As we eagerly await the official announcement of what comes next for Lego Dimensions (Wave 6) in 2016, we got an early look at some of the packs we can expect courtesy of Amazon:

1. Ghostbusters Story Pack – #71242 – Based on the new film, this brand new type of Lego Dimensions pack contains six levels of game content, the Abby Yates Ghostbuster character, the new Ecto-1 vehicle and a Lego Gateway build for Zhu’s Chinese Restaurant. This pack will also unlock a new Ghostbusters Adventure World and exclusive Battle Arena.

2. Adventure Time Level Pack – #71245 – Based on the hit cartoon series, play as Finn in a Land of Ooo themed level, drive the Jakemobile and ride on the Ancient War Elephant. This pack will also unlock the Adventure Time Adventure World and Pillow World Battle Area.

3. Adventure Time Team Pack – #71246 – Add Jake and Lumpy to your collection, with their Slurp Access, Grapple Swing and Shape Shift abilities. Take the Lumpy Car for a spin or have BMO give you a lift. This pack will also unlock the Adventure Time Adventure World and Pillow World Battle Area.

4. Harry Potter Team Pack – #71247 – Based on the Harry Potter film series, play as Harry in a new Harry Potter Adventure World making use of his magical abilities to cast Leviosa, Stupify and Expelliarmus to fight of the Death Eaters or play as Voldemort to access Dark Arts spells and enter the Battle Arena.

5. Mission Impossible Level Pack – #71428 – IMF Agent Ethan Hunt arrives in Lego form complete with a brand new Lego Dimensions level. Infiltrate your way through the American Embassy, CIA Headquarters as you attempt to track down the villain who framed you for the theft of highly classified materials from IMF. Ethan can use his Camera Spectacles for the perfect disguise, and wear the Magno Gloves to sneak your way up walls. This pack also unlocks an exclusive Mission: Impossible Adventure World and Battle Arena.

6. A-Team Fun Pack – #71251 – Dur de de dur, de de durr! B.A. Baracus from the A-Team smashes his way into Lego Dimensions with his Super Strength and Fix-It abilities, bringing the A-Team Van with him! Rebuild the van into the Fool Smasher and enter the A-Team Adventure World and Battle Arena

No sign of the Gremlins or Goonies as yet!

We announce the winner of our Anki Overdrive Megatrack winner and review some of the amazingly creative entries from families across the world.

We talk to Pramod Sharma, CEO of Osmo.

“It’s very similar to building with Lego. Try to make the language of coding to be the most natural form that kids can easily grasp.”

“Osmo is creating a new medium for children to learn, explore and grow. The journey involves building a strong business and amazing content.”

“We are going to launch quite a few new games the rest of this year and we are growing. We have an international team, France, Canada, US this helps us to build things that are language and culture agnostic.”

I talk to Pramod Sharma the CEO of Osmo to hear about his new game, Osmo Coding.

The game is for children 5-12 years old and can be used with the existing Osmo game system. The game pairs Osmo’s first character, Awbie, with the company’s Reflective AI technology to unleash coding from a digital environment and put computer science in children’s hands.

The game taps the knowledge and experience of Osmo’s team of former Google software engineers who were responsible for writing more than 10 million lines of code for products like Google Search, Docs and Chrome. The physical design of the coding blocks in Osmo Coding is the work of a 23-year-old, female industrial engineer who might just be the youngest person to ever launch a physical product in the Apple Retail Stores.

This uses the same technology as other Osmo titles. The reflective AI technology allows an iPad to “see” objects in front of it, so children can play in the real world while still benefiting from the power of technology.

Osmo Coding uses crafted blocks that snap together in front of an iPad and are interpreted as instructions that guide AwbieTM on a journey to finding yummy strawberries in her magical world.

Previous Osmo games include Words, Newton Tangram, Masterpiece and Numbers, which reinvigorated spelling, physics spatial reasoning, drawing and math, respectively. The company’s dedication to creating educational, elegant and fun activities that bridge physical and digital worlds made it one of Time Magazine’s 25 Best Inventions of 2014 and it continues to be a favorite of teachers, parents and kids alike.

We received and unboxed Wave 5 Lego Dimensions expansions from Warner.

This includes:
– DC Comics Bane Fun Pack brings Bane to Lego Dimensions for the first time with a solid round of abilities: Hazard Protection, Big Transform and Super Stealth. He also has a 3-in-1 Drill Driver that can be rebuilt as the Dig ‘n Drill and Drill ‘n Blast for additional upgrades.

– The Ghostbusters Fun Pack grants access to Slimer and his Boomerang, Sonar Smash, Flying, Dive, Hazard Clean, Illumination, Mini Access and Hazard Protection abilities. The pack also includes the Slime Shooter that can be rebuilt into the Slime Exploder or Slime Streamer.

– Ninjago Fun Pack brings us Lloyd and his Spinjitzu, Illumination, Acrobat, Laser Deflector and Stealth abilities. The include Golden Dragon can also be rebuilt into a Sword Projector Dragon or Mega Flight Dragon for further powers.

We talk to Nick Mayberry and Doug Renert of Tandem Digital who have been studying the connect and toys to life space as investors.

I spoke to Doug Renert, co-founding partner of Tandem Captial, asking him what their report had uncovered in this space?

“Technology is driving a new set of toy experiences and companies are taking advantage of this. Also, there are new ways to monetise in the toy space. Finally there are new methods of distribution taking play from the app to the toy space. This all bodes well for start-ups and new comers to the market.”

Nick Mayberry, director of content at Tandem, expanded on this picture through the year. “We hear about connected toys often around the holiday season, what happened in 2015 is that consumer interest as measure by Google Trends extended beyond the holiday season. Tech becomes a fundamental of play rather than a gimmick.”

