LEGO Hidden Side 2020

[Digger of Bricks]

So, thanks to @dimaks13, we now know that Lego's newest Action/Adventure theme will live on into 2020 for another wave, comprised of TEN sets! 

• 70427 (189 pieces)
• 70428 (170 pieces)
• 70429 (295 pieces)
• 70430 (384 pieces)
• 70431 (540 pieces)
• 70432 (466 pieces)
• 70433 (part count unknown)
• 70434 (part count unknown)
• 70435 (part count unknown)
• 70436 (part count unknown)

Discuss and speculate away! 

[Vindicare]

That’s definitely good to hear. I was wondering if it would go like the one & done’s we’ve had in years past, it did kinda feel like it. I’m quite excited to get my hands on these to see if the builds are as fun as the end result. 

[Pulp Detective]

Fingers crossed for more location based sets and hopefully there will be a variety to the supernatural enemies.

[Lego David]

Good to hear. But the first wave of Hidden Side sets hasn't even officially released yet, so it's a little to early to speculate about the next wave.

[Digger of Bricks]

Ya know, should we be considering Hidden Side to be yet another aspiring "big bang" theme hoping to live up to Ninjago, much like what Legends of Chima and Nexo Knights hoped to be? Yes, the theme is wrapped around a AR app rather than a story-heavy TV show; but, despite that difference, could Lego have the same high ambitions for it as they had for Chima and Nexo Knights, or is the theme really more comparable to smaller-scaled themes like Ultra Agents as we've all presumed for awhile now? 

[Pulp Detective]

1 hour ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Ya know, should we be considering Hidden Side to be yet another aspiring "big bang" theme hoping to live up to Ninjago, much like what Legends of Chima and Nexo Knights hoped to be? Yes, the theme is wrapped around a AR app rather than a story-heavy TV show; but, despite that difference, could Lego have the same high ambitions for it as they had for Chima and Nexo Knights, or is the theme really more comparable to smaller-scaled themes like Ultra Agents as we've all presumed for awhile now? 

Honestly I hope Nexo Knights is the last big bang theme Lego will ever produce.By now it's clear that Ninjago was born under a lucky star and it's success can't be replicated that easily or at all for that matter.Chima and Nexo Knights tried to do so and failed.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned in the sense that I prefer old school action themes like Ultra Agents and Monster Fighters for example rather than big bang themes like Ninjago or Chima.But in the end of the day big bang themes could very easily be the future from now on and classic action themes might become a thing of the past.

Though looking at the current HS sets I see a combination of a big bang theme and a classic action theme,there is no big cast of colorful protagonists and no wacky and silly looking vehicles but there is also the AR app gimmick for marketing purposes.So I'd say it's hybrid.

Edited July 20, 2019 by LOTR34

[Lyichir]

3 minutes ago, LOTR34 said:

Honestly I hope Nexo Knights is the last big bang theme Lego will ever produce.By now it's clear that Ninjago was born under a lucky star and it's success can't be replicated that easily or at all for that matter.Chima and Nexo Knights tried to do so and failed.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned in the sense that I prefer old school action themes like Ultra Agents and Monster Fighters for example rather than big bang themes like Ninjago or Chima.But in the end of the day big bang themes could very easily be the future from now on and classic action themes might become a thing of the past.

Though looking at the current HS sets I see a combination of a big bang theme and a classic action theme,there is no big cast of colorful protagonists and no wacky and silly looking vehicles but there is also the AR app gimmick for marketing purposes.So I'd say it's hybrid.

"Big Bang" themes existed before Ninjago and will continue to exist afterward. Few of them have aspired to match Ninjago's current longevity (which was something of a fluke, since like Nexo Knights and Chima it was not originally intended to exceed a three-year lifespan). But that doesn't mean that the model isn't successful.

(also, how are the monster truck and bus in Hidden Side not "wacky and silly looking vehicles"?)

[Pulp Detective]

18 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

"Big Bang" themes existed before Ninjago and will continue to exist afterward. Few of them have aspired to match Ninjago's current longevity (which was something of a fluke, since like Nexo Knights and Chima it was not originally intended to exceed a three-year lifespan). But that doesn't mean that the model isn't successful.

(also, how are the monster truck and bus in Hidden Side not "wacky and silly looking vehicles"?)

They did?I always assumed that Ninjago was the first one.And I'm not saying it's not successful,all I'm saying is that I'm not a fan of said model.

