1.8.2019

As part of the first batch of sets compatible with the highly anticipated 'Hidden Side' mobile app, I excited to see how Lego sets could work with augmented reality (AR) and potentially add a whole new dimension to the fun of building and playing with Lego sets. Sadly, while the set itself is nice enough, the app seems to double-down on all the worst aspects of mobile gaming, whilst avoiding anything remotely fun or interesting.On the surface, the concept behind the app seems sound enough - scan your sets to see them come to life, and interact with them on a whole new level. However, everything about the app is wrong from the start. Being aimed at 7 year olds and upwards,the first thing any kid is going to want to do with the app is start scanning their Lego and watch it come to life. Unfortunately, the app is so convoluted that it requires several pages of instructions and tutorial before you can properly start. It explains the app's many concepts, such as the 'Gloom' that you need to scan, and the various keys and cash you need to collect and what they're for, but it all comes across as the kind of mindless addiction-fuelling nonsense that z-tier apps use instead of proper gameplay.Ultimately, the app boils down to zapping ghosts, and scanning for hotspots called 'Gloom', and while it's fine to play for a couple of minutes, it soon becomes clear that the core gameplay loop offers very little in the way of fun or originality, and is a shallow, repetitive task that children will tire of very quickly. Even scanning the sets and seeing them 'come to life' offers very little of interest - the set is superimposed onto a CGI scene, but as you need to make the set as instructed, it basically looks the same for everyone, and you may as well be playing with a pre-rendered CGI model. Yes, you can turn a dial on the model to move onto the next convoluted task, but it all feels very forced, and none of it is impressive or fun.The best mobile games manage to weave in their 'collectathon' tasks in a way that feels natural, and a seamless part of the gameplay loop. Hidden Side, unfortunately, feels like a flimsy excuse to artificially pile on as many 'hooks' into the player as possible, with little thought given to making a fun gameplay experience underneath.Despite the app being such a let down, the set itself is actually a really nice build, and was fun to put together and the kids have really enjoyed playing with it. It has several mini-figures and a crocodile, as well as a little canoe, a rocky outcrop and a fishing boat, and offers a lot of fun playtime for kids. As a set on its own, it would make a good purchase for any Lego fan, particularly those into ghosts and sea creatures. If you're not bothered about the app, then this is a great set, but if you are looking for a next-level Lego experience via the Hidden Side app you may be disappointed.I think it's summed up nicely by the reaction of my 7 year old son - he was initially really excited to use the app, but the more he used it the more he ended up distracted by playing with the set, and quickly abandoned the app and now just plays with the set on its own, which he loves.

19.7.2019

I was excited as soon as I saw Lego were planning a new supernatural type theme, which for me offers something fresh from the usual procession of City sets and long running licenses. The Hidden Side theme centres around ghost hunting and mystery solving, but it seems to manage to do this in a child friendly, non scary way (think along the lines of Ghostbusters and Scooby-doo).The set itself looks great when built, consisting of a fishing boat, a brick built ‘haunted’ cliff and a yellow kayak. It is rounded off by four minifigs, a little ghost dog (unique to the theme) and a spooky looking albino alligator (a nice looking recolour of the ones recently found in the city jungle sets).There are various accessories for the minifigs, including little smartphones and some parts you can use to make the boat captain appear ‘possessed’ by a seafaring octopus / pirate ghost. As usual with Lego, you get a few extra small pieces, including a spare ghostly pirate sword.Like other sets in the theme this set has a transforming action that reveals its ‘Hidden Side’. The cliff flips upward to reveal a ghostly face and the boat breaks in two (easily via the use of some technic pins) to make a shipwreck. You can place each part of the boat on pins either side of the cliff build (normal and hidden side pics attached - big blue base plate is not part of the set, just included in my pics in an attempt to give a nautical feel!)This brings me to the AR aspect, which is clearly a big part of the play experience for this set. You obviously need a smartphone or tablet to utilise this feature. Now that the app has been released to the public I have tried it out on my iPhone and have been impressed by the way it interfaces with the physical product. The core gameplay is a little repetitive, but what child doesn’t love zapping ghosts?!? There are lots of upgrades to earn and the opportunity to uncover and battle a boss ghost (different one for each set, this one being a large pirate / octopus). Me and my son enjoyed collecting and upgrading the different types of ghosts, then using our ghost team to haunt a graveyard.I am always happy to see that there are no in app purchases, although be prepared for your child to badger you into getting other sets in the range as this is likely the only way they can unlock all of the ghosts!Having done some research, I know that going forward this is a big new theme for Lego. They are planning future updates to the app and a whole new range of sets in the theme is scheduled for release in 2020. There are also rumours of a tv series.Even without the AR, this is a great Lego set that offers a good variety of elements and minifigs. Highly recommended.

