This is so cool. You hold a Lego box up to their “Digital Box” kiosk, and it animates the construction and action of the Lego set on top of the box in real time. Move or rotate the box, and the animated model follows.
I love this, but Lego could do three things to make it a home run:
- Double down on this hard. These should be everywhere, and for every product, not just large Town playsets.
- Put these on the Lego website. When selling a $500 Millennium Falcon set, give me 3D animation of the build process, not just crummy thumbnails.
- Put these at child level. I’m 6’2″ but had to hold the set up to my chest for it to work, and the kids had trouble seeing the animation. Maybe Lego is doing something subtle here, making it so that children have to hand the toy to their parents (only grownups have wallets). Or maybe I’m just prone to seeing behavioral marketing tactics everywhere.
I look forward to the day I can try on virtual clothes from home using my TV and a webcam.
Related post: Lego goes the extra penny for users.