Everything May Not Be Awesome - LEGO Smart Brick

0:00 Obviously, there's a lot of hype around it.

0:02 Like, Lego was selling this thing hard.

0:07 It's fixing it.

0:09 As a Lego child who grew into a Lego parent,

0:13 I kind of have mixed feelings about Lego, the iconic toy company,

0:18 focused on creativity and an imagination,

0:21 adding smart features to some of their sets in the form of a smart brick.

0:26 But I can see the appeal of a new version of Darth Vader's TIE

0:30 Fighter that reacts to how you move and play thanks to the smart brick,

0:36 the smart tag and a smart Darth Vader.

0:40 Everything has smart tech in it now.

0:42 It's just it's weird and lots of people have been talking

0:45 about this since uh LEGO announced it at CES this year.

0:48 It's just weird to have LEGO, the company that is all about, you know,

0:51 like not needing all that weird bells and whistles to to add this feature.

0:56 I mean, I feel like it it's smacks of uh

0:59 investor pressure or I don't even know if they have investors.

1:01 I think they must they must.

1:03 LEGO is private company.

1:04 Lego is private.

1:04 So, it's not investor pressure.

1:06 It's something some kind of pressure.

1:08 Anyway, oh, look at this.

1:09 So, so this is the the open box right here.

1:12 And here is the smart brick itself.

1:14 So, um yeah, it looks like a Lego brick in two parts.

1:20 Obviously, we got this kind of transparent thing

1:22 on top and the opaque body with the electronics inside.

1:27 I don't see any way to like open it cuz I believe that there

1:32 is no way to replace the battery if it if it if it dies.

1:35 It's a got a 45 MIA battery that apparently

1:39 only lasts 45 minutes and takes a while to charge.

1:42 Comes with a USBC toa cable.

1:46 Interesting.

1:46 fairly large uh pad for that little smart brick.

1:51 It's it's unclear at the moment whether you could

1:53 charge multiple bricks on this, but it certainly seems

1:55 like that should be possible given how large

1:58 this pad is and how small the actual brick is.

2:01 Okay.

2:01 Oh, and it lights up.

2:03 You see that?

2:04 And then when I took it off, it made a little sound.

2:08 Wow.

2:09 Worth it just for that.

2:10 You cannot buy standalone smart bricks at the moment.

2:13 They only come in a very limited number of sets,

2:16 which are actually quite limited still compared to the functionality

2:21 that LEGO was talking about them having at CES.

2:24 We'll talk about that more once we get everything built,

2:26 but um yeah, there's a bit of controversy around this right now.

2:30 Anyway, we're going to build this now.

2:32 And I got I got some Lego cred.

2:35 I had a big giant bucket of Lego as a child.

2:38 Our Lego pieces at home are organized uh by color and by size.

2:44 So like big green pieces, mediumsiz green pieces, small green pieces.

2:48 Okay, so I guess I am a I'm I am more of a Lego guy than normal people.

2:51 Oh, this is a smart play guide.

2:52 There's an instruction manual just for how to do the smart stuff.

2:56 You do need an app.

2:56 We have that set up.

2:58 Oh, it will glow green when it's fully charged.

3:01 It says right here it's going to take 2 hours to charge the brick.

3:04 And then the rest of this book is just all that stuff.

3:07 Okay, cool.

3:08 Let's go.

3:14 Man, I got to say, I didn't think I would ever get to build Lego for my job.

3:20 Wish that I wasn't building Lego's most controversial product ever.

3:31 I feel like the building is part of the play.

3:33 That's what makes Lego so cool is that you can build

3:35 any toy you want and then you can play with the toy.

3:38 But the building the toy is also really fun.

3:44 Oh, smart tag.

3:45 Okay, it's time to put the smart tag on.

3:47 It's got a little picture of the of Darth Vader's tie on it.

3:50 It looks like there's very little electronics or anything in there,

3:54 although it it has extra little numbers that aren't there normally.

3:58 I actually, one of the reviews I read of it, too,

4:00 is that it it um notably does not sound like Star Wars.

4:04 Oh, really?

4:05 I'll be the judge of that.

4:06 I'm kind of a Star Wars dork.

4:08 Or I was before the duck times.

4:11 Smart tag on.

4:14 Okay, back to speed building.

4:19 I've never seen whatever piece this is before.

4:22 Just like a flat paddle.

4:23 Fun.

4:26 I said we cannot go in there.

4:34 I have like been struggling and I appreciate the beauty in the complex system.

