Does LEGO Transformers Soundwave still deliver in a post-SMART Brick world?

With LEGO SMART Brick technology finally unleashed, does 10358 Transformers: Soundwave’s humble sound brick still have what it takes to impress?

The LEGO Group’s SMART Play system launched on March 1, 2026, with eight LEGO Star Wars sets bringing the company’s much-hyped new interactive technology to the masses. So where does that leave the latest iteration of its own updated sound brick, most recently incorporated with much success into last year’s 10358 Soundwave?

While that version of LEGO’s sound brick produces digitised speech, effects and music, the company’s SMART Brick instead opts for 8-bit synthesiser noises combined with light patterns, presenting builders with an alternative option for bringing their creations to life. But which one should you choose?

A brief history of LEGO sound bricks

First, we need to rewind the clock and take a quick journey back through the history of LEGO sound elements. The first battery-powered sound brick arrived in 1985 (alongside light bricks) to support a selection of LEGO Town and Space sets and were part of a new-generation 9V Electric System.

The Town Siren (black) and Space Siren (white) pieces featured two sounds each and were included in the likes of 6450 Mobile Police Truck, 6480 Hook and Ladder Truck, 6750 Sonic Robot and 6780 XT Starship in 1985 and 1986.

That basic technology would continue to evolve, with new LEGO sound bricks eventually popping up in Alien Conquest, Agents and Creator sets in the many years to follow, last appearing in several DUPLO models released in 2022.

Fast forward to 2024 and a redesigned and updated medium lavender 4×4 LEGO sound brick made its debut in 76429 Talking Sorting Hat. The LEGO Harry Potter build boasted 31 randomised spoken phrases, which could be activated by placing the completed model on someone’s head or by tipping the top of the hat.

The interactive element next appeared the same year as part of 10334 Retro Radio in a light aqua colour, with the LEGO Icons launch allowing builders to hear pre-recorded music playing, tuning signals, radio jingles and even cheesy radio DJ jokes, all at the turn of a dial.

Enter… 10358 Soundwave

That brings us to 2025 and 10358 Soundwave, a LEGO Icons set that represented not only the first-ever brick-built Decepticon to date, but one that also featured the most interesting use of the upgraded sound element released so far.

According to the LEGO Icons design team, 10358 Soundwave was programmed with ‘three times as much sound content’ as previous sets that have included the piece, allowing Transformers fans to listen to specially-recorded speech, sound effects, music and LEGO-specific Easter eggs.

In addition, the interactive element gave the LEGO Icons team the freedom to program ‘sound stories’ within the piece, recombining phrases and sentences to create randomly-generated content intended to offer plenty of non-repetitive deliveries – something that marked a first for a LEGO sound brick.

The future of sound?

While all of that functionality was certainly very impressive for 2025, 10358 Soundwave’s technology may well now be facing an uphill battle going forward, thanks to the rival LEGO SMART Brick. The new interactive kid on the block not only has the ability to generate its own sounds, but can also recognise and react to colours, motion and speed, bringing builds to life in innovative ways. 

In addition, LEGO SMART Bricks are powered using a dedicated wireless charger that comes with some sets, relegating replaceable batteries to the bin of obsolescence, potentially saving time and money during build and play sessions.

However, the lure of those various sophisticated bells and whistles haven’t been without their detractors, as evidenced by the first wave of LEGO Star Wars sets that form the initial basis of the LEGO SMART Play system. Of note are the speech, sounds and 8-bit synthesiser music generated by the high-tech element, with licensed voices, authentic audio effects and music from a galaxy far, far away ditched in place of mumbled voices, bleeps and soundalike tunes.

While some may not be bothered by how the LEGO SMART Brick ultimately delivers its digital content, others will no doubt bemoan the lack of accurate sounds and music from one of the company’s most popular ongoing themes, which doesn’t seem that unreasonable considering LEGO SMART Play’s cost of entry.

In some ways, the LEGO SMART Brick appears to be taking some of its audio cues from early TT Games titles, where characters used to mumble their speech in an endearing manner, an approach that would eventually be dropped in later offerings in favour of using licensed material or soundalike voice actors.

Yet the voices (if you can call them that) that the LEGO SMART Brick is capable of producing lack the emotion and personality of those classic video games, delivering odd sounds and shrill noises that don’t match up with the characters the element is interacting with.

