Announcing a new theme - Hidden Side!
Posted by CapnRex101,
LEGO has unveiled a brand new theme named Hidden Side! This spooky range focuses upon the haunted town of Newbury and is designed for integration with an augmented reality app, allowing you to capture ghosts while solving mysteries within the town.
The theme comprises eight sets of various sizes, costing between $19.99 and $129.99, which will be available in August. A few photos are available, courtesy of Pocket-Lint, but we hope to receive more detailed images soon.
You can read the full press release after the break...
The LEGO Group today unveiled LEGO Hidden Side, an augmented reality-enhanced LEGO play theme where kids must turn a haunted world back to normal, one ghost at a time. It is the only play experience available today that fully and seamlessly integrates augmented reality (AR) with physical construction to reveal a hidden world of interactive play. Developed for children 7 years and up, LEGO Hidden Side is showcased to buyers, media and influencers for the first time at American International Toy Fair Booth in Booth 1335 of Hall 3B at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, February 16 -19.
LEGO Hidden Side includes a series of eight “haunted” building sets full of awesome functionality and secret surprises that, on their own, provide the build and role play fun of any LEGO play theme. Activating the bespoke AR app developed together with the theme brings the models to life, revealing a hidden world of interactive mysteries and challenges to solve. When combined, the two worlds make each other even more compelling and fun.
“Our years of experience pioneering the convergence of technology and physical play have taught us that 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 mold 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.”
Core LEGO Building Experience
LEGO Hidden Side building sets deliver everything kids love and expect from a LEGO building experience – the challenge of the build, a detailed model with functionality, and minifigure characters set in a story-driven universe. Each model can be built as it appears by day – a school house, bus, or graveyard, for example – and has transforming functionality to become the haunted version of itself.
Truly Augmented Play
The app lets kids assume a first-person perspective and play together with the two characters – Jack and Parker – as they explore their hometown of Newbury, using their mobile phones to see and solve paranormal mysteries beneath the surface of their environment. Game play prompts kids to hold their phone up to the physical LEGO models and interact with various elements, or “points of possession,” which release virtual ghosts that kids must then capture in the AR game to stop the haunting. Numerous scenarios create dynamic gameplay that requires kids to keep one hand in each world to progress the play.
Donaldson added, “As we have designed LEGO Hidden Side, 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 consists of a digital game that kids can play independent of the building set. After launch, the app experience will continue to expand with the addition of new ghosts, new game challenges, and randomization of gameplay so the experience is different every time kids play.
Donaldson noted, “We’re leveraging some of the best elements of mobile games to keep the experience fresh, encouraging kids to return to their LEGO sets time and again to see what is different. With the thoughtful integration of LEGO building and AR technology, we can deliver a truly innovative play experience that taps into the ever changing landscape of fluid play, where children constantly find new moments and forms of play.”
LEGO Hidden Side will be available globally in late summer 2019. The LEGO Hidden Side app will be a free download from the App Store and Google Play.
Spooky themes such as Monster Fighters have been very popular in the past so does this theme interest you? Let us know in the comments.
Update: the eight sets have been added to the database, showing set names and piece counts.
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LEGO seem to be making moves into the app compatible toy market, the new train and batmobile sets looks like the forerunners to test the waters for the new theme....
There's a whole lot more pictures and videos on the net now.
https://www.pocket-lint.com/parenting/news/lego/147078-lego-hidden-sides-augmented-reality
The backside/interior of the haunted house looks very detailed.
Also a 3rd set with a "mad scientist/frankenstein" style lab.
And great selection of Minfigs.
App looks interesting as well.
I liked Nexo Knights and it's monsters, and this looks to be a great in-house monster theme again.
The return of Monster Fighters! Not a bad thing, really...
A haunted house theme? Hell yes!
Wow - I definitely didn't see this coming! I wonder when we'll get more information about the plot of the theme, and who the good guys, and villains will be....
Is the house meant to look like a werewolf with bowlerhat? Anyway, it looks pretty cool. Not anything I want to pick up, but I’m totally excited to see what this will bring up.
Hmmmm. We will see..
“Hidden Side”? That’s a rather ho-hum name in my opinion.
The set pictured looks neat, but not really something I need. I’m looking forward to seeing what the rest of the sets look like.