4:50 I mean, that's the death that's the argument for the death penalty,

4:53 but Okay, we're at the smart brick part.

4:59 We're still recording everything, right?

5:00 Yeah.

5:01 Ooh, and it's green.

5:02 Okay, into the back right on top of the of the smart tag here as shown.

5:12 Whoa, that didn't sound a ton like what I remember the Darth Vader.

5:21 Oh, yeah.

5:22 It's reacting, though.

5:30 It It seems to know that I'm kind of turning it,

5:32 too, cuz it's a different kind of sound.

5:35 Okay.

5:35 Anyway, I kind of want it to stop doing that now, though.

5:37 Okay, so I'll take the brick out.

5:43 Okay.

5:43 And then what does it say?

5:46 Oh, that's how you shoot the blasters.

5:48 Okay.

5:48 Wait, hold on.

5:49 There is no back to it.

5:51 What?

5:52 I don't like that.

5:53 So, you you put the smart brick in there

5:56 and now it's saying that it's it's complete like that.

5:59 Like you just there's just a big hole in the back of the TIE fighter.

6:03 We're venting atmosphere.

6:08 Is that the only way to turn it off?

6:09 Is it to take the smart brick out?

6:11 That's weird.

6:12 I did not connect it to the app, though.

6:14 So, let's let's try doing that first.

6:16 Add your smart bricks.

6:17 Oh, okay.

6:18 So, you can have two on the charger.

6:19 There we go.

6:20 That answers that question.

6:21 Smart brick added.

6:22 Okay, we got the smart brick connected.

6:25 The tie is built except for the big hole in the back,

6:28 but you know, that's what it is.

6:30 And Brad, you finished building the other the the other

6:34 parts that do have some interactivity with the whole system.

6:38 and we will figure out how the whole experience is enhanced

6:43 with our resident Lego expert Robert after this message from our sponsor.

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7:21 Robert, hello there.

7:26 Were you in there the whole time?

7:28 Yeah, I had some snacks and Um, Robert, yes, you're a Lego you're a Lego uh

7:37 big Lego fan.

7:38 So, what do you know about the smart brick?

7:39 First of all, I've heard bits and pieces.

7:42 Um, I've I heard what

7:46 pieces.

7:46 No, I've heard little bits about it.

7:48 Um, I heard there's obviously there's a lot of hype around it,

7:50 like Lego was selling this thing hard and then

7:53 it kind of came out and everybody went, "That's it."

7:58 Okay.

7:58 See, I I haven't paid attention to it since CES when they announced it.

8:02 Yeah, there was obviously CES and then they had

8:04 a bunch of uh like content creators promoting it.

8:07 They had a bunch of like celebrities like

8:08 they had Anthony Daniels uh who played C3PO uh

8:12 in a promo for it and then it was just like it's here and then that was it.

8:17 Okay.

8:18 So, it's not really up to snuff of what uh what was expected like uh

8:22 even just like the sounds that this thing

8:24 is supposed to make just sound terrible.

8:26 Have you heard it yet?

8:27 Yeah.

8:27 So we did.

8:28 So this is number one thing that was weird

8:30 is that this is this is the complete build.

8:33 It's just got a big chunk missing from the back.

8:36 Yeah, that's definitely been like one of the biggest

8:38 complaints is like it's just the sets just feel incomplete.

8:41 Like Lego has tried to incorporate technology into sets before.

8:45 You've got like uh Super Mario, Hidden Side, Video,

8:48 and those sets at least like on their own felt like a complete set.

8:53 This just feels like you're missing part

8:55 of the set and it's like stupid expensive.

8:59 Right.

8:59 Right.

8:59 It's like I'm paying 70 bucks for an incomplete ship.

9:04 Yeah.

9:04 And so that you can put the smart brick in the back.

9:09 Oh yeah.

9:09 Cuz you Yeah.

9:10 You So you've got Darth Vader in there.

9:11 So this is one thing I I have I have I I've heard is

9:14 um you've got obviously like the tiles in there or the tile on top.

9:18 Yeah.

9:18 that represents the ship, but then you've also got Darth Vader in there.

9:21 And they are supposed to talk and like work with each other.

9:24 So, it's like if you've got two characters next to each other,

9:26 they might talk back and forth.

9:27 Or if you've got a character in a ship,

9:29 you'll have the ship sounds and that character's voice.

9:32 So, I had it I had the smart break in there and it was making the sounds.

9:35 I didn't have Darth Vader in there.