Also I'm not saying that those vechicles are not silly looking but they're the minority in HS and compared to what Ninjago/Chima/NK have introduced in the past,the truck and the bus are relatively tame in the scale of silliness.

Edited July 20, 2019 by LOTR34

[Fenghuang0296]

4 hours ago, LOTR34 said:

They did?I always assumed that Ninjago was the first one.And I'm not saying it's not successful,all I'm saying is that I'm not a fan of said model.

Also I'm not saying that those vechicles are not silly looking but they're the minority in HS and compared to what Ninjago/Chima/NK have introduced in the past,the truck and the bus are relatively tame in the scale of silliness.

We're looking at the same bus, right? XD

In all seriousness; if there's one thing I want from 2020 it's more representation for the actual ghosts. There was a new trailer last night that showed a lot of crazy ghosts, including a massive Gozer-like teddy bear that I really wish made it into one of the sets and will definitely MOC. The head swap ghosts just aren't enough for me.

[Pulp Detective]

13 minutes ago, Feng-huang0296 said:

We're looking at the same bus, right? XD

In all seriousness; if there's one thing I want from 2020 it's more representation for the actual ghosts. There was a new trailer last night that showed a lot of crazy ghosts, including a massive Gozer-like teddy bear that I really wish made it into one of the sets and will definitely MOC. The head swap ghosts just aren't enough for me.

I agree that the lack of actual ghosts in the sets is annoying but considering the nature of HS where you interact with the ghosts only in the app,means there are slim chances of us ever getting those ghosts in minifig form.

[Digger of Bricks]

21 hours ago, LOTR34 said:

Honestly I hope Nexo Knights is the last big bang theme Lego will ever produce.By now it's clear that Ninjago was born under a lucky star and it's success can't be replicated that easily or at all for that matter.Chima and Nexo Knights tried to do so and failed.

If Hidden Side isn't considered by TLG to be on par with Chima and Nexo Knights' goals (i.e. NOT a "big bang" theme), there is though another possible successor to such on the horizon for next year.  Recently, @dimaks13 gave us a range of fourteen 2020 set numbers code-named Leaf, respectively encompassing set numbers 71360 through 71373. @TeriXeri gave some reasonable speculation for why this mystery line could be a new "constraction" theme, though he also showed how that may not strictly be the case based upon the numbering of the range; so, there could be a slight possibility a wave of this size could instead be a new System-based "big bang" theme. 

21 hours ago, LOTR34 said:

Maybe I'm just old fashioned in the sense that I prefer old school action themes like Ultra Agents and Monster Fighters for example rather than big bang themes like Ninjago or Chima.But in the end of the day big bang themes could very easily be the future from now on and classic action themes might become a thing of the past.

I hope that won't be the case from here on out, as I dearly miss the variety a range of smaller in-house action/adventure themes could offer within a single year. 

21 hours ago, Lyichir said:

"Big Bang" themes existed before Ninjago and will continue to exist afterward. Few of them have aspired to match Ninjago's current longevity (which was something of a fluke, since like Nexo Knights and Chima it was not originally intended to exceed a three-year lifespan). But that doesn't mean that the model isn't successful.

Didn't TLG consider Power Miners to be a "big bang" theme at the time? 

[kelceycoe]

Lego must know something we don't to already have information available to the public about ten new sets for HS next year.

I'm with a lot of people. I think the second wave should have more actual ghosts and not these TimeCruiser swaps that look horrible. I wasn't a fan of the Ninjago Ghost series and not a fan of these ghosts at all. Way too fake. I didn't like the ghost pieces in the GB HQ set either, only the minifigs. These minifigs look like shit. I was going to buy one or two sets but they're poorly designed and way too flashy for me. That doesn't include the whole stupid AR concept. Why even have Lego sets if we can just play games on our phones that look way better than the sets?

Here's hoping the ghosts break beyond the ghost barrier and come into the real Newbury world so we get rid of the AR bull. Wave 2 would be much better.

I'm not a huge fan of Stranger Things either. I like it and enjoy the throwback to the '80s (which I didn't remember as that great as they glorify) but I don't love it, especially for a $200 set where I'd only care to have the monster.

[Pulp Detective]

The AR app and this theme go hand in hand.So the only time the app stops being a thing is when the theme ends(which hopefully wont happen anytime soon). 