@KyloRen0806:
Yeah, me too. Interesting to see how much TLG is trying to innovate with new technology....
I hope there'll be new Glow in the Dark minifig elements!
SOOO EXCITED!!!!
Thanks TeriXeri - great link to more pictures...
Any excitement this announcement might have for me is tempered by the lack of support Lego shows for older products with supporting apps. You can’t download the apps for Fusion or Ultra Agents any more (on iOS, anyway), and I wonder when that will happen with Hidden Side- in a year, or three?
Thankfully the press release does say the sets should be fun even without the app, so that’s something.
So a theme of spooky sets? I daresay we'll get some kick-butt minifigs for it (even if it only lasts a year), so I'm onboard!
I'm diggin the ghost busters school bus. Ecto 3 ?
I never had a pass so easy...
o man these look great, even if you don't plan on touching the game at all.
I love spooky themes. However - this Haunted House is not as good as 10228 (Lego, bring it back!)
Sets according to Tom's Hardware (of all places)
School (pictured above, 1,474 pieces): $129.99
Train (698 pieces): $89.99
Bus (689 pieces): $59.99
Diner (579 pieces): $49.99
Truck (428 pieces): $39.99 (
Graveyard (335 pieces): $29.99
Boat (310 pieces): $29.99
Lab (174 pieces): $19.99
Looks like Ghostbusters meet Stranger Things.
Awesome! I love spooky stuff, AND this is an original IP! I hope this is a sign LEGO's going back to the Renaissance from when I got into it, with new IPs every year to keep things fresh.
What a splendid idea
This theme sounds fun
I fully endorse it
Let's try it at once!
Yep, I'm in for more Spooky Lego sets. And some really cool minifigs too.
I guess its official then... my wallet is going to hate me
Sounds like a great idea! I don't care about any augmentations/apps/whatever, but I'm looking forward to the sets themselves!
I had opportunity to test it first hand in London. I wrote a few first impressions for Polish tech magazine https://nt.interia.pl/gadzety/news-lego-hidden-side-klocki-w-rozszerzonej-rzeczywistosci,nId,2836063
There were journalists from UK, France, Czech Republic and Hungary so you might expect their impressions soon.
What the Lego Ghostbusters have been waiting for...
Finally Jannine can shout "WE'VE GOT ONE!!!!"
Video of the app in action along with the sets... http://legoexternal.23video.com/video/44142479/lego-hidden-side-with-textmp4
Awesomesauce! Definitely further reinforces the Gravity Falls vibes I got from the initial teaser image, but it's also reminding me of other stuff I've seen that I can't quite put a name to at the moment. It definitely manages to stand out really nicely from past spooky/paranormal themes like Monster-Fighters, Scooby-Doo, and the Studios Monsters series, but also incorporate a lot of similar sorts of appeal to themes like those as well as some of the "magic school" vibes of the Harry Potter theme and the level of detail I would typically associate with Friends sets.
On that note, part of me DOES wish it were a mini-doll theme to take the place of Elves, since it definitely seems like a theme with some parallels to series that are popular with girls like Harry Potter, Monster High, and Lumberjanes (which i read the first volume of this week — really good stuff!)
I also suspect this will be popular with parents since some of the academic and science-y aspects of the school and science lab sets align well with the current popularity of brands that encourage an interest in STEAM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math). And even more fantasy or sci-fi sorts of series like this one can really help cultivate such interests.
The school set is really cool and it sort of looks like some of the monstery elements like the claws might fold up inside for a more inconspicuous look, which is a really rad feature if so! I hope the AR game is more engaging to me than the Nexo Knights app was, though I would probably be able to enjoy the theme even without it, as would many kids. Wonder what other supporting media might be in store.
@PJ76UK: I feel like the Batmobile, City trains, Boost, and other "Powered Up" sets are more just an evolution of the previous Power Functions system, while this is more of an evolution/variation on the types of digital/physical interaction we've seen LEGO experiment with in themes like Fusion, Ultra Agents, and Nexo Knights.
On another level I think a case could potentially be made that even those themes' app-integrated features are sort of a post-smartphones evolution of the printed and laser-engraved codes on parts, stickers, and packaging that unlocked digital rewards and/or online game points in themes like Bionicle, Exo-Force, and Hero Factory. The idea of creating digital bonus content to add another layer of content to any purchase is something LEGO has been dabbling in since the turn of the millennium.
