Augmented Reality Ghosts Will Haunt Just Announced ‘Hidden Side’ Product Line from LEGO

It’s been a few years since put out a series of LEGO sets dedicated to something creepy. Sure we’ve gotten the annual Halloween Brickheadz and licensed products like The Nightmare Before Christmas Brickheadz, but not since the LEGO Monster Hunters line have we gotten a proper series of spooky LEGO sets. That changed today with the announcement of LEGO’s new Hidden Side product line.

The new line of LEGO sets feature an augmented reality-enhanced LEGO play theme where kids must turn a haunted world back to normal, one ghost at a time. The series includes eight “haunted” building sets that on their own are just as fun as your typical LEGO set, but with the added AR app you can bring the models to life revealing a hidden world of interactive mysteries and challenges to solve.

The new sets are based on the fictional town of Newbury. 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. Then with the app, 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.

Gameplay 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. 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.

LEGO Hidden Side will launch with eight sets listed below:

• High School
• Train
• Bus
• Diner
• Truck
• Graveyard
• Boat
• Lab

The new sets will be available globally in August 2019 and will be on display this weekend during Toy Fair. The LEGO Hidden Side app will be free to download from the App Store and Google Play.