Lego's New Product Lets You Build Stuff And Then Play With Them Virtually On Your iPad

Just as "The Lego Movie" launches on DVD this week, the construction toy company has announced a new product called Lego Fusion, which lets you build real-world Lego creations and upload them to iOS and Android tablet apps so you can play with your creations in virtual worlds and games.

According to Mashable's Lance Ulanoff, each Lego Fusion box comes with 200 Lego pieces, which you can use to build in play in virtual games like "Town Master," where you have to build a town, "Resort Designer," a racing game called "Create and Race," and a game where you have to defend your tower called "Battle Towers."

You can upload all of your physical Lego creations to become part of the game, but each creation joins the larger Lego community where others similarly upload their Fusion sets. This means you can race cars and battle towers with real players and their unique creations, or even let your townspeople visit other players' towns.

Unlike other Lego sets, Lego Fusion comes with no build instructions - Master Builders familiar with "The Lego Movie" should know they don't need instructions to make great things. But there are three general rules to follow: You need to build facades - 16 bricks wide by 16 bricks tall, in any shape or style - the facades must be built on a Fusion Capture Plate (a technology made possible thanks to Qualcomm's augmented reality platform Vuforia) and each facade must include a door.

Once you've built your facade, Lego's free game app can capture your structure by aiming your tablet's camera at your creation on top of the Fusion Capture Plate. After you see a green marquee show up around your Lego wall, your Lego creation is recreated within the game, brick by brick.

After your facade's in the game, you - well, a Lego character doing your bidding - can drop the facade in any spot and the game does the rest, building virtual bricks around your singular facade to create a fully-enclosed structure, which becomes the centerpiece of the Lego town you can create in the game. The building can then serve the townspeople in a number of different ways - Mashable's Ulanoff said he created his building into a pizzeria - but the overall goal is to make all of the Lego people in your town happy.

Luckily for those who love to tinker with their creations, users can rest assured knowing their uploaded Lego creations are saved in the Lego Fusion game, so no matter what else you build, you'll never lose your original designs. You'll also be able to share those designs with gamers across the online Lego community.

The Lego Fusion boxes Town Master, Create & Race and Battle Towers will be available in August, while Resort Designer will launch in September. All of the physical boxes will cost $35, but the Lego app for iOS and Android is free.