Analysis: Lego bricks may be simple, but putting them together rewards curiosity, trial and error and stubborn problem solving
I have a core memory that flashes up every so often. It's me, sitting in my parents' living room as a kid in the 1990s, with a brand new box of Lego. I was frustrated. Why? Because the picture on the box did not match the assembly instructions.
This particular box of Lego featured an articulating crane-like device that could lift, rotate, grab things and do all things crane-like. The instructions, while quite clear, taught me how to make a Mars rover-type vehicle. There were motors and gears, and by pushing a button, the vehicle drove forward. Little infrared sensors on the front and back told the vehicle to stop if it came in contact with the alien environment of couches and thick rugs. There was also an app on the PC to programme how the sensors would function.
It was exciting, but it wasn't particularly difficult to assemble. While I didn't understand how the infrared sensors worked, I was fascinated by the fact that this usually static set of bricks was now alive and responsive.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Oliver Callan Show, how to unlock creative potential with Lego
What drew me back to the crane on the box, though, was that these sensors could somehow magically be repurposed to act as a controller. By printing out a small black and white pattern of squares, rolling it into a tube and placing it in front of the sensors, you could roll the tube so that the white part or black part blocked them, which changed the behaviour of the motors to which it connected.
To solve this scientific mystery, I disassembled the Mars Rover, got to work and built the crane. If I squinted hard enough, I could match my programming to the screen printed on the box. It took a couple of tries, but it worked. All from looking at the pictures on the box. My parents were so proud.
The modern Lego brick has been a mainstay in homes across the globe since its launch in 1958. In the 1960s, Lego began to investigate how power could be modularised, standardised and made safe and accessible for children. Wind-up motors allowed motion without batteries, pneumatics used compressed air via hand pumps to actuate pistons, and low-voltage electric motors, lighting elements and battery boxes.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Today show, how Lego built a multi-billion dollar success one brick at a time
From a design perspective, Lego combined systems thinking and manufacturing precision into a scalable product platform. While its stud-and tube design introduced a robust assembly and disassembly method, its customers turned Lego from a collection of objects into an engine for pure creativity. From physical creativity like free play and instruction-led construction to mental creativity in the form of narrative and world-building, Lego positioned their product to be foundational to what we now call co-creation and generative design.
Lego works so well because it quietly teaches you how to think and not just how to build. The bricks are simple, but the system rewards curiosity, trial and error, and stubborn problem solving, which are skills that show up everywhere in real life.
The introduction of the Lego Smart Brick is a natural evolution of this. It's essentially a compact embedded system disguised as a toy. Inside, it combines a microcontroller, power management, wireless connectivity and sensor interfaces into a robust brick. It can read inputs from motors and sensors, process logic and respond in real time, without relying on a computer once programmed.
From AP, Lego launches Smart Brick and high tech Star Wars toys at CES 2026
It's very similar to a certain crane I built back in the 1990s, but its modern wireless connectivity allows for quick updates and control, while onboard memory stores behaviours and states. From a technical design perspective, its real achievement is abstraction.
Complex electronics are hidden behind simple physical connections, letting everyone engage with systems thinking, feedback, and control without needing to understand exactly what is happening at a minute level.
Just like all things Lego, you learn to plan, adapt when something collapses and keep going when an idea does not work the first time. Most importantly, it gives you confidence to experiment within constraints, whether you are designing a product, fixing something at home, or tackling a messy problem at work.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Today with David McCullagh Show, child neurological developmental therapist Ollwyn Moran on the launch of Lego's smart bricks
Eventually my Lego sets got piled into a large box creating a disassembled Frankenstein's monster of LEGO, Meccano, Robotix, and K'Nex. However, I like to believe that this was my first experience of true spatial awareness. I am no doubt not alone when it comes to how amazing I felt when creating something that requires a little less instruction and a little more creative play.
Lego Smart Bricks feel like the obvious next step in creative play once you realise what Lego has always been about. Back in the 1960s, a wind-up motor quietly raised the bar for what a child could imagine and build, introducing motion, cause and effect, and mechanical logic as normal parts of play. Smart Bricks do the same thing, just at a different level. They bring sensing, logic and responsiveness into the baseline Lego experience, which means ideas now start in a contemporary space by default. You are no longer just building form, you are shaping behaviour.
What I find most interesting is how this shifts our expectations of expertise. Skills that once marked someone out as advanced - like programming logic, systems thinking, or feedback loops - are now entry level. Yesterday’s expert really is today’s novice. Lego has always done this well, normalising complexity without making it feel intimidating. Smart Bricks continue that tradition by quietly upgrading what we consider basic competence, encouraging us to think bigger, earlier, and with more confidence about how our ideas might live in the real world.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
