Robert8

HIDDEN SIDE - 2019

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Ended up buying & building the Shrimp Boat today. Nice little set with good value for money I think. 

Tried the app as well, and as expected it didn't quite rock my boat. The AR was pretty well done, but I'm too old for this style of gameplay. I will most likely buy more Hidden Side since I quite like the sets, but I don't expect to get hooked on the game.

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I bought the High School, the Diner and the Shrimp Boat. I've only built the Diner so far, but I liked it. Good figures, lots of exciting new (at least to me) parts in new colours. But although they generally look good, there's waaaaay too many stickers in the set. They should have gone for a few more printed tiles.

I absolutely adore the shrimp itself, which I have big plans for.

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2 hours ago, Hive said:

I absolutely adore the shrimp itself, which I have big plans for.

Do tell?

I got the Graveyard today and an opportunity to try out the AR app with the Graveyard and the Shrimp Boat. Might not be able to get any more for a while - waiting for a sale on the High School for one. The AR’s fun, and aspects of it are surprisingly difficult; usually games like this just give you victories after you use toys and stuff to unlock content. I’m not very far in yet, but I’ve tried the boss battles in both sets - Captain Archibald and the Mamali - multiple times and always lost before even getting the boss down to half health. It seems like I need to play and upgrade a lot before I have a chance of beating and capturing them, which is surprising and honestly makes me want to play it more than if it just handed me the victories. The AR could use some polishing; it's particularly annoying when I put a minifigure on the model and then part of it vanishes behind the scenery. But that's the only real complaint so far, it's otherwise fine. 

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8 hours ago, Feng-huang0296 said:

Do tell?

Well, "big plans" may be overselling it a bit... but I'm going to use it to turn my Downtown Diner into a seafood diner.

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Just came over here to reiterate the positive buzz surrounding these sets, they really are the most excited I’ve been for a Lego theme in some time. I picked them all up August 1st from Smyths in the U.K but only got round to building the Graveyard and Train so far. The Graveyard set is really an excellent purchase for £24.99 it’s so much fun and I was shocked at how many small details Lego cramped into the gravediggers hut. And the tree for that matter, that ghoulish tree has more detail than most £100+ sets and the function adds a lot with only using minimal pieces. 

The train set is really great too, I wasn’t as excited for this one but as I got the station done I was really excited to get the train built. The locomotive is absolelty fantastic and I think it’s great that they managed to make it so each of the following carriages have detachable elements so I’d you want a plain cargo train that’s perfectly possible. My only gripe is the lab on the second carriage - it doesn’t seem to make much sense and I would have happily traded it for a passenger or haunted coal carriage. I actually don’t mind the big gun on the container carriage as it can fit easily into the container once you take it off so it’s quite effective at hiding the “Hidden Side” elements to the set. 

Ive seen a number of people talking about how hard it is to defeat the big bosses from each level and I can only agree. Damn that blue boss from the Graveyard has defeated me every time no matter how much I’m spending on upgrades. However, I am really hooked on the app and glad they made it difficult to defeat so the game is much more challenging.

What is everyone hoping for with Hidden Side in 2020? I’ve made a list of my dream sets which you’ll find below;

- Haunted Library £17.99 (Same size as the Lab with two isles of books and a convertible librarian mini figure)

- El Fuegoes Stunt Plane £24.99 (Similar to the plane included in the Monster Fighters Ghost Train with a small side build for the AR possibilities) 

- Haunted Lighthouse £44.99 (Basically the Scooby Doo Lighthouse but with Hidden Side features - built to compliment the shrimp ship) 

- Jack & Parker’s Treehouses £69.99 (Large scale tree house with a slide to an underground base where the team can have scanning computers etc. The monster build could be something as small as a haunted swing set) 

- Supermarket Extraction £109.99 (Large scale supermarket with haunted kiosks and a sign that bursts off with eyes underneath - lots of ghost employees) 

Thats basically my dream wave right there ?

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9 hours ago, Pchan1983 said:

Anyone knows when the Juice Bar promo set will be available?

Asked this question a page or so back. Looks like a couple of weeks at least, more likely Sept.

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13 hours ago, Lucarex said:

Asked this question a page or so back. Looks like a couple of weeks at least, more likely Sept.