I love the theme! I agree with the Pocket Lint article that it might get a bit cumbersome for kids to play with a phone in one hand, but it's an ingenious way of incorporating technology and storytelling into the theme.
I'm not sure what the inhabitants of Newbury, Berkshire make of all this.
Bit of an odd choice of place name given it already exists.
"You don't get ghost mini-figures in the box, for example, although included characters can be "possessed" by replacing their heads. Instead, the ghosts are supplied through AR and it feels as if the phone is the portal into a different world."
Too bad, I like spooky minifigures...
The sets look amazing. I think its dumb that you need your phone to play with them though... I guess we will see...
Here's a link to the article @Ronyar mentioned:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/lego-hidden-ar-playsets-augmented-reality-app,38611.html
Digging the new hood with a hat piece. Not sure about the sets - have to draw the line somewhere, but I’ll at least get a few figures.
@Huw: I don't think it should be an issue. Newbury is one of those place names like Knighton, Springfield, etc. that's so common that it feels "real" without seeming like an obvious reference to one particular place. I suspect part of the choice was due to it being a pun on "newly buried", given the whole ghostly theme.
All look like interesting builds especially the haunted school/house and the yellow bus..
Really miss the Elves theme does anyone know why It was retired and same with Dc superhero girls? My daughters loved both themes and lego friends..
@Huw: That's far from the only Newbury out there. I imagine it was chosen in part BECAUSE it's so common—like The Simpsons' Springfield, Newbury is a name so mundane that it can be imagined to be wherever you want it to be.
its awesome
The sets look fun. The theme name is boring at first, but it's kind of a cute pun.
i like the guy with the hood/hat combo
Ok, this seems like a LEGO theme designed exactly for me. I'm going to lose a lot of money on this one XD
also Newbury XD
I thought I had slept for weeks and woke up on 1st April.
HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!
First theme in ages I have been excited about!!!!!
It's cool that the mansion (edit: sorry, school) has a regular look as well as a spooky look.
This was well hidden, shame that no ghosts figures are included.
Edit: THE THEME HAS A SCHOOL BUS!!!!!!
Edit 2: AND A HIGH SCHOOL (the top set), I am happy as I almost couldn't finish my own creation (barely on the first floor):
https://ramblingbrick.com/2019/02/15/lego-unveils-new-ghost-hunting-theme-bringing-augmented-reality-to-brick-based-play-preview/?fbclid=IwAR3Ch-vA3kmvj26YRs5pIfog3j9JMJ5z4hlx8r-UCKV2P38X2a1F54Qdhv4
Am I the only one who is slightly worried that, despite what LEGO has said, you will only be able to get the most enjoyment out of the actual, physical sets using the app?
I have no interest whatsoever in downloading any apps off LEGO, so if this proves to be too app-based, I'm not interested.
Another app-based line of sets? Never been such an easy pass.
I'm excited for more details. As I keep reading, I think these sets will be very popular in our house.
I thought it was a new haunted mansion until I saw the chairs set up for a classroom. Then I saw the school bus. Then I saw the two kids with the incredible hairpieces. I can't wait for more pictures.
Looks like some fun sets, and some great new hair/hood pieces, but having both a few Ultra Agents and lots of Nexo shields another “abandoned” LEGO app isn’t really a selling point
This looks terrific. Immediately reminded me of the movie 'Monster Squad' but I'm debating if I'd have preferred classic monster designs here since we really already have them all in CMFs and previous themes. Excited to see them on the shelves.
I'll probably buy multiples of the graveyard. The bus looks cool too. Will have to see more of the other sets to decide. No interest in the AR aspect of it, but looks fun for kids.
they remind me of a cross between scooby doo and Monster fighters, with a goosebumps vibe creeping in..
Just seen more images on instagram with the Avengers 4 leaks love the war machine mech..
Some really nice teen pieces on the humans, with ripped jeans, denim jackets, hoodies and beanie hats
@Huw Newbury is haunted by the presence of Vodafone headquarters on the outskirts of the town
Why on earth people think it's just app based? You can build the sets and you'll still be able to appreciate and play with them. AR stuff is just an extra. Don't be so picky. LEGO re-release stuff, people complain. LEGO does new stuff, people complain.
