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Today I’m not a CNET journalist. Today I am a Pokemon trainer.
Under a railway arch in London, down the road where the CNET UK team used to play Pokemon Go on their lunch breaks in 2016, I’m now holding my Eevee, preparing to take on Charmander in battle.
I still play, of course, but this time with Lego. As the company announced at SXSW in London on Tuesday, it continues to expand its Smart Play universe by adding a large number of well-known characters from the Pokemon world.
Lego introduces 12 new sets – 2 all-in-one playsets with Smart Brick, and 10 smaller sets with Smart Brick available separately. Their prices range from $15 to $120 (full price and availability below), meaning there should be something available for a Pokémon fan with any budget.
Lego debuted the Smart Brick in January at CES 2026, marking the first major update to core Lego parts since the introduction of the Minifig in 1978. The Smart Brick is a standard 2-by-4 Lego brick, but with an application-specific integrated circuit, or ASIC chip, inside. It also has sensors, speakers and LEDs, allowing you to turn compatible Lego designs into fully interactive toys.
This is the most expensive set at $120.
Place a Smart Brick into a Pokémon, and the tag inside the template will ignite the bricks to light up and make sounds unique to each character. Lego worked alongside the Pokemon Company to make sure each creature’s traits reflected what you might know about them from elsewhere — say, TV or games.
Introducing its Smart Brick system to the world, Lego has partnered with popular franchises to help introduce kids to the mechanics of the Smart Brick. At CES, the company demonstrated Star Wars smart playsetsPokemon is the second partnership to come to fruition.
Watch this: Lego’s Star Wars smart bricks are surprisingly fun, but there is a learning curve
It was a no-brainer collaboration, as Julia Goldin, the Lego Group’s director of production and marketing, explained in a press conference before the set was revealed to the world – after all, there’s an 80% crossover between Lego and Pokemon fans, with multi-generational interest in both.
All Pokemon Smart Play sets are interoperable – making them attractive to both collectors and kids who want an expansive world of creatures to battle. This is how, after throwing a Pokeball to catch Pikachu in the tall grass and driving Squirtle around in his car, I ended up in a fight with Charmander.
Eevee vs. Charmander: What it’s like to play with LEGO Pokemon
I pressed my Eevee on the training marker to enable training mode and hit it hard on the target. He flashed white and green and sang to me, telling me he had leveled up and was ready for action. The Smart Brick inside a Pokemon knows when another Pokemon is nearby and in battle mode. Moving them around violently makes them fight, and whoever has the strongest Pokemon and the best move will win the battle.
Sam Coates, Lego’s vice president and head of Smart Play, and I waved our Pokémon next to each other in midair to enable battle mode, and off we went. He pushed Eevee towards his Charmander, narrowly avoiding collision, and retreated in a defensive maneuver. I spun Eevee in the air, as if I was preparing to hit a baseball, then hit Charmander again. This time it worked, and Evie glowed and let out a victory song.
I asked Coates what would happen if Pokemon butted their heads. He said it was sturdy, which encouraged me to test the Evie’s durability. Feeling guilty, I slammed his wiggling ears onto the table and they remained completely intact. However, Coates added, “We had some messy playtests where there was a lot of damage to the carpet.”
Sorry, Squirtle! Better luck next time.
To play like Coates and I did, you’ll need two Smart Bricks, one for each Pokémon. But neither Squirtle nor Charmander come with them. Instead, you’ll need one from another set to play. (Eventually you’ll be able to purchase Smart Bricks separately.)
I wondered out loud at the logic of selling 10 of these sets without the main interactive piece, but they are also designed to be played the old-fashioned way.
“From a design perspective, what we want to do is really make sure the analogue playset is cool to begin with,” said Gil Lin, head of interaction design at Lego. I had to admit, even without the Smart Brick, the sets were charming and attractive. Lego has created 20 new shape elements just to bring Pokemon models to life.
Lego sets are also designed to be played in analogue mode.
Smart bricks offer another dimension, but in early research sessions with children, Lego learned that what children wanted from a toy was open-ended play, not goal-directed play. For this reason, Lin said, Pokemon’s training levels are reset every play session, or every time a Smart Brick is removed.
“Every training session is a moment you connect with, and… every play session is the beginning of new imaginations, as well as a new world,” Lin said. “Some of the stories children tell in their heads come alive.”
Pricing and availability for Lego Pokemon Smart Play sets
All 12 new Pokemon Smart Play sets are available for pre-order starting today, but won’t actually be available until August.
The collection includes the following groups:
When Lego released Pokemon sets for adults in March, pre-orders reportedly crashed the Lego and Pokemon websites, so if you want to get your hands on a set, consider acting quickly.