15.8.2019

We are a huge Lego lovers household but missed out on the older Monster Fighters range when it came out and so have been over the moon that they have released this Hidden Side range. The only thing we are disappointed about is that we cannot access the Hidden Side app on any of the devices in our home at present (it appears to only be newer devices with AR capability) and so hope to get a device in the near future to try this out as my Children are really excited by the figures and to go 'ghost hunting'. If the main purpose of these sets for you is to use the app alongside then I would suggest checking if your device is compatible but as a standard Lego set the new Hidden Side sets are brilliant

7.10.2019

The minifigures of this set are very good - Jack, Spencer (the ghost dog) and Parker (although these three are used in pretty much every hidden side set) Captain Jonas (both his haunted and not haunted forms are absolutely incredible, love the octopus arms) and Jonas jr (the innocent civilian of the set, an alright minifigure).The side builds of this are also very nice, including a kayak for Jack, Parker and Spencer to row along in; an albino/ghost crocodile/alligator; and some terrain to act as a stand for the wrecked boat. I really like this because it makes the whole set into a display piece, and also the rock in the middle can pop up to reveal a ghostly/possessed face underneath.The main build of the set is very nice also,

25.8.2019

I received this product through Amazon Vine, I believe a little earlier than it was released commercially to the public. And this was a treat to open, build, and play with! The 'Hidden Side' LEGO range is a range of LEGO sets designed to loosely follow a story of a town where ghosts are rampant. Players may then, using the Hidden Side app, defeat these monsters in an augmented reality-style concept.I certainly don't agree that this is the first big physical toy / augmented reality product range out there, as LEGO stated in a letter attached to the set. However they are certainly still relatively new to the market, and this is how they should be done!The set itself is great even if you have no interested in the AR side.

31.10.2019

I honestly only purchased this because the shrimp boat looked like a good fit with the Fishing Store Ideas set.It is a simple build, although there are plenty of stickers to drive a perfectionist mad.It really does not look like much without them though so I reluctantly had to put most of them on.The result is a charming little boat which does indeed look fabulous with the Fishing Store as they both have the sand green colours on them.I've been very disappointed not to have anything to add to that set so this was a real bonus.I left off the 'broken glass' stickers but it is a boat that looks a little run down anyway (which fits in nicely with the Ideas set)Two of the minifigures also go very

20.7.2019

My kids (7+9 years old) found this a very satisfying build, they decided to work together to build it – shouting instructions at each other and being generally uncharacteristically collaborative.They were impressed with the named characters – something they haven't seen on lego before. These characters, my daughter insists on calling them dudes, have a lot of personality – that really kicks starts the imaginative play before the building is completed.My kids found this a satisfying build, the Lego instructions were as clear and easy to follow as always.. The model looks great and is very detailed. My kids liked the way the boat could be broken apart and my daughter especially enjoyed the rock that flips up to turn into a monster.

