Review : LEGO Hidden Side 70419 Wrecked Shrimp Boat

The sets of the range Lego hidden side are now available, so it's time to take a look at one of these eight new boxes that promise to combine the pleasure of construction with a certain dose of interactivity thanks to augmented reality.

The and 70419 Wrecked Shrimp Boat (310 pieces - 29.99 €) features a small fishing boat, some reefs, Captain Jonas and his son Jonas Jr, Jack Davids, Parker L. Jackson, Spencer the dog (ghost) of our two heroes and an albino alligator .

As it stands and without calling on the dedicated application, the set already offers a minimum of playability on condition of showing imagination: the boat is aground, the alligator is about to eat the two sailors - fishermen, the two heroes arrive in kayaks to lend them a hand, etc ... forward the stories.

Much has been said about the possibility of pairing the fishing boat provided here with the store from the LEGO Ideas set. 21310 Old Fishing Store to which it is matched, but it will first be necessary to tinker a little to remove the colored wheel located at the rear next to the engine, this somewhat unsightly outgrowth then becoming unnecessary.

As you can imagine, the set is assembled very quickly. A few stickers to stick, some on a transparent background, and you're done. The fishing boat is in two parts, assembled together via two pine Technic that you can remove when the shell is split to improve the staging.

The reefs provided serve as support for the two parts of the stranded boat and the monster hiding under the rocks only appears if you lift them. Ridding this set of its attributes connoted Hidden Side is therefore not very complicated, and it remains a very successful boat with its many details and enough room to stage two minifigs.

The kayak delivered here is not new, it is also delivered in this color in the small LEGO CITY set 60240 Kayak Adventures. The boat allows only one character to be properly installed, the one accompanying it will have to be satisfied with the few tenons placed at the back.

As promised by LEGO, this set therefore benefits from a certain interactivity via the Hidden Side application, available on iOS (version 11 mini. With ARKit 2) and Android (version 7.0 min with ARCore). The concept that makes use of augmented reality is technically convincing, it is enough to aim the boat with the camera of the smartphone for the construction to appear in a rather successful digital staging.

Difficult for me to honestly judge the playful potential of the application, I am not the target of the concept. What I take away is that while the visual embedding is very pleasant, the features offered are a bit too basic for my taste. Nothing very original, it is here to scan in turn one of the four colors of the wheels placed at the back of the boat to reveal haunted areas and ghosts to capture by tapping frantically on the screen of the smartphone.

There is even a fictitious "social networks" function within the application which pushes the player to complete as many missions as possible to see his count of virtual "fans" increase. Not sure all parents appreciate this introduction to the basics of digital popularity. For the rest, it is mainly a question of clicking, clicking and clicking again to eliminate the "glow", capture ghosts, unlock some bonuses and other improvements, etc ...

If you want to test the application without buying a set from the range, you can use the photo of the boat earlier in the article. Display it by clicking on the thumbnail, launch the application, and place the smartphone lens in front of the photo. It is not really necessary to turn the wheel to access the different colored areas, just insist by clicking repeatedly on the area concerned and it works ...

I think that the youngest will eventually find their account there, at least for a few hours. On the other hand, I'm not sure that they want to put the table back together with the eight boxes in the range, even if the environments vary depending on the content of the set being staged.

The minifig endowment is very correct here. We obviously get the two recurring heroes: Jack Davids and Parker L. Jackson but the minifigs delivered here are fortunately not exclusive to this box: Jack Davids is also delivered with this outfit in the sets 70420 Graveyard Mystery, 70421 El Fuego's Stunt Truck, Parker L. Jackson is also present in this form in the sets 70420 Graveyard Mystery et 70425 Newbury Haunted High School.

The pad printing is successful and the molded accessories for the cap under the hood and the cap with integrated hair are very convincing. Each of the characters is equipped with their personal smartphone, just to underline that the device is essential for capturing ghosts and the two heroes are accompanied by Spencer, a small molded dog with a transparent part that gives it a very airy side. ..

The two fishermen provided will find their place in any diorama featuring a fishing port. It's a flawless thing for Captain Jonas' minifigure, the slightly dull orange area of ​​his son's torso, however, is not really in line with the rest of the outfit.

As a bonus, LEGO delivers enough to transform the ship's captain into a ghost with a cute head, two swords and a set of tentacles to slide on the neck of the minifig. There is a mini-game in the application that allows you to scan a minifigure to reveal ghosts. You can test the functionality by aiming at Jonas' minifigure in monster version below.

For those who are wondering, the albino alligator delivered in this box is in three parts: the body with the lower jaw, the upper jaw and the mobile tail which is held by a pine Technical.

Below I have put together some screenshots for you of what you will find in the app. You can choose to play as a ghost hunter or a ghost. In the second case, you will have access to mini games which can amuse the youngest.

To activate the augmented reality feature, you must stand on the boat here, and follow the directions provided to then embark on ghost hunting. Once again, the level of finish of the application is exemplary, everything is correctly translated into French and the youngest will have no trouble quickly becoming independent thanks to the help provided. Then it's up to them to judge the interest of spending time chasing virtual ghosts by tapping on the screen of their smartphone if they have one available or by taking advantage of their parents' ...

THE SET 70419 WRECKED SHRIMP BOAT ON THE LEGO SHOP >>

Note: The set shown here, supplied by LEGO, is included as usual. To participate in the draw, all you have to do is post a comment (avoid "I participate, I try, etc ..." be a little more constructive) on this article before the August 14, 2019 at 23:59 p.m.. You have every right to disagree with me, this is not eliminatory.

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.