• LEGO unveiled its newest SMART Play sets, which have a Pokémon theme.
  • Players will be able to build the sets, then train, nurture, and battle with their Pokémon.
  • The sets will be released on August 1, though they’re available for preorder now.

Just a few years ago, my daughter only had one career ambition: to be a real Pokémon trainer. And though that profession isn’t in the cards for her, now she could become the next best thing, thanks to LEGO’s new wave of SMART Play sets.

For those unfamiliar with LEGO’s SMART Play System, it’s a high-tech, interactive way to extend the play of LEGO sets. SMART Bricks light up and make noise, and what they do is dependent on the other SMART Tags and SMART Minifigures around them. The SMART Brick may make eating sounds when it knows Pikachu is near a sandwich, or it might make Charizard laugh or Jigglypuff sing. Previously, the SMART sets were all Star Wars-themed, where they made noises that sounded like lightsabers, droids, and ships.

The Pokémon sets take things one step further: The SMART Bricks will let the Pokémon train and battle each other. They know the level of each Pokémon and also whether certain moves are more effective or less effective than others during battle.

Alec Scherma, the Good Housekeeping Institute’s senior mechanical engineer, got an early, up-close preview of the sets, and what he was most impressed with was the customization of each Pokémon. “Each one has individual sounds and lights for every single action,” he says. “This includes sleeping, feeding, training, battling, being captured by a PokéBall, and so much more.”

He also appreciates how the sets encourage repeat play, since LEGO builders can “train up” the Pokémon the way they would in the video games. “If your Pokémon has been trained up, you’ll be strong enough to defeat the stronger Pokemon!” Scherma says. “And the play resets every time you charge your brick or if you switch Pokémon, so there’s maximum replayability in terms of training and then battling.”

The size of the Pokémon is also notable: Scherma says they’re scaled according to the sizes in the Pokédex, so a larger Pokémon is also a larger LEGO build. But there’s an even more important scale the designers kept in mind when designing these sets: kids. “The smaller Pokemon were designed ergonomically to fit better in smaller hands,” Jill Lin, LEGO’s head of interaction design, tells Good Housekeeping. That makes it easier for kids to hold them and train them in battle.

There will be 12 SMART Play sets in this first release, and they’re available for preorder now on lego.com for an August 1 release date. There are two sets that are All-in-One, which means they come with the SMART Bricks and chargers included.

The rest are SMART Compatible, which means fans have to already have the SMART Bricks from another set in order to use them. (Those who have the LEGO Star Wars SMART Play sets will be able to update the firmware to use those SMART Bricks with the Pokémon sets.) Here are some of Good Housekeeping’s faves.

There are others, too, including sets that feature Squirtle, Jigglypuff, and Mew and Mewtwo. They start at $15 for the Jigglypuff set, and there are options in lots of price ranges all the way up to the $120 All-in-One Charizard set. And, unlike the first wave of LEGO Pokémon sets that were more aimed at adult builders and collectors, these are all geared toward kids, and most are for ages 6+, 7+, or 8+, with one or two that are 10+ (the age Ash Ketchum was when he first went on his own training journey).

Tip for Pokémon GO players: When launch time arrives, play the game around LEGO stores. From August through September, certain participating stores will become PokéStops or Gyms, and players will be able to unlock exclusive rewards!