I do agree that the possessed citizens aren't as exciting as the actual ghosts but as I said in the past you can only interact with the ghosts only in the app, unfortunately.So I doubt we'll get them in the sets anytime soon (if ever) but hopefully Lego might introduce possessed animals so in a way this theme will have it's own monsters.

[Aanchir]

On 7/21/2019 at 9:56 AM, Digger of Bricks said:

If Hidden Side isn't considered by TLG to be on par with Chima and Nexo Knights' goals (i.e. NOT a "big bang" theme), there is though another possible successor to such on the horizon for next year.  Recently, @dimaks13 gave us a range of fourteen 2020 set numbers code-named Leaf, respectively encompassing set numbers 71360 through 71373. @TeriXeri gave some reasonable speculation for why this mystery line could be a new "constraction" theme, though he also showed how that may not strictly be the case based upon the numbering of the range; so, there could be a slight possibility a wave of this size could instead be a new System-based "big bang" theme. 

I hope that won't be the case from here on out, as I dearly miss the variety a range of smaller in-house action/adventure themes could offer within a single year. 

Didn't TLG consider Power Miners to be a "big bang" theme at the time? 

Hidden Side is not a "big bang" theme simply because it's not LEGO's most major promotional and merchandising investment of the year across basically all their departments — The LEGO Movie 2 is. And that's generally how "big bang" themes are defined, not how long they're expected to last or whether they have their own TV show.

Power Miners was a "big bang" theme for that reason — if you remember the marketing from early 2009, Power Miners was a huge deal that year, and things only continued ramping up with subsequent "big bang" themes like Atlantis, Ninjago, and Legends of Chima.

Hidden Side is far more analogous to Ultra Agents, which also launched later in the same year that a LEGO Movie was released, and had a storyline largely developed with a mobile app format in mind (even before it introduced the "app bricks" that added an integrated play element, there was an Ultra Agents app communicating the first year's story via interactive comics and minigames).

Also, ten new Hidden Side sets slated for release next year is a big enough wave that I'd hardly consider a 14-set wave presumably intended for release at close to the same time a "successor" to Hidden Side. I mean, that's a far cry from the four Power Miners sets that overlapped with the huge first year of Atlantis, the four Atlantis sets that overlapped with the even bigger first year of Ninjago, or the five Ninjago sets that overlapped with the downright massive first year of Legends of Chima.

22 hours ago, kelceycoe said:

Lego must know something we don't to already have information available to the public about ten new sets for HS next year.

I'm with a lot of people. I think the second wave should have more actual ghosts and not these TimeCruiser swaps that look horrible. I wasn't a fan of the Ninjago Ghost series and not a fan of these ghosts at all. Way too fake. I didn't like the ghost pieces in the GB HQ set either, only the minifigs. These minifigs look like shit. I was going to buy one or two sets but they're poorly designed and way too flashy for me. That doesn't include the whole stupid AR concept. Why even have Lego sets if we can just play games on our phones that look way better than the sets?

Here's hoping the ghosts break beyond the ghost barrier and come into the real Newbury world so we get rid of the AR bull. Wave 2 would be much better.

In fairness, the ten new Hidden Side sets (along with all the other set numbers recently leaked) are not at all meant to be "available to the public" at this point.

Also, not sure where you're seeing any similarities to Time Cruisers with this stuff? Let alone what you expect a "real" LEGO ghost to look like, considering that you just expressed displeasure with basically every LEGO ghost except for the old-school sheet ghosts and the library ghost from the Ghostbusters HQ — never mind that ghosts aren't real.

Honestly, it's kind of baffling to me how many people think the ghosts in the app and illustrations look better than the ones in the sets. Other than the boss ghosts (or "boosses"), most of the ghosts we've seen that aren't actively possessing a target look pretty bland, with every one having a pretty much identical build, a uniform color and gloppy texture, and not even any headgear to set them apart from one another. By contrast, the possessed civilians/objects/vehicles/buildings are extremely varied, elaborate, and distinctive, with designs and features tailored to whoever or whatever they happen to be possessing.

The app definitely adds an additional layer to the experience of playing with the sets by bringing them to life (or, er, undeath?) with animated visuals and a "gamified" play pattern that echoes the theme's premise of kids hunting invisible specters using special camera technology. But I hardly see how that renders the sets redundant or unnecessary, particularly when the main thing making this game unique compared to what you could expect with a non-LEGO ghost hunting app is how the sets themselves are one of the main parts of the game's user interface. Solving puzzles and finding ghosts in the game is done via spatial and tactile interaction with the scene you've constructed using actual bricks, not just via conventional screen or button tapping like most previous LEGO games.

