Catch the ghosts. Before they catch you.

Now available, LEGO is celebrating Halloween early this year with the launch of “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’ll be the only play experience available, the company promised in the press release earlier this year, that fully and seamlessly integrates augmented reality (AR) with physical construction to reveal a hidden world of interactive play.

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 roleplay 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.

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.

The “Hidden Side” sets include Newbury Haunted High School, Ghost Train Express, Paranormal Intercept Bus 3000, Shrimp Shack Attack, El Fuego’s Stunt Truck, Graveyard Mystery, Wrecked Shrimp Boat and J.B.’s Ghost Lab. Check out images below and grab your favorites through LEGO’s official online shop!