This new theme looks great for monsters fan. For people who missed Monster Fighters it's going to be a sure purchase.
@Gustavo2809 Because ghosts are only virtual (no plastic version of ghosts)?
Nice Minifigs but the rest seems off. I don't know what to think of it but it doesn't appeal to me at all. I also think that antropomorphing the house is plain ugly.
So excited for a new original adventure theme! It has been pretty dry the past years, with only Ninjago, Nexo Knights, Agents, and Chima (The latter of which I disliked), so I am ready to buy the heck out of this new theme, especially since it has such a cool asthetic and idea behind it!
@1947andallthat: I mean, that can be said for most themes with content that isn't in the sets themselves, whether it's digital content, a TV series, comics, chapter books, webisodes, etc. It goes without saying that anyone who owns the sets can enjoy the sets, but people who enjoy the other (non-set) parts of the theme will have more stuff to enjoy about the theme overall.
But that doesn't mean people who skip that additional stuff won't be able to enjoy the physical building and play experience as much as they might in any other theme, particularly in sets like this with so many physical play features and detailed builds. And even themes with no digital integration often have play features that aren't a big part of many AFOLs' enjoyment of those themes or that they even remove/replace via modding, like flick missiles and dollhouse-style open back walls.
@parsom We are getting new figs. That's what counts for me. If LEGO were reusing old figs, people would also complain.
The only thing I can say about it is:
Unbelievable,super cool,It's so amazing frnamanel fantastic!(Lego movie 2 super cool song)I'm really glad to see a monster based theme in LEGO again.
That cap and hood piece alone got me extremely excited!! Wow what a cool looking head piece!
The girl looks really cool too! The sets look good enough to me, but I'm a sucker for monster themes. It really sucked not having a second wave of Monster Fighters, and the Scooby Doo theme was cool but I always prefer Lego originals.
Hope this one is successful so we can see more in the future!
Cool, original (as in, not IP-based), nice recolors and new parts. Looking forward to this.
Couldn't give a stuff about the App side of things, but a big yes to more haunted/monster sets. Thanks :-)
Looks neat. Even without the app side of things there’s some new parts that look cool
I think it looks great. However I feel the app thing is just an excuse to give us less minifigures. Hopefully LEGO realizes their mistake in time to save the theme because not including ghosts is just lame.
'You don't get ghost mini-figures in the box, for example, although included characters can be "possessed" by replacing their heads. Instead, the ghosts are supplied through AR and it feels as if the phone is the portal into a different world.'
Looks fantastic! LEGO needs to stop releasing so many sets I want...
Like the look of the school bus. Need to mod it a bit to become an anti-zombie bus.
Well that all looks great, more things to add to my never ending wish list that I can never afford.
Almost like Monster Fighters. I don't care about the AR/app, but the sets look very cool. I especially like the bus and the big building.
I am not a fan of Spooky themes at all, but this Augmented Reality stuff looks interesting. Plus the characters have new molds and prints, so I might get one!
Looking forward to this. Nice to see lego do something original for a change instead of piling license upon license.
The whole idea is fantastic, what looks to be awesome might be their own flaw, that app, as I was reading has to be more kids friendly... perhaps in Denmark all kids are rich and have the latest iphones or android phones.. in some other countries not even parents do LOL...
Any way, we'll see what this should brings to our hands... Haunted House looks so amazing
@David1985: From the photos I've seen, it wouldn't be too hard to just imagine the possessed characters as ghosts who can disguise themselves as living people, rather than living people with ghosts controlling them. Frankly when I saw the pictures of the principal character at the school that was my first impression — "wow, the principal is secretly a ghost/ghoul!", not "Oh no, a ghost has possessed the principal!" The most you'd probably have to do to present them in full "ghost form" is change the hand color if it's not a character who wears gloves.
And since the mention of possession only comes from some of the secondhand press reporting on the theme and not from the original LEGO press release, site, or video, it's kind of hard for me to even be sure whether my initial thoughts were totally inaccurate. Honestly, I'd be fine with the concept either way.
@Octopus.Boy: I don't think it makes much sense to call themes like this "app-based" any more than to call Bionicle "CD-ROM based", Fabuland "picture book based", or Orient ExpeditioN "board game based". In all those cases, the media or gaming components are designed primarily around supplementing/enhancing/promoting the physical product, not the other way around.