Even setting aside the aesthetics of the sets or whether you think they look "real" or "scary", there's some downright brilliant action features in a lot of the sets such as the train and school. That's a big part of what previously drew me to themes like LEGO Agents, Ninjago, and Elves, even if each of those themes had an entirely different core premise. There's something super fun about building ordinary-looking vehicles or scenes with cleverly constructed functions that unveil all kinds of hidden secrets with just a few smooth movements.

[Fenghuang0296]

@Aanchir Amen to everything you just said. I fully agree, but would like to point out that it's mostly the interestingly-designed boss ghosts we want - from what I've seen so far, primarily the highwayman in the box art of the Banana Truck (yes I know that's not what it's called but it's a cool name and now I want an actual Banana Truck), the ghost kraken in the Boat set and the electro teddy bear we saw in the trailers. The 'low-level' ghosts mostly aren't very interesting, no. (Though the Hydroman minifigure of FFH certainly looks like one and I intend to use him as such.)

[Fuppylodders]

On 7/22/2019 at 12:55 AM, kelceycoe said:

 

I'm with a lot of people. I think the second wave should have more actual ghosts and not these TimeCruiser swaps that look horrible.

 

I wasn't a fan of the Ninjago Ghost series and not a fan of these ghosts at all. Way too fake. I didn't like the ghost pieces in the GB HQ set either, only the minifigs. These minifigs look like shit. I was going to buy one or two sets but they're poorly designed and way too flashy for me. That doesn't include the whole stupid AR concept. Why even have Lego sets if we can just play games on our phones that look way better than the sets?

Here's hoping the ghosts break beyond the ghost barrier and come into the real Newbury world so we get rid of the AR bull. Wave 2 would be much better

I'm also all for them making better ghost representations that imitate the AR versions. 

 

I do have to question the second paragraph though... (I separated for ease of reference). 

Do tell what a non fake/real ghost looks like? Because as far as I'm aware, no one anywhere in the entire world has solid visual hi res graphical proof. 

So, while you're entitled to your opinion that the ghost pieces look shit, I disagree and think they give a good variation that could easily be viewed as them being 'evil ghostly presences' that aren't tied to any particular body, just bad/evil energy in its natural form. 

 

The mini figs in the hidden side sets are again, a nice variation. The prints are good, the pieces are good. OK, would be nice to have trans bodies, but we know the issues why they're not used. I can only hope they'll get round it soon enough, perhaps, they actually have and is what may well be included in the second wave. 

The 'AR' bulls**t won't go away from this theme at all. It's TLG trying to branch out into the digital world again, but this time I think they've got it right. I believe this will be a hit with kids. If you don't like it, you entirely have to do nothing at all to not have anything to do with it too! But for those kids that do, they'll have a new, and let's face it, modern way of interacting with their lego. Because let's face it, technology is in everything. And if incorporating it this way helps bring us a new theme like this? I'm all for it. 

I also think you're looking at this entire theme waaaay too much from an adult perspective entirely ignoring the fact this is aimed at young kids. 

Your previous mention about how it's not spooky or scary etc (I forget the exact words), of course its not... To adults. To teenagers. But. To some kids, really young kids, it'll have the same/similar effect as the TV series 'goosebumps' / 'Round the twist' / 'are you afraid of the dark'. They're nothing. But they play on imagination. 

 

Where's your inner child gone? Dig him out again :) 

[Digger of Bricks]

7 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Also, ten new Hidden Side sets slated for release next year is a big enough wave that I'd hardly consider a 14-set wave presumably intended for release at close to the same time a "successor" to Hidden Side. I mean, that's a far cry from the four Power Miners sets that overlapped with the huge first year of Atlantis, the four Atlantis sets that overlapped with the even bigger first year of Ninjago, or the five Ninjago sets that overlapped with the downright massive first year of Legends of Chima.

Oh, I wasn't at all suggesting that fourteen set wave could be a "successor" to Hidden Side (that's just impossibly early for such). Rather, I was postulating that it could be a System-based "big bang" successor to Nexo Knights (that is, if it isn't a new constraction theme), thereby discounting prior speculation on my part that the Hidden Side theme is that "big bang" successor to Nexo Knights.