“In our research we discovered that the toys to life category was underfunded compared to other categories. An opportunity for big large scale businesses to grow from that into cross-media rather than just connected toys.”

“As long as newcomers can be creative in developing intellectual properties and stories and how to acquire their audiences. One reason some may think it’s ‘game over’ is that when a company like Disney enters the market with its intellectual property and cross media domination it can be daunted for other to enter. But that’s what start-ups are all about, creating new and inventive ways to develop intellectual properties.”

Of course this was a feature of Activision launching Skylanders very much attached to the Spyro brand and character. Since those early years it has eclipsed the diminutive dragon but it seemed an important connection to begin with.

“We put Anki in the robotics category because of the car’s artificial intelligence that learns the tracks. Sphero is another company in this space, who have a strong relationship with Disney and links to BB-8.”

“A nimble start-up is going to have to prove their business model before they get access to that capital, while larger companies have more resources. The winners at the end of the day will have amassed the capital to build out big brands one way or another.”

“Some of it depends on innovation. Having started with a single figure that opened an iPad game, but now we are seeing the ‘brains’ be put into the figures themselves that then impacts on the game. The games are also becoming more complex with in-app purchases. Add-ons are also happening on the toys themselves where buying additions will open up new possibilities in the virtual world.

Summing up Renert reiterated the opportunities here. “I don’t see this slowing down I see it picking up. I don’t think there will be 20 winners. The business for the small handful of winners will continue to grow.”

We have an early look at the Lego Minecraft Village 21128.

Build and protect The Village!

Join forces with Alex at the busy Minecraft™ village, including a variety of biomes plus a watchtower, library, blacksmith, butcher and marketplace. Enjoy hands-on Minecraft adventures featuring your favorite characters and objects with this LEGO® Minecraft set—designed for young fans of the highly successful sandbox video game.
• Includes 4 minifigures: Steve, Alex, zombie and a zombie villager, plus a Creeper™, enderman, pig, baby pig, iron golem and 2 villagers (a farmer and a librarian).
• The Village features rainforest, snow and desert biomes, and includes a watchtower, library, blacksmith, butcher and a marketplace.
• Fold out the library and butcher’s buildings and lift the marketplace roof to access the interiors.
• Grab your iron sword and prepare for battle!
• Build the iron golem to help protect the village.
• Accessory elements include a crafting table, water bucket, emerald-ore-style elements, 2 pumpkin heads and a chest with emerald-style elements.
• Weapons include a sword and a pickaxe.
• Set your imagination free—rebuild the set for more LEGO® Minecraft™ creations!
• Measures over 5” (15cm) high, 19” (49cm) wide and 17” (44cm) deep.

The trailer, which shows off characters from various Star Wars films highlights a number of new features that will be coming to the game, along with some favorite features from recent Lego games.

Blaster Battles are brand new. Here players get more intense gun fights that include the sort of cover system we are used to seeing in shooters. This is the first time it’s included in a LEGO game. Characters can duck behind the brick based terrain and then pop out from the safety of cover to fight enemies with blaster fire.

Multi-Builds are another feature in the game that will enable players to make different constructions from the sane stack of bricks. This should offer more diversity in how each puzzle is solved. Lateral thinking rather than just trying out every ability will be more the order of the day in this Lego game.

Finally we see more space flight. This seems to extend what we have in Lego Marvel’s Avengers with high-speed flight integrated with level game-play. Of course this features the various iconic Star Wars vehicles including the Millennium Falcon and X Wings.

With the game launching at the end of June on pretty much every system in the known universe, the force still looks strong with this one. Particularly with that new cover system.

We have a look at the Wave 4 minifigures for Lego Dimensions:
– Stay Puft (71233)
– Gamer Kid (71235)
– Superman (71236)
– Aquaman (71237)

Most exciting is the Midway Arcade level pack comes with a build-able Gamer Kid minifigure, Spy Hunter vehicle and Arcade Machine.It unlocks 20 classic arcade games from Midway Arcade:
Seven Twenty, Badlands, Blasteroids, Championship Sprint, Defender, Defender II, Gauntlet, Gauntlet II, KLAX, Joust, Joust 2, Marble Madness, Paperboy, Rampage, Road Blasters, Robron, Spyhunter, SuperSprint, Timber, Toobin, Cyberball, Vindicators, Xybots.

We have a look at what’s on offer in Wave 4 of Lego Dimensions.

This Midway Arcade level pack comes with a build-able Gamer Kid minifigure, Spy Hunter vehicle and Arcade Machine.It unlocks 20 classic arcade games from Midway Arcade:
Seven Twenty, Badlands, Blasteroids, Championship Sprint, Defender, Defender II, Gauntlet, Gauntlet II, KLAX, Joust, Joust 2, Marble Madness, Paperboy, Rampage, Road Blasters, Robron, Spyhunter, SuperSprint, Timber, Toobin, Cyberball, Vindicators, Xybots.

The Gamer Kid comes with a host of different unlock abilities as well – Stealth, Laser, Speed, Invulnerability, and Super Strength each unlock more areas of the open world and campaign game.

Also in Wave 4 of Lego Dimensions is the DC Comics Superman fun pack that offers a Superman minifigure and Hover Pod vehicle. Superman has an impressive array of abilities: Flying, Dive, Invulnerability, Laser Deflector, Freeze Breath, X-Ray Vision, and Super Strength.

The DC Comics Aquaman fun pack adds a playable Aquaman and Aqua Watercraft to the game. Aquaman offers Dive, Growth, Atlantis and Hazard Cleaner abilities that each unlock new ares.

Finally for Wave 4 we have Ghostbusters’ Stay Puft villain and the iconic Terror Dog from the film. Marshmallow Man has Hazard Protection, Big Transform and Super Strength abilities.