Carl Merriam has designed some of my favorite nostalgia-inducing Lego sets, including the Lego Nintendo Game Boy and Piranha Plant. He’s assisted on the incredible Lion Knights’ Castle, Galaxy Explorer, and Pirates of Barracuda Bay. Now, he’s helped the company create a $200 Donkey Kong arcade machine set that managed to win even Mario creator […]
We’ve arrived at the final day of Prime Day, which at this point should probably be called “Prime Week.” We’ve found discounts on all manner of gadgets, including TVs, smart home tech, chargers, headphones, and more. Some of the best deals have started selling out at some retailers, so if you’ve been craving a popular […]
It’s day three of Prime Day, folks. We’re nearly 75 percent of the way through Amazon’s four-day sales event, and unsurprisingly, many deals are still sticking around. There have been all kinds of discounts on things like TVs, smart home gadgets, chargers, headphones, and more. Prime Day typically isn’t as big of a deal as […]
When Lego announced its tech-packed Smart Bricks at CES, we were impressed by the potential – enough to give it our Best in Show award. But when the first Star Wars sets actually launched in March, we were less enamored. All that promise of clever interaction and creative play ultimately boiled down to a few […]
Deals on the Lego Game Boy are virtually nonexistent, save for the $10 discount that Costco and Sam’s Club offered their members when the set launched late last year. The deal is back — this time, at Kohl’s — and no membership is required to get $10 off. You can purchase the Lego Game Boy and have […]
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 […]