By KIM BELLARD
I’m an innovation junkie, the further out there the better, but every so often it’s good to be reminded that just because a company has been around for a while, innovation is still possible.
Two examples: LEGO® and Kodak.
Let’s start with LEGO. If you are around any small children – and perhaps not even all that small – you probably have seen them playing with Legos. Legos have been around, in various incarnations, for longer than I’ve been alive, and that’s saying something. Most adults watching kids assemble their Legos probably have two reactions: “gosh, I wish they’d make them even more complicated” (note to the oblivious reader – that was sarcastic), and “well, at least they’re not on their screens.”
So I bet a lot of us have a slightly surprised reaction to Lego’s announcement Monday Jan 6th to CES 2026: LEGO SMART Play.
The key innovation is the SMART Brick, which “is packed with technologies that bring play to life including sensors, accelerometers, light sensing and a sound sensor as well as a miniature speaker driven by an onboard synthesiser, and much more, in addition to easy wireless charging.” All that is powered by a custom chip, which is smaller than one of the studs on a LEGO brick.
The LEGO Group states: “Without any setup, SMART Bricks are magically ‘aware’ of each other’s positions and orientations in 3D space, thanks to a novel, high-accuracy, magnetic positioning system. They can also communicate via a self-organizing network that adapts to play. Advanced onboard systems let SMART Bricks comprehend and interact with each other, as well as the fans building with them.” “Magic” in this context meaning Bluetooth.
Nerdist calls it “the most exciting innovation in screenless play ever,”
“For over 90 years, the LEGO Group has sparked imagination and creativity in children around the globe. As the world evolves, so do we— innovating to meet the play needs of each new generation. LEGO SMART Play is the next exciting chapter in our LEGO System in Play and something we are super excited about being able to bring to the world at this scale,” said Julia Goldin, Chief Product & Marketing Officer of the LEGO Group.
Tom Donaldson, Senior Vice President & Head of Creative Play Lab at the LEGO Group said “The launch of LEGO SMART Play brings creativity, technology, and storytelling together to make building worlds and stories even more engaging, and all without a screen. We truly believe we are setting a new standard for interactive, imaginative experiences and can’t wait to see this innovation in the hands of kids when we launch this year.”
LEGO is partnering with Disney and Lucasfilm for three ‘All-In-One’ LEGO Star Wars building sets, featuring SMART Bricks, SMART Tags, and Smart Minifigures that “power the system and allow builders’ creations to become interactive, responding to actions with appropriate sounds and behaviors, allowing for a truly responsive play experience.” LEGO being LEGO, of course it’s all compatible with existing LEGO Systems-in-Play.
The three initial sets are building sets for the Red Wing X-Wing, the Darth Vader TIE Fighter, and the Throne Room Duel & A-Wing, and will be available March 1.
Nerdist’s Rotem Rusak raves:
But just because a form of play doesn’t involve screens doesn’t mean it can’t evolve or incorporate the cool technologies at our disposal today. LEGO SMART Play isn’t trying to transform LEGO into something it isn’t. Although its technology is awesome, the purpose of it isn’t just to create new tech, but to enhance the traditional play that has always been at the heart of the LEGO brand.
She adds: “This is truly a beautiful way to use technology. The LEGO Group is putting technological advancements to work to bolster something that is already so good, rather than trying to rewrite or erase it, as we’ve seen happen in so many other arenas.”
That’s a beautiful way to do innovation.
Then there’s Kodak. When I saw a headline in Digital Camera World naming Kodak the “comeback king of 2025,” and another review calling the Kodak PIXPRO C1 as the hottest camera of the year, my first reaction wasn’t “how nice for them,” but rather: “wait — Kodak is still around?”
To those of us of earlier generations, Kodak was the Apple of its day. Bold, innovative, well-designed, omnipresent. With the advent of digital cameras and then mobile phone cameras, though, it was generally thought to have lost its mojo and, indeed, I can be forgiven for assuming it had curled up into bankruptcy or worse. Don Stapley in DCW explains:
The comeback king has been revitalizing its fortunes largely by betting big on its ultra-cheap PixPro line of compact cameras – you know, the kind of camera we were all assured was dying out. The company that first made its name with point-and-shoot cameras a century ago is doing so once again.
Chris Gampat’s review in The Phoblographer gushes: “Make no mistake, the Kodak PIXPRO C1 is a camera that feels so much like the early iPhone if it was stuffed into a camera body.” Mr. Gampat further tells us: “Photography doesn’t need to be that serious all the time…The Kodak PIXPRO C1 is a wonderful reminder of that in a time when the world around us is burning.”
Japanese photo retailer Map Camera listed the Kodak PixPro FZ55 as the best selling camera of the year. Kodak even has a global licensing program, which, as The Washington Post reports, is particularly popular in South Korea.
That is not to say that all is sunshine and roses in Rochester. Its second quarter 2025 financial results warned that its various debt obligations “raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern as of the issuance date of the Company’s second quarter financials,” although its 3rd quarter results belied those concerns.
The point is, with all its history and with all the headlines against it, Kodak is still finding ways to innovate in its space, not by being the flashiest or having the most modern tech, but building on its brand and delivering the experiences customers are looking for.
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Not everything has to be AI. Not everything even has to involve screens. Not everything has to include the latest tech. Here’s to innovations that, as Ms. Rusak says, “work to bolster something that is already so good, rather than trying to rewrite or erase it,”
Kim is a former emarketing exec at a major Blues plan, editor of the late & lamented Tincture.io, and now regular THCB contributor
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