8.3.2021

I really like the whole set because it's different from the boats you find in LEGO City although you can easily mix them together. The boat splits into two parts that can fit on the ghost reef. The look is very nice. My young son doesn't understand yet the principle of stranded boats so he prefers the whole boat, without the big black antenna.The albino alligator is one of the gems of this set, you won't find it anywhere else. Note from a parent's point of view on the bricks : The round and transparent brick that is under the boat is a table savior! If your are not sure why you should put them under, just do it! Earlier this summer, we played with the huge LEGO Spider-Man bridge.

12.11.2020

This is only my second build from the Hidden Side Lego theme and I absolutely loved it. There is just something about these sets that is incredibly fun to build and I can't but my finger on what it is but I suspect it has something to do with the fact the sets are designed to have alternate looks - spooky and non-spooky - so there is a lot going on right from the get go. Whatever the reason I am loving this particular range.Although I forgot to get a photograph of it the boat itself does split in half, after all it is a wrecked boat. It is linked by 2 Technic pins so connecting and disconnecting is straightforward.

24.6.2021

This is only my second build from the Hidden Side Lego theme and I absolutely loved it. There is just something about these sets that is incredibly fun to build and I can't but my finger on what it is but I suspect it has something to do with the fact the sets are designed to have alternate looks - spooky and non-spooky - so there is a lot going on right from the get go. Whatever the reason I am loving this particular range.Although I forgot to get a photograph of it the boat itself does split in half, after all it is a wrecked boat. It is linked by 2 Technic pins so connecting and disconnecting is straightforward.

20.11.2020

My son loooves this set. He is obsessed with sea monsters and especially loved the minifigures in this set. The octopus arms were definitely a favourite.He wasn't interested in the hidden side app part of the set; but I am ok with that because I don't want lego to have screen time anyways. I found the app a bit awkward to set up and use, because everything has to go on the screen just right. By the time we had that bit done, he had lost interest. I will say, he isn't extremely patient, so another child might like that bit more.The legos are great, nice and sturdy and lots of fun bits and bobs to make this set exciting. He got it ages ago and still loves it. I played with him for a bit and found it really enjoyable myself.

28.12.2019

Love this set more than our 7 yr old! It's got 3 bags inside with clear instructions for all 3 bags, took us about half hour to put together, abit too complicated and long for him to do alone but it was nice being needed to help. Once the set was made I put it safely out of our youngest reach so we could set up the app at later time but the following day he decided to show her and the inevitable happened and the set got mostly deconstructed ?? not got round to resembling yet and not sure will? but if/when we do IL update with how well the app works ? Overall this is a great set and the current special offer price is good(about £26?) We had this free to review and I would recommend it as it's worth the money.

13.10.2020

This set can be used in so many ways. Love the minifigures, the two on the boat have excellent colors and Jack and Parker have cool looking clothes. The albino alligator is unique. The boat is a fun build to put together and a fun feature that it can "break apart" to appear as if it was shipwrecked on the little monster island. I would have preferred that the stickers were not transparent (although for the windows they kind of have to be) so that they don't show fingerprints, but it doesn't show terribly. We don't use the app, but the LEGO sets on their own are great and the app isn't even necessary.

2.1.2020

Excellent product (as are all the Hidden Side sets) - but make sure that your tablet / phone is compatible with the Lego Hidden Side app first as it uses AR Core which many devices are incompatible with...If you can use the app then this set is brilliant! It is well designed, nicely detailed and the kids have loads of fun building it and playing with it. The added functionality of the app entertains them for ages and can be used in a multiplayer mode with friends who have Hidden Side sets

30.8.2019

The kit itself is nice, I built it with my 8-year-old and she just found it tricky to get some side pieces on due to the curve at the front of the boat. However once we'd completed it we found that we couldn't download the app on my android 7 phone. It did work on my husband's android one phone, but beware if you have an older model. Best to check you can download the app before purchasing. There are different games, and one scans the kit and makes it look like there are ghosts around it.

LEGO Hidden Side - Wrecked Shrimp Boat (70419) - Reviews

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