If anything, this is one of the best examples I've seen of a theme where the majority of the in-app experience seems to revolve around actual interaction with the physical product and its features, rather than just extra content that's included alongside the building sets and largely a disconnected play experience.
I'm surprised that AFOLs are this cynical about this idea. Like, LEGO has been making apps for all kinds of themes, even City and Friends, for YEARS now. The way I see it, this is one of the closest they've gotten so far to an authentic LEGO play experience where interacting with the entire physical set is a major part of the app's user experience. Did you look at the video link Sulaco76 shared of what the app is actually like to play with?
Pass from me.
But I really start missing a historic theme. Castle, Pirates, Vikings, Stoneage, Settles, Romans, something pls!
LEGO Stranger Things? Count me in. Especially if there's a school!
Love all thing ghostly, so will get them all. I am not sure why folks are crying about the app part, from the pics I see, it doesn't impact the design of the set. Maybe they're upset for the lack of stud shooters? I dunno.
This is gonna be awesome.
I just hope that it does not end up like LEGO Dimensions. A huge cash grab.
Doesn't this kinda defeat the point of lego in that its meant to be a tactile medium for creativity and play? Having it as an augmented reality video game begs the question, why not just make it a lego video game?
Seems a kinda interesting theme. Doesn't appeal to me as much as Monster Hunters, but I feel the app aspect of it will bomb.
Great, LEGO is putting out another cool looking line with neat parts.. Shut up and take my money LEGO!
It has a slight feel of Stranger Things which makes it more cool.
Well this is a nice surprise, all the sets shown look great - the mad scientist's lab is the winner for me.
Looks totally Ab Fab! If they worked out the kinks and repeat play issues from the NK app and learned from the good and bad in Dimensions this will rock. Especially once you can add minifigs from other sets/series!
It's a theme for me! I love ghosts, macabre paranormal stuff, AR and Toys to life! Can't wait to see more of it.
Hope there'll be not only ghosts, but zombies and golems. And Bats! And overall horror feel, like in Monster Hunters.
@paulmison:
Much of that lands squarely on Apple's shoulders. They used to let you download apps to your computer, which allowed you to synch them back onto your ipods, ipads, and iphones. Now all apps are restricted to the app store for download, so if the app is no longer available on their server, it's lost to you on any device that doesn't already have it installed. And of course they regularly cripple apps by rendering them incompatible with iOS updates.
Pass. I don't have, or want, a smart phone, so this is lost on me. Keep coming out with stuff I don't want, Lego. Saving me lots of money!
Ever since Monster Fighters I've been eagerly awaiting a new horror LEGO theme, and this is looking fun! I love all the new teen/causal clothes and outfits on the protags, and from what little I can see of the builds they look fine enough. I hope the sets physically come with ghost minifigs and they aren't just limited to the AR though.
I'm very excited to see a new scary theme, with a modern setting, and I'm glad for our first female mad scientist, but it's looking like the monsters won't really be as varied as the minifigures in past spooky themes. I do love the ghost/possessed designs, but I hope we'll get more variety.
Finnaly. I love how you have to change the models to solve mysteries in app. For kids this will be great mixture. And Im sure I will have fun of it as well.
I'm all for more spooky sets! I don't care about the augmented reality stuff, but the sets look pretty cool so far and hopefully there'll be lots of new monster minfigs!
So very few read the part which said no ghost minifigures included?
That's an easy pass then.
WOW, cant wait and that's just for the sets and not even the game lol. It would be awesome if they would incorporate the Monster Fighters, Scooby Doo and Ghostbusters sets in as well as maybe a time travel or alternate universe or something. My bank account is not going to like me though....
Finally!!! Waaay better theme than those wound-up fishes. I have my eye on that monster house. This is what lego play is all about.
I love spooky themes, I saw pictures of the haunted house, kinda unfortunate that it's not a four sided proper house but either way if this theme sticks around for more than the usual 2 waves I'd love to see what they do with it in the coming years.
Now this looks like it could work! Love the theme, the sets look nice and whacky so far, the AR feature seems decent.
It's a nice idea but the trend for 2019 seems pretty negative. Promoting Lego Wear with snapchat? More gimmicky Lego apps? They are over-expanding again into weird niches in ways that are going to hurt the core business and cause another crisis. I need to dig into what they are doing with app data as well but previously it seemed to be extremely sketchy data collection which is a negative media storm waiting to happen.