Soundwave Superior

That brings us back to 10358 Soundwave and the most recent version of the humble LEGO sound brick. It’s clear from the three sets currently available that contain the technology that there’s still very much a place for such an interactive part within the company’s wider product portfolio, depending on the models it’s incorporated into that is.

Considering the fresh take that the LEGO SMART Brick could potentially bring to build and play sessions, Soundwave’s sound brick not only holds up extremely well nearly a year on from release, but in many ways, it surpasses the company’s latest interactive offering.

10358 Soundwave is the perfect example of sound brick integration, with the Transformer able to change into an ’80s cassette player, the sole function of which is to play back audio. The inclusion of the element within the LEGO Icons model therefore makes complete sense, takes the build to another level, and gives fans a richer experience above and beyond what they may have been expecting.

Looking back at the LEGO Icons set in a post-LEGO SMART Brick world, it seems unlikely that fans of a certain age who discovered the character when they were kids would have settled for anything less than authentic speech, effects and music to be included.

In fact, it’s hard to imagine just what else a potential LEGO SMART Brick could have added to 10358 Soundwave, with the high-tech element’s flashy lights and motion sensors in particular being redundant in such a specific model.

Incorporating the LEGO SMART Brick into any potential future LEGO Transformers sets would also represent an odd inclusion, especially if the theme’s designers wanted to continue capturing the look of the Cybertronian characters and avoid any unnecessary open areas for the interactive element to be added in.

The eight current LEGO Star Wars models that utilise SMART Play technology do so at the expense of vehicular accuracy, with obvious empty sections on ships allowing a SMART Brick to be placed inside, resulting in less than faithful craft.

Those same LEGO Star Wars sets are also designed to be swooshed around and played with by their primary target audience, whereas 10358 Soundwave and the rest of the brick-built LEGO Transformers offerings to date are more display models, albeit ones with the ability to change from robot to vehicle and back again.

LEGO Transformers: The Next Generation

Looking across the wider Transformers Generation 1 universe, only a couple of Cybertronian contenders for possible recreations as LEGO Icons sets with sound bricks spring to mind, with the first of those being Autobot Communicator, Blaster.

Like his monotone Decepticon counterpart, the character changes into an audio device, a red, yellow and silver ‘ghetto blaster’ boombox capable of containing and ejecting its own selection of cassette tape Autobots from an opening chest cavity.

Blaster boasted a fun-loving, hip and happening personality, as well as his own dedicated sound effects, making the Transformer a prime candidate for being offered up as a future LEGO Icons set with a sound brick.

An even easier solution would be for the LEGO Icons design team to assemble Soundblaster as a potential future build. The G1 character was a clone of Soundwave created by the Decepticon, Shockwave, as a failed lab experiment, yet one that had a distinct and ruthless personality, as well as a slightly different colour scheme.

Taking a leaf out of the LEGO Ideas team’s playbook and the colour-swapped 21376 Orange Cat, a variant of 10358 Soundwave may seem a bit of a stretch for an audience unfamiliar with the character, but the opportunity to add another brick-built Transformer with its own unique sound brick functionality to the theme could well prove appealing to longtime fans of the franchise.

The post-SMART Brick era

10358 Soundwave remains a rock-solid purchase for fans of classic Transformers, delivering pitch-perfect audio via its dedicated sound element to more mature builders that expect such authentic details. Hearing the brick-built Decepticon speak is definitely guaranteed to put a smile on the faces of its target demographic, while minimal repetition of dialogue coupled with familiar music and iconic effects really does justify the LEGO set’s price point.

Sure, 10358 Soundwave may lack the potential ‘wow’ factor that the new LEGO SMART Brick purports to offer, but the LEGO Icons model doesn’t require motion-activated features or lights to do what it does so well. Steering away from the SMART Brick’s 8-bit synthesised audio also means that speech is clear and distinctive, compared to the mumbled representation of dialogue seen in the new tech.

For now, 10358 Soundwave’s sound brick reigns supreme, giving the LEGO Icons build an essential and much-appreciated boost, proving that you don’t necessarily need the latest technological wizardry in order to gives fans a truly authentic building experience.

10358 Soundwave is currently available to purchase for £159.99 / $189.99 / €179.99, with the LEGO Icons set not due to retire until 2028.

The copy of 10358 Transformers: Soundwave featured here was provided for the purposes of this feature by the LEGO Group.

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