When I was a kid growing up in the late ’90s, I had more Pok\u00e9mon toys than you could imagine. Stuffed animals, bouncy balls with plastic monsters inside, gold cards \u2014 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\u2019s new Pok\u00e9mon Smart Play sets back then, I\u2019m pretty sure my mind would have been permanently blown.<\/p>\n
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Rolling out this weekend, the Smart Play series gives Pok\u00e9mon 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\u2019s 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 Pok\u00e9fanatic, it\u2019s a dream toy set.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cwater\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
The secret sauce is found in Smart Bricks. Each Pok\u00e9mon becomes interactive when you slot a special brick into it. That can interact with other monsters\u2019 Smart Bricks, as well as Smart Tags on objects. Slot a Smart Brick into Jolteon, and it will \u201ctalk\u201d 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\u2019ll hear the sound of it chomping. Each set comes with its own smart objects that you can mix and match to create more interactions.<\/p>\n
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\u2019ll overcharge and end up dazed for a moment.) When one Pok\u00e9mon\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
![\"Pokemon](\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pokemon-smart-play-monsters-together.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2\")
\n <\/picture>Image: Polygon<\/small><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nIt\u2019s a smart move for Lego. Pok\u00e9mon toys already have a built-in collect-\u2019em-all appeal, and that\u2019s all the more appealing considering that you\u2019re livening up your old sets every time you add a new one to the mix. It\u2019s 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\u2019t mind adding a talking Bidoof next to my old McDonald\u2019s Rapidash.<\/p>\n