By the time September I already bought the sets I want =(  Let's hope it's not limited to Promo with The Hidden Side purchase but also eligible with other purchase.

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On 8/4/2019 at 11:06 AM, Peasantseverywhere said:

- Haunted Lighthouse £44.99 (Basically the Scooby Doo Lighthouse but with Hidden Side features - built to compliment the shrimp ship)

A lighthouse of some sort really does seem like the perfect fit for this theme. Not terribly original, as we've seen it many times in LEGO form - but who will mind another, if done in a style that fits the Shrimp Boat and Shrimp Diner?

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If they happen to make an Airport or Airplane set , I really hope it's not using those huge prefab parts seen in City 2006/2010/2016 various types of airplanes.

As for the current wave, my personal hype for the theme died down a bit, especially since the app doesn't even work on my 2018 phone ... :sceptic:

I know the app isn't everything, and some sets still look great , waiting for some huge discounts or the juice bar promo to possibly collect a few.

Still think the theme is a good concept, and I'll look forward to next year's sets as well.

Edited by TeriXeri

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I just hope they wont go too city here

I know that this is supposed to be normal town that is supposed to be haunted but getting the same vehicles or buildings that we get on City would be king of meh...

The Dinner is fine because is like a 50s dinner (I guess this is the reason why the Ideas set was rejected)

But I wouldnt like getting so City-ish sets

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Just now, Robert8 said:

I just hope they wont go too city here

I know that this is supposed to be normal town that is supposed to be haunted but getting the same vehicles or buildings that we get on City would be king of meh...

The Dinner is fine because is like a 50s dinner (I guess this is the reason why the Ideas set was rejected)

But I wouldnt like getting so City-ish sets

Judging only by the first wave, it looks like they're aiming for a bit of a more Stephen King's Maine-esque look to the sets, rather than a traditional modern-day city look. Personally I really like that since it gives a really eerie vibe to things even without the transformations. I think that one of the biggest strengths of this theme though is that while the sets are designed to look a bit creepy and have a small town feel to them, they can easily be integrated in both horror and city displays without issue. If they manage to keep going with this balance I think we'll be pretty much alright.

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Agree

But I just hope they wont go with like a Police Station or Firetruck or stuff that one can find on the City line

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Interestingly, Kreo originated the "spooky city" idea with their Cityville sets almost 10 years ago.

I'm reading a lot of enthusiasm and positive vibes from Europeans, not so much into the sets other than "I love it" but negativity about the AR, which was supposed to be Lego's selling point for this theme. Was Pokemon Go not in Europe? That was a trend that died quickly.

I'm loving the fan speculation about future waves - airplane, carnival, more AR based ghosts made into figures, etc. If Lego can provide these, I'd see even the first wave worth getting.

It appears this wave, like most other themes, have complements - diner/boat, graveyard/stunt truck, lab/school/bus, and the train just sits by itself (for now). The juice bar could complement it but I suspect it's meant to complement future sets in Wave 2.

FYI: Monster Fighter complements I found useful (my opinion, not official):

1. Haunted House with Vamp Hearse. 

2. Graveyard / Zombie Car / Ghost Train / Werewolf / Mummy. If you couldn't get the Graveyard, Halloween Accessory Kit with other accessory kit.

3. Vamp castle / coffin car with Frankenstein Lab 

For the record, number 2 sits between 1 and 3 in my setups as they share this graveyard /forest /swamp.

 

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I just read the official press release of the theme and Jack Davids and Parker are 13 years old! 13!

I remember I asked why they are not using the medium legs, but heck they actually should be using the short ones 

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9 hours ago, kelceycoe said:

. Was Pokemon Go not in Europe? That was a trend that died quickly.

 

??  Pokémon Go is still *massive.*  Ever been out walking on a Pokémon Go Community Day?  You can hardly get down the sidewalk a lot of places.  (To be fair, it is having something of a revival right now with all of the new features that they added...)

Still enjoying the sets and my daughter is playing the app quite a bit (though she says she still likes Lego Tower better so I'm not sure how glowing her recommendation is.).  She wants the high school and the train but neither is on shelves here so far.  Hoping to order one of those once the juice bar promo is out.

 

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9 hours ago, kelceycoe said:

Was Pokemon Go not in Europe? That was a trend that died quickly.

It never died, new features have been constantly added, and they even launched a Harry Potter version of such game this summer.

