By KIM BELLARD
I’m an innovation junkie, the further the better, but every once in a while it’s good to remember 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’re around young children, and maybe not even that young, you’ve probably seen them playing with Legos. Legos have been around, in various incarnations, for longer than I have, and that’s saying something. Most adults who watch kids put together their Legos probably have two reactions: “God, I wish they even made those.” further complicated” (note to the inattentive reader: that was sarcastic) and “well, at least they’re not on your screens.”
So I bet many of us have a slightly surprised reaction to Lego’s proposal. advertisement Monday, January 6 at CES 2026: LEGO SMART Play™.
The key innovation is the SMART Brick, which “is packed with technologies that bring the game to life, including sensors, accelerometers, light sensors and a sound sensor, as well as a miniature speaker powered by a built-in synthesizer and much more, plus easy wireless charging.” All of this is powered by a custom chip, which is smaller than one of the studs on a LEGO brick.
The LEGO Group states: “Without any configuration, SMART Bricks are magically ‘aware’ of each other’s positions and orientations in 3D space, thanks to a novel, high-precision magnetic positioning system. They can also communicate via a self-organizing network that adapts to the game. Advanced embedded systems allow SMART Bricks to understand and interact with each other, as well as with the fans who build with them.” “Magic” in this context means Bluetooth.
nerdist calls him “the most exciting innovation ever seen in screenless gaming”
“For more than 90 years, the LEGO Group has sparked the imagination and creativity of children around the world. 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 very excited to be able to bring to the world at this scale,” said Julia Goldin, Director of Product and Marketing at the LEGO Group.
Tom Donaldson, Senior Vice President and Head of the LEGO Group Creative Play Lab, said: “The launch of LEGO SMART Play™ brings together creativity, technology and storytelling to make world and story building even more engaging – all without a screen. We truly believe we are setting a new standard for interactive and imaginative experiences and we can’t wait to see this innovation in children’s hands when we launch it this year.”
LEGO partners with Disney and Lucasfilm for three LEGO ‘All in Ones’ Star Wars™ building sets, including 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.” Since LEGO is LEGO, everything is of course compatible with existing LEGO in-game systems.
The three starter sets are building sets for Red Wing X-Wing, Darth Vader TIE Fighter™, and Throne Room Duel & A-Wing™., and will be available on March 1.
Nerdist’s Rotem Rusak praises:
But just because a form of gaming doesn’t include screens doesn’t mean it can’t evolve or incorporate the cool technologies we have at our disposal today. LEGO SMART Play does not try to transform LEGO into something it is not. Although its technology is amazing, its purpose is not just to create new technology, but to improve the traditional play that has always been at the heart of the LEGO brand.
He adds: “This is a really beautiful way of using technology. The LEGO Group is putting technological advances to work to strengthen something that is already so good, rather than trying to rewrite or erase it, as we have seen happen in so many other areas.”
That’s a beautiful way to do innovation.
Then there’s Kodak. When I saw a headline in World of digital cameras In naming Kodak the “comeback king of 2025” and in another review calling the Kodak PIXPRO C1 the most popular camera of the year, my first reaction was not “how cool for them,” but rather, “wait, Kodak still exists?”
For those of us from previous generations, Kodak was the Apple of its time. Bold, innovative, well designed, omnipresent. However, with the advent of digital cameras and then mobile phones, it was generally thought to have lost its appeal, and indeed I could be forgiven for assuming it had gone bankrupt or worse. Enter Don Stapley. DCW explains:
The comeback king has been revitalizing his fortunes largely by betting big on his ultra-cheap PixPro line of compact cameras; You know, the kind of camera we were all sure was disappearing. The company that first made a name for itself with point-and-shoot cameras a century ago is doing it once again.
Chris Gampat review in The phoblographer gushes, “Make no mistake, the Kodak PIXPRO C1 is a camera that looks a lot like the first iPhone if it were stuffed into a camera body.” Mr. Gampat further tells us, “Photography doesn’t have to be so serious all the time… The Kodak PIXPRO C1 is a wonderful reminder of that at a time when the world around us is burning.”
Japanese photography store Map Camera list the Kodak PixPro FZ55 as the best-selling camera of the year. Kodak even has a global license programthat, like Washington Post informationIt is particularly popular in South Korea.
That’s not to say it’s all sunshine and roses in Rochester. Is financial results for the second quarter of 2025 warned that its various debt obligations “raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern as of the date of issuance of the Company’s second quarter financial statements,” although its 3third quarter results believe those concerns.
The point is that, 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 technology, but by building on its brand and providing the experiences that customers are looking for.
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Not everything has to be AI. Not everything has to be screens. Not everything has to include the latest technology. Here’s to innovations that, as Ms. Rusak says, “work to reinforce something that’s already so good, rather than trying to rewrite or erase it.”
Kim is a former e-marketing executive at a major Blues scheme, publisher of the late and lamented Tincture.ioand now a regular THCB contributor
