The LegoLego PokipsiebrickLegos 1Lego MinecraftLego ArtLegos BuildingsLego HousesLego RickLego Building DioramaForwardBURPs. We're all very familiar with those big, ugly, and fairly useless chunks of plastic that Lego was so fond of adding into sets as fi...Dr Who Lego is soon to be a reality after the BBC struck a multi-million pound deal with the toy company. The Time Lord, his Tardis and his enemies are going to be recreated in the brightly-coloured little bricks. Generations of children have hid behind their sofas during episodes of Dr Who, but now fans will be able to take matters into their own hands, creating mini-adventures of their own. The new concept followed an international Lego competition in which people were encouraged to submit ideas and vote for their favourite product. The initial idea, created by Doctor Who fan Andrew Clark, included monsters and villains such as the Angel and a Dalek. His pitch included plans for a Tardis and figures including Peter Capaldi and David Tennant.
Lego have yet to reveal which characters will definitely feature in the set, but they do promise a range of Doctors, companions and monsters from across the show's history. Most would agree that no set would be complete without the Doctor's most famous enemy, the Daleks. Emma Owen, UK spokesperson for Lego Ideas, said: "We're extremely excited to announce that a Doctor Who and a Wall-E set will be released as our next Lego Ideas fan based sets, congratulations to the designers Andrew Clark and Angus MacLane. "After receiving over 10,000 votes from the online community and having gone through rigorous toy testing from our expert panel, these awesome sets are on track to be on shelves later this year. "The final set designs, pricing and availability are being worked out as we speak, so watch this space for the final details."If you weren’t already quite excited at the prospect of Doctor Who Lego Dimensions, then you will be after you’ve watched this awesome trailer. The clip for the game, which was unveiled at Comic Con in San Diego, not only features Peter Capaldi’s incarnation of the Time Lord in all his plastic brick glory, but offers a whole load of other surprises too.
For example, you might recognise this chap: And there are a few familiar faces here also: Yes that is Gandalf, not to mention Wildstyle from The Lego Movie- all joining the Doctor in the Tardis. Oh, and there’s this little hide-behind-the-sofa moment too: Not to mention a bit where it goes all Back To The Future on us: The trailer also reveals that every single incarnation of the Doctor is present and correct – and that when the Doctor you are playing as dies in the game, he regenerates as the next Time Lord. Eventually once your Peter Capaldi version loses a life, the action goes back to William Hartnell’s Doctor, complete with black and white backdrops. The man himself was on hand to see the first footage of the game at Comic-Con – and was similarly taken aback by it all. See anyone you recognise? This tiny little figure here is me with a little grey toupee on! It’s amazing!” he told Business Insider. Doctor Who Lego Dimensions is released on XBox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PS3, and Wii U on September 27.
MORE: SDCC 2015: 22 things you need to look out for at this year’s Comic ConI’ve never played a toys-to-life game. Something about the major selling point of a game being a glorified action-less figure never really appealed to me. I love Lego, though. As a child, I built futuristic skylines from gray- and neon-colored bricks, pitting my minifig denizens in genre-clashing medieval-galactic war. So if there was ever a toys-to-life game that intrigued me, it’s Lego Dimensions. Due this September from developer Traveller’s Tales and publisher Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PS3, Wii U, and Xbox 360, Dimensions follows that genre-mashing ideal of my youth, but instead of blending sci-fi elements with medieval warriors, it leverages the now-substantial catalog of licensed Lego properties into a single gameplay experience. I played a demo of the game in advance of this week’s E3 Expo, where Warner Bros. is showing it off. Your three default heroes, playable throughout the entire game, are The Lord of the Rings’ Gandalf, Batman, and The Lego Movie’s Wyldstyle—their minifig incarnations, at least.
In their journey—which centers around a trans-dimensional gateway that, once built in real life, serves as the activation portal for your figurines and vehicles—they are joined by the likes of Scooby-Doo, Marty McFly, Homer Simpson, and even Chell from Valve’s videogame Portal, assuming you buy additional level packs. Sold separately, of course. Thus far, I was on board. Mash Portal, Doctor Who, Jurassic Park, and The Wizard of Oz together? Unfortunately, for me at least, the game wasn’t really much fun to play. If you’ve played any of the Lego videogames, this will feel familiar. Fairly linear progression, simple puzzles usually solved by tapping the “build” button or finding a particular Lego piece in the area. Basic hack-and-slash punchy-kick combat. The one area in which Dimensions differentiates itself from both previous Lego games as well as others in the toys-to-life space is the implementation of the summoning portal, the NFC device that reads the toys and activates them in the game.
The pad features seven total spots for you to place characters and vehicles (like the Mystery Machine and the DeLorean, naturally). In some combat situations, such as a character being trapped in an immobilizing web, the pad will flash red underneath the corresponding minifig. Rather than mash a button or some other command, players must pick up their imperiled character and physically move it to a safe zone on the pad. Gameplay will sometimes call for the reconfiguring of vehicles, such as transforming the Batmobile from a sleek roadster into a compact tank that can bust open rocks. When it’s time for a transformation, the game presents you with a digital Lego instruction booklet, showing you step-by-step how to dismantle and rebuild your chariot into the necessary configuration. Both of these are interesting takes on the toys-to-life formula, things I’m sure will excite the game’s presumable target demographic of kids. But as gameplay innovations, they left me wanting.