9:37 So, now Darth Vader's in there.

9:38 We'll see.

9:38 Let's see what he says.

9:42 Oh, okay.

9:45 That was at least part of the Imperial March.

9:48 So now I haven't done it yet actually,

9:49 but you see this little tab or the red the red trigger thing?

9:52 Pull that.

9:53 Pull that.

9:55 Oh, okay.

9:56 There we go.

9:57 And I can verify those are not the those are not the tie laser sounds.

10:01 No, cuz like what if you have a lightsaber?

10:04 Okay.

10:04 No,

10:06 hold on.

10:07 Oh, right.

10:08 The characters apparently speak, but they don't speak English.

10:12 Yeah,

10:11 it's just kind of like simlish or whatever.

10:14 Yeah.

10:14 So,

10:16 Darth Vader, but like instead of saying like,

10:18 "Luke, I am your father." Spoilers.

10:20 IT'S LIKE ANYWAY, OH, and you can turn the volume down.

10:28 We're at the highest volume, which, you know,

10:30 thankfully it's not too loud or as a parent,

10:32 I appreciate that the highest volume is not it's not earsplittingly loud.

10:37 That's nice.

10:38 Charged, not registered, connected.

10:40 But then as soon as you take it off there,

10:41 it's so honestly actually at first I was kind of like wait what?

10:45 I can't even connect to it while it's in the toy.

10:47 But like now I'm like actually wait this is

10:49 good because there was concern about your toys

10:52 being connected to the cloud or something

10:54 and like recording your like kids voices and stuff.

10:57 But

10:57 I mean it's nice to see now that like okay it

11:00 is disconnected as soon as you take it off the charger.

11:02 It's not connected to anything when it's in there.

11:04 It's just only doing local only stuff.

11:06 Mhm.

11:07 The one thing that they that does actually that's that's like

11:09 sort of a connection uh is if you have uh multiple

11:12 of these bricks and that and they say you have like another

11:14 set with like another ship and that they will talk to each other.

11:16 I saw this one video of somebody trying it and they had uh they had the TIE

11:20 fighter and the the X-wing and they were

11:22 they were shooting at each other and that um

11:24 but like the weird thing was like TIE

11:26 fighter could be shooting way over there and it'll

11:28 still hit like it just detects that it's

11:30 like within range not like it's not directional.

11:33 It's just like if you're within I think it's like

11:34 supposed to be like 15 feet or something like that.

11:37 wheel ship sounds.

11:38 But what were people expecting that like it's

11:40 going to be like perfect like laser tag?

11:42 Like you're going to point at that like it's oh you missed and

11:45 I feel like the way that Lego hyped it

11:46 up that's kind of where the expectations were saw.

11:50 Were you someone who like saw this and you were like yo this is hype.

11:54 No, not really.

11:54 I kind of expected it to flop.

11:56 We've only experienced a tiny fraction of what's possible here.

11:59 That's just kidding.

12:00 We've experienced most of it.

12:01 But I'm going to reinstall Oh, hold on.

12:04 We got to put the bubble.

12:08 It sounds like a computer.

12:10 There are some characters from what I've

12:11 seen that it actually doesn't sound terrible on.

12:13 But when you're expecting Darth Vader to come out and you

12:15 get that, that sounds like the like the probe droid

12:18 more than Darth Vader.

12:20 Yeah.

12:20 Or pro Yeah, the probe droid.

12:22 But these do something.

12:23 These these interact.

12:28 Yeah.

12:26 This is like the repair tool.

12:31 It's fixing it.

12:34 That's That's terrible.

12:36 Let's Let's put it up here for the mic.

12:39 It just keeps going.

12:40 If you hold it, we suffered a lot of damage in the last battle.

12:44 It's missing the whole back half of the ship.

12:46 Like, in theory, this is the color sensor at work.

12:50 There's a color sensor.

12:51 So, I didn't even think about

12:52 this, but the the smart brick has an ambient color sensor,

12:57 and that's how it's knowing that this is for repair because this is a green.

13:01 This is a normal green Lego piece right here.

13:05 And so we got a green pen.

13:07 And that's that's wacky.

13:15 Okay.

13:16 So now so now you need uh this is like the refueling sound.

13:20 Now in case you all in case you ever wanted to know

13:23 how Darth Vader's tie what it sounds like when they refuel it.

13:30 That's sort of liquid.

13:33 Sort of.

13:33 Do they use liquid fuel?

13:35 Don't they use like energy cells or something?

13:37 Should know this as like a former Star Wars nerd.

