The first Lego Smart Brick sets, based on Star Wars, aren’t quite what my kids and I hoped, and I suspect much of that’s down to programming. But the Smart Bricks may also have some technical limitations out of the gate. The first sets don’t ship with a number of their sensors enabled, including the […]
I was about to be the coolest dad ever. I’d prepared the magic words: “Do you want to help daddy test the new Lego Smart Bricks? I can pick you up from school early!” It worked. My kids literally jumped for joy. When The Lego Group announced in January that a tiny computer brick would […]
The hottest toy of 1998 was sort of adorable, and sort of annoying. It couldn’t do much – couldn’t do anything, really – but it could look at you, it could say some nonsense phrases, and it seemed uncannily aware of the world around it. That’s all Furby needed to pretty much take over the […]
In 1979 – nearly 50 years ago – Lego jazzed up its very first spaceships with an iconic sloped computer brick that was just painted plastic. In 2022, we introduced you to the engineer who fit an actual tiny computer inside. Now, industrial designer Paul Staal has flipped the script with a working desktop PC […]
Lego’s new Smart Brick is a pretty big deal. It packs a miniature computer, a microphone, and NFC tech into a classic 2×4 Lego brick, which can power all sorts of new experiences with select sets. It has so much promise that we awarded it “best in show” at CES 2026, and now, eight Star […]
After a few weeks living with Casio’s AI-powered pet, Moflin, I finally understand why my mother hated my Furby so much. The fuzzy, guinea-pig-adjacent puffball fits snugly in the palm of my hand. It’s undeniably cute, in a weird kind of way, but the second it starts to squeak or twitch, I am hit with […]
After sharing a brief look at its new Talking Flower toy during a Nintendo Direct showcase last September that generated more questions than answers, Nintendo has finally revealed more details about what the interactive toy actually does. It shares some functionality with Nintendo’s Alarmo alarm clock, but the Talking Flower seems more like a talkative […]
The Lego Smart Brick won our Best in Show award at CES 2026, and it was no wonder after watching Lego designer Maarten Simons’ expert demo there. So I thought: why not let you virtually attend the same tech demo I did? Before I left Las Vegas, I snuck back into Lego’s suite to film […]
After teasing its first collaboration with the Pokémon franchise last March but sharing very few details, Lego’s first Pokémon sets are now available for preorder through the company’s online store. The cheapest of the three is an articulated version of Eevee, but there’s also a budget-busting set featuring Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur that’s a whopping […]
AI toys, companions, and robots have been everywhere at CES this year, but among the horde of waddling plushies and light-up emoji eyes, two stood out to me. HeyMates and Buddyo are each betting that the collectible figurine boom is going to come back with an AI-powered vengeance, letting us chat to sports stars and […]