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And the sales are already up on Amazon for 3 of these sets! They did this with Monster Fighters back in 2012!

And I'm in America but it doesn't surprise me Pokemon Go is still popular over there.

1 minute ago, TeriXeri said:

It never died, new features have been constantly added, and they even launched a Harry Potter version of such game this summer.

The game may still be ongoing but trust me, the trend is dead and faded away when schools banned here in America.

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Well I'm from Greece and the app is still not available to download.Not that I particularly care about it but I was curious to try it out just once.

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Not sure what part of America Pokémon Go is dead in as it is still one of the top downloaded apps every month and you can see tons of people playing it everywhere you go but we are getting way off topic...

Still haven't seen about half of the sets in stores.  Seems like the Target stores around here aren't carrying the larger sets as there is no location for them on the shelves after the reset.

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11 hours ago, LOTR34 said:

Well I'm from Greece and the app is still not available to download.Not that I particularly care about it but I was curious to try it out just once.

For me it doesn't show in the google play store because my phone is apparently not compatible.

When I go to google play store via a browser it is there, but cannot install, which in my case, despite being a 2018 phone, I suspect it's the camera on that particular model not being so high-end.

Edited by TeriXeri

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On 8/6/2019 at 11:41 AM, kelceycoe said:

And the sales are already up on Amazon for 3 of these sets! They did this with Monster Fighters back in 2012!

And I'm in America but it doesn't surprise me Pokemon Go is still popular over there.

The game may still be ongoing but trust me, the trend is dead and faded away when schools banned here in America.

You’re mistaking a drop-off in user visibility from its peak (when it was such a phenomenon that completely unrelated businesses were rushing to capitalize on this weird new trend) for it no longer being popular. But even if the number of active users were a fraction of what it was then, that’d still be a respectable user base. I’m not even sure the number of active users IS lower than it was in those early days—just more spread out, as Niantic’s location data expands to include smaller landmarks and points of interest across more of the world. And as people above point out, even irregular users still tend to turn out in parks and similar public spaces during limited time events like the community days.

But getting back to Lego, I doubt Lego will mind if Hidden Side turns out to be a briefer fad. Most themes max out at about three years or so, so if Lego can maintain a reasonable amount of engagement over that period (through the periodic release of new sets and digital content), it will likely be considered a success that may influence similar projects going forward.

 

Finally, don’t read too much into early Amazon sales. Despite being a typical release period for Lego, August isn’t a huge month for toy sales. While major retailers might have to incentivize the sets to shift product early on (when fewer people are buying and the app is still getting off the ground), that could change as the app adds new content and we get closer to holidays where sales pick up. In particular, expect these sets to surge around Halloween (when demand is likely to pick up for a spooky theme like this and the Hidden Side team has teased seasonal content for the app) and when we get closer to Christmas (a major gift-giving holiday which may favor novel products like these).

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For those interested, the current version of the Hidden Side site is active and provides download details and FAQ for the app, theme information, product information, and an entire writeup on AR games. They're really putting a lot of stock into this feature and I'm assuming they hope to implement it in other themes.

I will give this theme a shot when I see it in a store on a shelf the next time I am out. I do recall the HD photos from the last round of photo leaks did make the theme look more viable.

There are also some videos, but nothing like the previously released one. Here's hoping to some shorts that may also make the sets more interesting (like Scooby Doo).

https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/hidden-side/ar-games

And here's an early article about this theme. To date, almost all of the new articles have just been press-release formats and not really a review for positive or negative: https://www.fastcompany.com/90305260/lego-is-betting-on-the-wrong-future

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ill be getting my first hidden side sets this Wednesday and the 4 on my list is the school , shrimp boat , graveyard and lab I might get the diner at a later date

im curious though in the app game does it say if the ghosts were summoned there by a curse or are just there from the start

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3 hours ago, TheGlynreaper said:

ill be getting my first hidden side sets this Wednesday and the 4 on my list is the school , shrimp boat , graveyard and lab I might get the diner at a later date

im curious though in the app game does it say if the ghosts were summoned there by a curse or are just there from the start

Right now the lore is paper-thin. We’ve heard things about a mysterious ‘Lady E’ who some of the ghosts are related to and is probably the subject of the painting in the school. So that does imply a curse that she started, but other than that we just don’t know yet.

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