You may remember that back in June LEGO made a bit of a splash in the media about a new range of products called LEGO Fusion that were going to bridge the divide between the physical and the digital.
All of the coverage (from Engadget to The Australian) had one thing in common; the idea that this was about keeping LEGO relevant with kids who grow up with touchscreens. At the time there were a lot of LEGO fans that were intrigued by the concept.
The sets were scheduled for release in August, and at the time we said that we didn’t have an Australian price. It is currently the middle of October and we still don’t have Australian pricing, or any indication of an Australian release date. Our quick investigation seems to indicate that these sets are only available in the US.
The associated apps (the part that made this theme innovative) aren’t even available in the Australian iTunes store so if you wanted to buy these sets from overseas you would also have to gain access the US iTunes store.
What we find quite intriguing about all of this is that nobody seems to care. We haven’t had a single email from people looking for the Fusion sets and Australian discussion about these sets seems to be non-existent. These sets were developed by a department in LEGO called the Future Lab, but at this point in time these sets don’t really seem to be the future of LEGO.
It’s possible that this theme was a big miscalculation on the part of LEGO. The LEGO Fusion sets come with around 200 bricks that the game with recognise, and we suspect that will hold very little appeal for children who know their way around Minecraft on an iPad. There is also the possibility that these just aren’t very good; according to Amazon reviews 21206 Create & Race currently has 1.5 stars and 21205 Battle Towers has 2.5 stars.
It will be interesting too see what happens with LEGO Fusion. These sets could release in Australia tomorrow and become the next big thing, but that seems unlikely.
We’d love to know what you think about LEGO Fusion in the comments.
I just considered this to be the follow up for Lego Master Builder academy which has never been released in Australia either.
I was unaware they were available. They seem to be a step forward in some respects but they would need some great marketing to see them go mainstream.
I liked the look of the parts that were going to be in those sets. My 7 year old asked if there was a lego building app on the ipad and I told him about fusion and he was pretty excited and wanted santa to get it.
How do you tell a 7 year old it only comes out in the US.
This sounds like the kind of thing that would have been suggested in the early 2000s, when everyone was still enthusiastic about the new millenium and thought computers were going to change the world overnight.
A LEGO set that isn’t fun and a computer game that isn’t fun either; put them together and what have you got? A mind-numbing piece of rubbish in my opinion, but I could be wrong.
I am looking at buying it as toys r us while ship to Australia but I can’t download the app!!!!
I bought Lego Fusion in the US on a business trip as a present for my daughter. Now I can’t download the app Australia. Very frustrating that Lego don’t make the app available everywhere for download or warn people on the label that the app is only downloadable on the US App Store!!!
I’ve been waiting for news about Lego Fusion in Australia. I hope it still comes out, but it’s not looking good.
I too have been waiting for this product for some months for my grandson and just expected it would arrive in time for Xmas, looks as though I will have to find an alternative.
We actually bought it from Legoland in florida on a recent trip (September). And the staff didn’t tell us it was USA only. So yeah. We are eagerly awaiting its AUS release.
My 10 year old daughter just bought Lego Fusion from the Lego Store in Disney Way, she is very disappointed that the app isn’t available in Australia as the sales assistant didn’t advise us it was a US app only. She now believes she has wasted her money. She has sent Lego an email so far no answer…