How a Hidden Side bus almost broke conventional LEGO play 

LEGO Hidden Side’s 70423 Paranormal Intercept Bus 3000 almost broke standard conventions of LEGO play and not just because of the app. 

LEGO Hidden Side may be long gone, but as our recent discussion with designer Niek van Slagmaat has revealed, one of its biggest builds stands out in his portfolio of builds for a few reasons.  

70423 Paranormal Intercept Bus 3000 was launched in 2019 for £54.99 / $59.99 / €59.99 with 689 pieces and five minifigures. Hidden Side’s range of builds was all designed to integrate with an augmented reality experience delivered via a now-retired app. This led to a few constraints in development to make sure everything went smoothly 

“Normally in a set like this, we would have it either open up or you could take the roof off to play inside,” explained Niek.  

“Because either of those features would completely ruin our app’s perception of where the model is, it wouldn’t be able to recognise it anymore, I made the lab’s interior extractable – you can pull it out of the back – and you can play as if you were inside of the bus.” 

Changing features isn’t the only way that this Hidden Side bus almost broke conventional LEGO play. The augmented reality integration detected where the model was based on the shape and selected coloured tiles, meaning that these tiles had to stay precisely where they were. 

“It was a big challenge to design this set, specifically because we were trying to figure out how to reliably make these switches work with the AR. The gun on top rotates around but has a changeable tile that always stays in the same place and the doors always open to the same spot.” 

The setting of LEGO Hidden Side also allowed for some creativity in the design, mixing vehicles and concepts that had never been officially combined before. 

“One of the cool things I like about this set is that it’s contemporary but also fantasy at the same time, which I think is a very interesting direction – we don’t do that a lot with LEGO. Having the icon of a school bus combined with all this high-tech, it’s a fun avenue to explore.” 

Niek’s description could also fit 71460 Mr. Oz’s Spacebus, suggesting that some ideas are too good to retire with their themes. 

You can watch the rest of our chat with Niek van Slagmaat by clicking on the above video, with further discussion of several other sets from their portfolio. 

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