The LEGO Group has today announced a unique interactive experience for budding designers: LEGO City Missions.

The new experience will take kids on a story-led building journey – putting imagination and creative experimentation to the test. It’s the latest innovation from LEGO City that lets children dive into an awesome world of interactive adventures and missions to be solved through instruction-free building challenges and engagement with on-screen characters.

LEGO City Missions launches with three new sets based on animal rescue, space exploration and police detective mysteries. Each model is accompanied by an interactive story, with each story containing eight distinctive missions. Children will be given inspiration for core model builds, which they will then be encouraged to constantly rebuild and adapt to the different scenarios, prompts and missions they encounter throughout each story.

“The team behind LEGO City Missions wanted to explore a new route to celebrate children’s imagination and let their creativity flourish during LEGO building,” says Lillie Ann Talbott, Design Strategist, Creative Play Lab at the LEGO Group. “We know from talking with children and their parents that creative confidence is key to children’s wellbeing and with this new product our aim is to help every child recognise and be proud of their unique creations.”

Mikkel Lee, Story Innovation Lead, Creative Play Lab at the LEGO Group, adds: “We want every child to know that there is no right or wrong, and that only their imagination sets the limit to what they build. With LEGO City Missions we’ve worked hard to ensure a strong balance of storytelling to get children started on their builds but also to give them open tasks to complete and allow for individual interpretation. Throughout our testing we’re constantly reminded that children are creative geniuses, and so we really can’t wait to see what they come up with!”

Using a QR code inside the box, the interactive stories are accessed via the LEGO Digital Building Instructions app.

The new LEGO City Missions sets are:

• LEGO City Wild Animal Rescue Missions Utilising the core model, the rescue pick-up truck, kids will be able to rebuild and accessorise their set as they solve missions throughout the story. Through the digital stories, kids will play the lead by interacting with onscreen characters such as Westbrook, Jessica Sharpe and Fendrich to solve challenges throughout their build experience and rescue animals around town from sticky situations.
• LEGO City Mars Spacecraft Exploration Missions Grab the spacecraft to customise and complete fun missions through the digital story provided. Featuring Astronaut Lt. Rivera and Dr. Wexler, children will find endless joy and excitement as they work with these in-app characters to explore space and Mars.
• LEGO City Water Police Detective Missions Children will customise the police boat with accessories like a camera, trophy, diver mask, handcuffs, walkie-talkie and more to play detective and work with favourite characters like Chief Wheeler and Gracie Goodhart to accomplish tasks at hand. And don’t forget to grab your favorite furry pal to help with the job.

With each adventure chosen by children, featuring different missions, there is ample opportunity for them to be the heroes of the story. Using the power of storytelling to ignite imagination, with the LEGO bricks provided, children can extend the physical play experience as they build and rebuild continuously.

These new sets will be available at select retailers from June 1 globally, excluding China, with a recommended retail price of 29.99 EUR/39.99 USD.

A smartphone or tablet with the LEGO Building Instructions app installed is required to play LEGO CITY Missions.