Lego is bringing out a new series of new building sets that combine traditional brick building with augmented reality.
The Hidden Side range features eight building sets, including a haunted high school, a paranormal school bus and a graveyard.
The sets deliver everything kids love and expect from a Lego building experience – including the challenge of the build, a detailed model with moving parts, and Minifigure characters.
But they can also be brought to life with a smartphone app, which reveals a hidden world of interactive mysteries and challenges to solve, using augmented reality.
The app lets kids assume a first-person perspective of one of two characters – Jack or Parker – as they explore their hometown of Newbury, battling ghosts and solving mysteries.
Once they've built their sets, kids just need to open up the app on their phone and hold it up to the physical Lego models to interact with various elements.
So-called "points of possession" on the models release virtual ghosts that kids must capture in the AR game to stop the haunting.
Scenarios are designed in such a way that kids are required to keep one hand in each world to progress the play.
"Kids expect exciting play experiences that move seamlessly between physical and digital worlds – something we call fluid play,” said Tom Donaldson, senior vice president, Creative Play Lab at the Lego Group.
"At our core we focus on tactile building, but AR presents opportunities to enhance physical Lego play with new action and mastery elements.
"We're breaking the mould of gaming-first AR play experiences to create a new type of play where the physical world actually influences the AR layer, instead of the other way around.
"Physical manipulation of the Lego models alters the AR experience, and the AR experience prompts new things to discover in the physical models, creating a deeply engaging reciprocal play experience in two worlds that has never been seen before."
The app also features several short digital games that kids can play independently of the building set.
After launch, the app experience will continue to expand with the addition of new ghosts, new game challenges, and randomisation of gameplay so the experience is different every time kids play.
Lego Hidden Side will be available globally on 1 August. The new sets are available to pre-order now from the Lego online shop .
Physical sets will range in price from £17.99 to £109.99, while the Lego Hidden Side app will be a free download from the App Store and Google Play.
Details of the first three sets are available here:
Lego Hidden Side Newbury Haunted High School
RRP: £109.99
Age: 9+
Pieces: 1,474
Lego Hidden Side Paranormal Intercept Bus 3000
RRP: £54.99
Age: 8+
Pieces: 689
Lego Hidden Side Graveyard Mystery
RRP: £24.99
Age: 7+
Pieces: 335
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