[anothergol]

Looks more like a temporary theme, like Ultra Agents was, with some digital gimmicks as required these days. But not being backed up by a TV show, it means it's not supposed to be very big.
I'm not much interested in it, but it looks a lot better than Nexo Knights. Of course it's nothing original, it's a mix of old classics, but Lego has rarely been original.

[Fenghuang0296]

1 hour ago, anothergol said:

Looks more like a temporary theme, like Ultra Agents was, with some digital gimmicks as required these days. But not being backed up by a TV show, it means it's not supposed to be very big.
I'm not much interested in it, but it looks a lot better than Nexo Knights. Of course it's nothing original, it's a mix of old classics, but Lego has rarely been original.

Are you certain there won't be a TV show? Or at least an animated short like Atlantis got back in the day? Because the footage they released at SDCC felt a lot like it was an excerpt from something longer. In particular, when jack and Parker first see the teddy bear, Jack's first reaction is "It's that teddy bear from the painting," What painting? why would they make a reference to a 'painting' if they were never going to show the painting? I think this points to some animation existing that's going to be released down the line. 

[Pulp Detective]

10 minutes ago, Feng-huang0296 said:

Are you certain there won't be a TV show? Or at least an animated short like Atlantis got back in the day? Because the footage they released at SDCC felt a lot like it was an excerpt from something longer. In particular, when jack and Parker first see the teddy bear, Jack's first reaction is "It's that teddy bear from the painting," What painting? why would they make a reference to a 'painting' if they were never going to show the painting? I think this points to some animation existing that's going to be released down the line. 

In the school set there is a play fuction where you reveal a creepy painting and infront of it is also a teddy bear(it's not a new mold but the printing is),you can find the picture on instagram.

Edited July 23, 2019 by LOTR34

[Lyichir]

2 hours ago, Feng-huang0296 said:

Are you certain there won't be a TV show? Or at least an animated short like Atlantis got back in the day? Because the footage they released at SDCC felt a lot like it was an excerpt from something longer. In particular, when jack and Parker first see the teddy bear, Jack's first reaction is "It's that teddy bear from the painting," What painting? why would they make a reference to a 'painting' if they were never going to show the painting? I think this points to some animation existing that's going to be released down the line. 

I believe at SDCC they said there would be a few animated specials. Which sounds more like the four-episode Ninjago Pilot from 2011 than the full series order that subsequent themes like Legends of Chima and Nexo Knights got.

[Fenghuang0296]

Okay, so I'm looking at the Intercept Bus 3000 (in MandReproductions' review) and one of the stickers shows what looks like some kind of humanoid mech. I want to say it also resembles a water tower (as in a water tower that has been possessed and turned into a massive ghostly monster, which you have to admit is a very cool idea for a set), but I'm not certain. Point is, I'd suspect this is foreshadowing for a future set, either a big ghost monster or a ghost-fighting Mech in the vein of the Intercept Bus and the Banana Truck. Discuss?

[Pulp Detective]

4 hours ago, Feng-huang0296 said:

Okay, so I'm looking at the Intercept Bus 3000 (in MandReproductions' review) and one of the stickers shows what looks like some kind of humanoid mech. I want to say it also resembles a water tower (as in a water tower that has been possessed and turned into a massive ghostly monster, which you have to admit is a very cool idea for a set), but I'm not certain. Point is, I'd suspect this is foreshadowing for a future set, either a big ghost monster or a ghost-fighting Mech in the vein of the Intercept Bus and the Banana Truck. Discuss?

That's just a Bionicle easter egg.

[Lucarex]

*apologies, meant to post in current 2019 thread*

Edited July 30, 2019 by Lucarex

[Fenghuang0296]

So we heard on the app that there's code to recognise Pilot and Stewardess minifigures, which implies that one of the upcoming sets is going to be a Possessed Plane. The existence of a Stewardess implies that it's going to be a passenger plane, which means it'll probably be big. Based on the rumoured part counts, I suspect it'll be 70431 or 70432. Or one of the ones with unnumbered part counts. Thoughts?

Speaking of which, I'm just now noticing that none of the leaked part counts at all approach this year's larger sets, the Haunted High School had close to three times the largest known set of this wave. If the known and unknown sets are different waves, that would imply a smaller supplementary wave for winter next year. But if this is all one wave, then I suspect that the unknown ones will be on the larger side.