13:40 I'm wondering if we take it off of the smart

13:44 tag and then put the colored items beside it.

13:46 What will it do then?

13:47 No, the color doesn't do anything to it if it's not

13:50 on the smart tag because this is like just a generic smart brick

13:54 and it becomes the the TIE fighter smart

13:57 brick when it contacts that that smart tag.

14:00 So, like we got the TIE Fighter here.

14:02 There's a there's an X-wing.

14:03 And these are kind of like mini like that.

14:06 That's like the proportions are off on that.

14:09 It looks like kind of like a mini like

14:10 a like a mobile game version of an X-wing.

14:13 Yeah, a lot of people have compared these to like uh 4

14:16 plus or junior sets in terms of like their scale and that.

14:19 This I mean, you know, I can see the appeal of this if that works,

14:22 but not if they're not using the real lightsaber sounds.

14:26 Like it's got to be like, you know, that was pretty good.

14:31 I know.

14:31 I had to show off my lightsaber set.

14:33 There's gonna be a bunch of different sets with the smart brick.

14:36 But uh important distinction is so these ones come with one smart brick.

14:39 This one comes with two.

14:40 These don't come with any smart brick.

14:42 They're smart brick compatible.

14:45 That's it.

14:45 Then like I can only imagine the number

14:47 of like grandparents and parents like their kids like, "Oh,

14:49 I really want to get the smart brick." And they see

14:51 this, they're going to buy it and their kids going to go,

14:53 "Where's the smart brick?

14:54 That's confusing." And like the fact that like especially

14:56 for something as big as like the Millennium Falcon.

14:58 Like this one I think it's I think it's 100 US does not come with a smart brick.

15:01 You have to buy at least another $70 set cuz this is

15:03 the cheapest one that comes with a smart brick and it's 70 bucks, right?

15:06 Although if the smart brick came with everything,

15:09 then all of the smart sets would be, you know, prohibitively expensive.

15:14 And but this is a way to kind of like roll out

15:17 the the smart ecosystem with slightly cheaper

15:21 sets that just have the smart tags.

15:23 But it is gonna be it's definitely gonna be gonna be confusing

15:25 for people buying toys being like is this gonna is this gonna

15:29 make the pew pew and the sounds which I argue they shouldn't

15:33 even be thinking about anyway cuz that's not what Lego is all about.

15:36 But you know we've talked about that.

15:37 Yeah.

15:37 As of right now they don't sell the smart brick on their own.

15:40 So if you want to get one for one of these you have to buy another set.

15:44 But as for why they don't sell them separately the only thing I

15:47 can think of at the moment is like this is the first wave.

15:49 So it's like maybe that's something they'll eventually do.

15:52 I can imagine them being like, "All right,

15:54 it's just gonna be the norm that this set comes with a smart

15:57 tag." Because like the smart tag itself is just this tiny little piece.

16:01 It's just a tile.

16:01 Like it looks like it barely has any electronics in it at all.

16:04 It's probably quite cheap to produce as far as far as like a a smart thing goes.

16:08 So, you know, it's probably fine for them

16:10 to just kind of throw those in the sets

16:13 and then start building this ecosystem so that eventually

16:17 people have smart bricks and people have smart tags

16:19 and but I again I've made the case that I

16:21 don't think like I I don't care about that.

16:24 But I don't think it I don't think we need it, right?

16:27 Like that's really what it comes back down to for me.

16:30 It's all part of like the imagination of having fun with it.

16:33 going around making the the the blaster sounds yourself, making the ship sounds.

16:37 Like, what I like about LEGO as a company is

16:40 that they will continually kind of like explore ideas like this.

16:44 But I would be lying if I told you that, you know,

16:48 I would rather have them instead of doing this, uh,

16:52 you know, bring back Bionicle, you cowards.

16:57 And not not those weird replacement things that you oh the hero hero factory.

17:03 No.

17:04 that.

17:06 Bionicles.

17:07 Bring them back.

17:08 Do it.

17:08 So, what do you guys think of the Lego smart brick

17:11 and the kind of like weird way that Lego is rolling it out.

17:15 Uh, do you have any sets?

17:16 Do you plan on buying them?

17:18 Do you want to see Robert come back

17:19 and do more Lego videos cuz he loves this stuff?

17:23 Yeah.

17:23 And if you're looking for something else to watch, uh,

17:25 go watch the short circuit about the Star Wars TV, cuz why not?

17:30 Love you.

17:30 Bye.