Looks interesting from the four sets that have appeared in all the promo stuff so far (I loved most of the Monster Fighters stuff), just wondering what the train will look like...
I really like the looks of these, and think the app will encourage my grandson to spend more time playing with Lego, since his "toy" of choice is a smartphone. I'm guessing the bell tower at the top of the school doubles as a lighthouse, but I cannot find a leaked picture of the helicopter.
@GrizBe: Because this way the video game can be part of the physical play experience!
For comparison, with a typical LEGO Friends or LEGO Ninjago app or video game, the tactile experience of playing with LEGO is part of the physical experience but not part of the digital experience. The digital game would offer more or less the same play experience even all the graphical elements were redesigned to eliminate any connections to the LEGO brand. In fact, last year's "Heartlake Rush" and "Ride Ninja" apps, as fun as their gameplay can be at times, are pretty much just a somewhat generic endless runner and a somewhat simplified Road Rash clone, respectively. The LEGO aspects of them only really define their philosophy and appearance, not other parts of the play experience.
But in this, traditional LEGO play and the app are are effectively just two different ways to play with the set itself: the kind of open-ended play style that's always been a part of playing with a LEGO set, and a more video game style of play where there are set objectives (in this case, finding, defeating, and capturing ghosts), and interacting with the set in particular ways is one of the steps required to complete those objectives. For example, when playing the game, you have to open a secret door on the set to make the ghost jump out, then you use the app to defeat it, which (as far as I can tell) helps you move forward in the game.
You can almost think of it as something sort of like how certain LEGO sets are compatible with Power Functions motors and remote controls, but don't come with them included. The set is a pretty much complete play experience on its own, but adding the motors gives you another, separate way to play with the sets. It's the same here, except that instead of having to buy a separate LEGO product to get that additional play mode, you only have to ask mom or dad to download a free app and let you borrow their smartphone or tablet for half an hour in the evening.
On this note… it's surprising to me that I've been simultaneously seeing a lot of comments about "I try to keep my kid from being on a screen all day" and "A lot of kids don't have smartphones/tablets" when it seems to me like in many respects those problems solve each other… I mean, there's still the issue of the app apparently not being compatible with most devices from before 2015, but otherwise it would seem like the parent being the one who owns the compatible device would make it that much easier to dictate how long and how often the child gets to use the device… same as how my parents had rules for me as a young kid about how often and how long I could use the computer/play video games/watch TV.
Because, of course, all parents have smart phones, Aanchir?
If they are going to integrate apps into their sets LEGO needs to get some Pokemon sets out there and integrate them with Pokemon Go.
I like the set pictured. The two minifigs are fantastic. The wife and I like to have seasonal themes we can set up as we are space limited. This definitely fills the Halloween theme.
The only thing I need to know is how many sets I'll end up getting.
I am super excited! The kids and I add on to our Halloween-themed build every year and these set will be fantastic! Like many others, I loved Monster Fighters, all the bad guys from Nexo Knights and Scooby-Doo. Great minifigs and so much fun.
Well this theme came out of nowhere. I don't care too much for the phone connection factor. But the sets look great. Especially the Graveyard and the School. I guess if City is never ?going to do a school, something is better then nothing. ?
@quark12000: No, of course not, same as how not all families had computers ten to twenty years ago when LEGO used to put CD-ROMs and codes for online games in some of their sets. But ENOUGH families have those kinds of things that it's a worthwhile way to explore giving the many kids who are already digitally connected a form of physical LEGO play that can appeal just as much to them on that level.
A survey in fall 2016 found that an estimated 84% of American households own at least one smartphone, not far from the estimated 87% households that owned a computer in 2015. By comparison, in the year 2000, that number was only 51% and it didn't stop LEGO from putting online game codes in their RoboRiders sets.
Considering how many mobile device apps LEGO has released over the past decade, I'm sure they have a pretty good sense of whether there are enough smartphone-owning LEGO fan households to justify this kind of theme.
A/R Lego sets are stupid.
@Lamarider
No actual ghost minifigs, no. But it does appear you'll get the parts needed to switch one of the regular minifigs into a ghost-possessed version of the same.