When I was a kid growing up in the late ’90s, I had more Pokémon toys than you could imagine. Stuffed animals, bouncy balls with plastic monsters inside, gold cards — you name it. I still have some of my favorites on my nightstand to this day: a series of wheeled monsters that you could shoot out of launchers. At the time, that was the coolest thing in the world. If I had Lego’s new Pokémon Smart Play sets back then, I’m pretty sure my mind would have been permanently blown.
Rolling out this weekend, the Smart Play series gives Pokémon fans a series of interactive Lego sets to toy around with. Building them is only half the appeal; you can also train, battle, feed, and even heal your monsters. It’s what I pretended to do with my plastic figurines as a kid, but the toys actually make the sound effects I would always provide myself. For a certain kind of young Pokéfanatic, it’s a dream toy set.
Ahead of their release date, we played around with various bits and pieces from the 12 sets launching on Aug. 1. There’s a lot of variety across the sets, including a Pikachu-shaped house with a hidden bed, a Squirtle on a car that can shoot “water” discs, and a Mewtwo in a tank that opens up with the spin of a wheel. Your youngest can play around with some small, adorable Pikachu and Eevee or go up a level to build a Charizard with fully articulated wings. I was personally delighted by a blocky Bidoof.
The secret sauce is found in Smart Bricks. Each Pokémon becomes interactive when you slot a special brick into it. That can interact with other monsters’ Smart Bricks, as well as Smart Tags on objects. Slot a Smart Brick into Jolteon, and it will “talk” with the Squirtle next to it. Lay it down on a bed and it will start snoring. Put a burger next to it, and you’ll hear the sound of it chomping. Each set comes with its own smart objects that you can mix and match to create more interactions.
Even more appealing, though, is that you can actually battle with them. When you shake two monsters next to one another, a battle theme will play. You can move them around to land hits as you mock-fight, and even shake a monster to charge up an attack. (If you shake it for too long, you’ll overcharge and end up dazed for a moment.) When one Pokémon’s HP reaches zero, the fight ends and a light appears on the winner. If you want to get an edge before the fight starts, you can put your monster near a training smart tag and pretend to whack away at a target to get an attack boost. And if you come out of a battle wounded, you can place a potion near your pal to restore their health.
It’s surprisingly involved, putting mini-RPG mechanics inside of Lego sets. Considering how much I used to pretend my toys were fighting when I was growing up, I have to imagine kids will get a kick out of it. I also imagine there will be a lot of waggling battles that get a little too intense and wind up with bricks flying off of monsters. I would be holding my breath if I saw my niece smashing an intricate Mewtwo into a Lapras with full articulating limbs. For parents who are worried about that, there are some more chill sets that are more about putting monsters to bed or playing with a berry dispenser.
It’s a smart move for Lego. Pokémon toys already have a built-in collect-’em-all appeal, and that’s all the more appealing considering that you’re livening up your old sets every time you add a new one to the mix. It’s the kind of thing I know I would have begged my parents for as a kid, totally naive to the fact that the most involved set costs $120. (They’re available in a wide range of prices, thankfully, with smaller sets as low as $15.) My own toy collecting days might be behind me, but even I wouldn’t mind adding a talking Bidoof next to my old McDonald’s Rapidash.
