Lego’s Latest ‘Star Wars’ Good Play Units Are Cheaper, With a Big Catch

Earlier this month at CES, Lego unveiled its new “Smart Play” system, a plan to closely combine interactive mild and sound tech into its play units by way of distinctive bricks, minifigures, and tiles. The brick maker began off its push for the system with its Star Wars line, and virtually instantly encountered an issue: regardless of how cool the potential of the system seemed in demonstrations at a tech present with a primed viewers, the typical Lego particular person noticed units that didn’t look superb with a very large price tag connected.

For the second wave of Star Wars “Good Play” units, it appeared like Lego realized the lesson at first, with the 5 new units revealed right this moment all clocking in at costs starting from $40 to $100. They embody new takes on Luke’s Landspeeder ($40 for 215 items, a “Good” Luke Skywalker minifigure, and an ordinary Jawa minifigure), the AT-ST ($50 for 347 items, with a “Good” Wicket the Ewok, and normal AT-ST driver and Scout Trooper minifigures), and the Millennium Falcon ($100 for 885 items and “Good” minifigures of Han, Chewie, 3PO, and Luke), and two playsets: one impressed by the Mos Eisley Cantina sequence in A New Hope ($80 for 666 items, with “Good” Greedo and Obi-Wan minifigures in addition to normal variations of a Sand Trooper and two Cantina Band members) and Yoda’s hut on Dagobah in Empire Strikes Again ($70 for 440 items, in addition to “Good” minifigures of Luke and Yoda, in addition to an ordinary R2-D2).

That’s the place that catch is available in: none of those units really embody a sensible brick.

The “Good Play” system works by having specialised tiles and minifigures that may talk with the aforementioned sensible bricks, which might then reply to that interactivity by enjoying sounds or light-up options in numerous methods. All 5 of the brand new units nonetheless embody these specialised tiles and minifigures—however to truly get something out of that interactivity, it’s important to purchase one of many three beforehand revealed “All In One” units Lego revealed, baking in on the very least an additional $70 value to get the most cost effective of these three, the Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter set.

As of now, these units are the one method to get new sensible bricks: it’s unknown if Lego will ever promote simply the bricks themselves, as they’re essentially the most common factor of the “Good Play” system, or if the expectation going ahead is that you’ll have to purchase in on an “All In One” set to get bricks to make use of within the units that don’t include one. Instantly, to get the total use out of it, that $40 landspeeder doesn’t look like a terrific deal.

And to be trustworthy, despite the fact that the worth tag is decrease with out the sensible bricks, these units nonetheless don’t come off trying too nice. The inclusion of the sensible minifigures continues to be including a little bit of sticker shock even with out the inclusion of the sensible brick, it appears, as $40 for a 215-piece set because the minimal entry level for the road appears like a excessive ask. Regardless that the bricks aren’t included, all of the units are nonetheless designed to compromise for his or her potential presence—which, for ease of addition and removing, Lego has determined primarily means a bunch of builds that really feel incomplete, with sections lacking to permit for a spot to fit a sensible brick out and in as wanted, in red-colored bays that stand out from the remainder of the design.

It results in units that don’t attraction to grownup collectors who’re used to paying rising premiums for Lego, as a result of they’re playsets aimed toward youthful audiences, and fogeys and youthful audiences who’re priced out by the elevated prices “Good Play” provides to Lego—particularly so within the case of those latest units, the place you could purchase one other expensive set to get essentially the most out of them.

There are some enjoyable concepts throughout all these units, however the points with “Good Play” up to now appear to persist right here in these new units as a lot as, if no more, than the initially revealed ones: units that ask lots and provides little or no in return. The 5 new Lego Star Wars “Good Play” units will launch alongside the beforehand revealed units on March 1, and are available to pre-order from Lego now.

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