Lego has just unveiled 12 brand new Pokémon-themed sets featuring a whole PC-box-worth of different Pokémon, all of which are integrated with Lego’s “Smart Play” system.
The 12 sets range from $14.99 all the way up to $119.99, depending on the complexity of the set. The Pokémon represented include a number of pretty obvious favorites, like the Kanto starter trio, but also include a couple of surprise sleeper favorites like Bidoof, Geodude, and Garchomp. Some of these are cuter/cooler than others; the Squirtle car set is pretty neat, but that weird Lapras just looks…off, and I have hated every incarnation of Pikachu-built-from-blocks thus far.
The sets are as follows:
- Jigglypuff, a microphone, and two speakers – $14.99
- Charmander and Geodude in a cave, with a lantern – $19.99
- Bulbasaur and Bidoof with a berry tree and a smoothie machine – $19.99
- Squirtle, a Poke Ball, a grill with a burger on it, and a little car that can shoot bubbles – $29.99
- Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly with a Poke Ball and a roulette wheel – $34.99
- Mew, an ancient ruin, a Great Ball, and a…flying drone? – $49.99
- Eevee and Lapras with a shipwreck – $59.99
- Pikachu and a Pikachu-themed treehouse with some training targets and a Poke Ball – $69.99
- Mewtwo in a lab machine with a Master Ball – $69.99
- Umbreon and Garchomp battling one another, including a trophy and a Poke Ball – $79.99
- Gengar, Cubone, an Ultra Ball a ruined temple of some sort and a tree – $89.99
- Charizard and Jolteon with a training machine, a Poke Ball, and a Potion – $119.99
All sets are compatible with Smart Play, which is a system of special bricks filled with tech that, when slotted with a “Smart Tag,” let Lego builds light up, make sounds, and react to how you’re playing with them, like if you’re crashing them to the ground or waving them around in the air or bringing them next to another Smart Play Lego. You actually have to equip the Smart Brick and Smart Tag on the Lego in question for this to work, and you can mix and match if you want to get silly with it. Some of the images of where the Smart Bricks are actually intended to go are pretty funny:
But there’s a huge, expensive catch here. While all the sets above include Smart Tags that will let the completed Lego build react appropriately (such as by emitting the appropriate Pokémon’s cry) when equipped in a Smart Brick, it looks like none of the sets above except the most expensive (Charizard and Jolteon) and the most iconic (Pikachu) actually come with Smart Bricks. And you can’t purchase Smart Bricks separately.
As a result, if you want to use the Smart Play features on any of the others, you must first buy either Charizard or Pikachu, and then also the set of your choice. There are a few other “all-in-one” sets available in Star Wars flavor that include Smart Bricks, but none are cheaper than the Pokémon ones. So there’s a minimum of $70 in entry costs to use Smart Play at all. You can’t just kick $15 at Lego to hear Jigglypuff do a little concert. And you’re screwed if you lose the Smart Bricks.
The icing on the cake here is that the best set of them all isn’t even actually for sale. Get a load of this:
No seriously, look at hiiiiiiim:
This is so dang rude. You have to spend at least $130 in order to get the best set: a Ditto Squirtle watching a real Squirtle on TV with a little snack tray. This is cute as buttons and I’d happily spend $10-$15 or so just for this, Smart Play aside, but instead there’s a massive price tag barrier in the way. Be aware that if you’re after this set, it’s only available at Pokémon Center and no, it does not include a Smart Brick. You’ll need to buy one of the all-in-one sets, and something else to get the total to $130 first. Very cool, Lego, very cool.
