think this windscreen looks familiar, you are correct. This is basically a cut-off version of Aircraft Fuselage Curved Forward 6 x 7 x 2 2/3 Top (92832, in dark orange), introduced in 2022.

Brick Round Half 2 x 2 x 2 with 4 Studs on Side (7246)

When viewed straight from the front, this appears to be a regular Astromech body (30361), but in order to hold a Smart Tile, the rear side has been modified, resulting in Brick Round Half 2 x 2 x 2 with 4 Studs on Side with R2-D2 Body print in White (6530828 | 111777), found in set 75423 Luke's Red Five X-Wing.

At the back, the rounded section is straightened a bit and then cut off, with 4 studs added to the new surface. The 4 studs on top of the original are replaced by a solitary centered stud. This means R2-D2’s head can finally rotate, as in the movies!

The underside is identical to the existing Astromech, including an axle hole.

Ignoring the studs and pinholes, the shape is identical to Brick Curved 2 x 2 (30165, shown above in grey) with a 2x2 plate underneath.

The curve also follows the same contour as Plate Special 3 x 2 with Rounded End, Hole (3176 shown top left), but the stud prevents a connection.

A Tile Round 2 x 2 Half Circle (5520, top right) is a perfect fit when a tile is added. The pinholes sit at the same location as the original, and line up with the studs in the back.

When testing if the D-shaped tile would fit, the first one I grabbed from my collection had a sticker of Krusty the Clown on it, resulting in this tablescrap of KrusT-TC, a delivery drone causing the greasy teenager at Krusty Burger to be outsourced.

Technic Axle with Oval Panel (7791)

The Technic axle family is expanded with a strange new sibling.

Technic Axle with Oval Panel, appearing 2x in Red (6569899 | 7791) in sets 75420 Luke's Landspeeder, 75421 Darth Vader's TIE Fighter, 75423 Luke's Red Five X-Wing, 75424 AT-ST Attack on Endor, 75426 Millennium Falcon and 75427 Throne Room Duel and A-Wing

In short, it is a 1L axle with a paddle at the end. The shape seems a bit trivial in these sets, as the element is only used to let the Smart Brick detect the color red. I’m sure other existing parts could have taken on that role, so I’m curious to see if this element will show up in future sets with a more specific function?

The shape and size of the paddle is very close to Food Popsicle / Lollipop (30222, 32981), seen at the top here in trans-neon green (another moment of silence, please). The paddle is slightly longer and thinner; half a plate thick where the popsicle is closer to a full plate thickness.

Although the paddle is lacking a specific function at this time, the Technic guys are happy they can finally enjoy a popsicle.

Brick 4 x 5 with Rounded End, 2 x 2 Recessed Center (7813)

Every now and then you get a part that you just can’t figure out, and Brick 4 x 5 with Rounded End, Axle, Pin Holes, 2 x 2 Recessed Center, found 1x in 75422 Yoda's Hut and Jedi Training, 1x in 75426 Millennium Falcon, 2x in 75427 Throne Room Duel and A-Wing in Black (6573122 | 7813), is one of those.

In the sets, the element is used as a plateau for a figure to stand on, placed on the rounded end. A Smart Tile is placed in the recessed area, with the hole underneath providing a way to remove it again by pressing in a bar or axle. The LEGO Technic pin and axle holes in the rear are used to mount an arm to move the figure around, simulating lightsaber duels for instance.

The element has a high POOP vibe, but recreating a sturdy version using existing parts would not be possible.

The rounded section would be perfect to place on a turntable, but unfortunately the underside features regular anti-studs instead of the round indent that is found under turntable-compatible pieces like Plate Round 4 x 4.

Another potential usage – a joint for large figures – is thwarted by the awkward placing of the hole, 1 module from the center of the circle.

The shape reminds me of the shoulder of an Astromech droid. Are you my mommy?

Brick Curved 2 x 2 x 1 Curved Inverted, Corner (7512)

In 2025, a large quantity of new curved pieces were introduced, up to a point where I am leaning towards it feeling like too many. But 2026 sees no signs of slowing down, and in set 75422 Yoda's Hut and Jedi Training we find another new addition to the family.

4x Brick Curved 2 x 2 x 1 Curved Inverted, Corner in Dark Red (6596359 | 7512)

No new radius or size; this time we get a simple inversion, mirroring Brick Curved 2 x 2 x 1 Curved Top, Corner (5846, seen above in light bluish grey). The slope matches existing inverted slopes like Slope Curved 2 x 2 Inverted with 1 x 2 Cutouts (1750, light aqua).

Plate Round Half 5 x 8 with 4 x 6 Round Cutout (7961)

This wave of sets introduces a new rounded plate, coming in 3 colors.

1x Plate Round Half 5 x 8 with 4 x 6 Round Cutout in Tan (6592327 | 7961) found in 75425 Mos Eisley Cantina
1x Plate Round Half 5 x 8 with 4 x 6 Round Cutout in White (6592326 | 7961) found in 75425 Mos Eisley Cantina
2x Plate Round Half 5 x 8 with 4 x 6 Round Cutout in Light Bluish Gray (6590267 | 7961) found in 75420 Luke's Landspeeder

The plate is an extension of Plate Round Corner 5 x 5 with 4 x 4 Round Cutout (80015, dark azure) creating a D-shape that can fit a Plate Round 6 x 6 (11213, medium azure). The element is perfect for securing 2 curved panels, with a 1x1 plate sticking out on each side to anchor the assembly into the model.

To be continued…

The Smart Play concept sounds intriguing, and The LEGO Group have high expectations. The question is: will those expectations be met?

Join me next time as I build these four sets and give their play features a test:

Set 75421 on LEGO.com
Set 75423 on LEGO.com
Set 75424 on LEGO.com
Set 75426 on LEGO.com

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29 April 2026