Playing with LEGO Smart Play Star Wars set brought out the kid in me

There comes a time in everyone’s life when you no longer play with LEGO, but build with LEGO.

It’s something you may not notice at first, but there will be a point when the thing you are piecing together is not so you can zoom around the room with it but put it on the shelf.

The arrival of LEGO’s new Smart Play Star Wars sets changes this. Thanks to the fantastic new Smart Brick technology, these sets demand to be played with.

Shortlist was lucky enough to be among the first in the world to build AND play with the Smart Play: Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter. This is what you need to know…

SMART PLAY: DARTH VADER’S TIE FIGHTER: IN SHORT

• Smart Play is a catch-all term for the Smart Brick, Smart Tag and Smart Minifigure tech
• This tech enhances the LEGO set with sounds and interactivity
• One of three main Smart Play sets
• A Star Wars set based on the Original Trilogy
• 2 Minifigures included (one Smart)
• It costs £59.99

The Smart Play: Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter has everything you need to begin a Smart Play adventure. The set comes with a Smart Brick, with a rather fetching yellow wireless charger, a Smart Tag and a Smart Minifigure (in this case, it’s the biggest of bads: Darth Vader).

The Smart Brick comes embedded within the packaging, which is a neat idea — this is a LEGO brick that works very differently to every other piece in the set, so keeping it separate from the rest of the bricks makes sense.

We’ve already gone into detail about the Smart Brick before, but essentially it’s a 2x4 brick that’s packed with technology that reacts dynamically when you play with the set. Couple it with the Smart Tag and Smart Minifigure and the adventure begins.

What is surprising about the Smart Brick is just how normal it seems. It looks and feels like a normal LEGO brick. At first I was a bit underwhelmed because of this, but that feeling soon gave way to being utterly impressed. Quite how the boffins at LEGO managed to squeeze so much technology into a LEGO brick that feels like a LEGO brick is superb.

While there seemed to be juice in the brick out of the box, I put it on charge straight away which is really simple — the yellow charging mat is big enough for two Smart Bricks and you just place the brick on there and it will light up while charging. When it’s done charging, it goes green. This took around 35 minutes, which was plenty of time while we were building, and for this you get around 45 minutes' play time.

The rest of the build is a fairly normal one. There are 473 pieces in total and it took me and my trusty assistant — my Star Wars obsessed son — around an hour to make the thing, divvying up the build as and when we could.

This isn’t a tasking build — it’s for those eight years and up but there are lots of nice sections to do. As well as the Tie Fighter, there is a fuelling station that needs making, as well as a Rebel outpost which comes complete with shooter.

When it comes to the smart part of the build, the Smart Tag, which again looks like a normal bit of LEGO, is fixed into the Tie Fighter and the Smart Brick goes on top. The Brick needs a little shake to wake it but that’s pretty much all you have to do to get things working. LEGO really has made things as simple as possible.

Once the Smart Brick is (Force) awakened, it begins interacting with the build. And that’s when the fun really begins.

Picking up the Tie Fighter means that the brick makes engine noises, moving it left and right the noises change as if it is flying through the air. When you add in Darth Vader as a pilot, his Imperial March leitmotif sounds. It’s enough to give any fan goosebumps.

And there’s more sounds, with the lasers shooting and the gurgle of petrol going into the ship when you fuel up. There is also a hammer included that makes the hammering sound when you are trying to fix the ship.

While the sounds are a little limited — and the flying sound definitely isn’t the sound you hear in the movies — they enhance the playing aspect of this LEGO build massively, meaning this isn’t a build that demands shelf space, but demands to be played.

The best thing about it is that this interactivity doesn’t require a screen either, although there is a companion app that can be used to change the volume of the Smart Brick.

While this does have some interactivity, it’s mainly for parents to make sure the brick is up to date and that the tech is working as it should be.

The LEGO Smart Play system is the biggest change ever for LEGO and I think limiting it to the Star Wars range (for now) is a wise move. There are some eight sets to choose from (three all-in-one sets and five Smart Play compatible sets) so plenty of fun to be had but making the sandbox finite means that LEGO can learn from how these sets are played with, before filtering the tech to other LEGO franchises.

Plus, the sounds and music of Star Wars are so iconic which is key to making this work.

For Star Wars fans, it’s a no brainer to get in with these Smart Play LEGO sets — they bring back the play to LEGO that for those of a certain vintage may have been lost a long time ago….

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