Playing with LEGO Vidiyo
I’m late to learning about this theme. After being out for about a year—and shortly after launching its second wave for the theme—the LEGO group announced it’s being put on a hiatus in 2022 to reevaluate it:
As you know, we launched LEGO VIDIYO in January to connect with children in a completely new way, blending music, digital play and LEGO building in a fun and unique way. The product tested extremely well during development and has received really positive feedback from those children and families who have played with it.
We’ve seen a positive response to the launch, but we’ve also received feedback from people that we could make the play experience across the app, BeatBits, music and minifigures even simpler. So, we’re taking that onboard and together with Universal Music Group are going to pilot some new ideas in 2022, then release new play experiences in 2023 and beyond.
LEGO VIDIYO is very much still available, the current products will continue to be sold in stores and marketed globally, and we’re continuing to support this fantastic play experience, including new updates and fun challenges to the app to inspire children’s creative music video making .
Thank you for your continued support of the LEGO brand, we hope for your understanding behind this decision.
The artist formerly known as Vidiyo
LEGO Vidiyo is what happens when you mix LEGO Minifigures, loot boxes, short music videos, and augmented reality. At least in its current form. I learned about it while binging the Bits N’ Bricks podcast from the LEGO group, chronicling its history in exploring digital games and how the company has tried to bridge their physical play and philosophy into digital media.
Vidiyo is the LEGO group's latest attempt to connect digital experiences to the fundamental LEGO creative spirit. A collaboration with Universal Music Group, it’s a music video creator with collectible LEGO Minifigures as the stars. The theme encourages children to direct and share custom Lego music videos, with a catalog of effects and licensed music. It’s a cool idea but it does have limits.
Paying the cover fee
You need at least an Android or iOS device with the free Vidiyo mobile app installed. The app lets you select a single virtual minfig to get started. Each week sees a new set of randomized free-to-use BeatBits, AR-enabled tiles that unlock new sights and sounds for your videos. Beyond that, you need to get physical sets to scan.
With the second wave, the sets come in 3 varieties:
Beat Boxes (at $20 USD) that include a band member minifig, more than a dozen BeatBits, and a pod that acts as a carrying case and stage.
Individual band member surprise packs (at $4.99 USD) that come with 3 BeatBits—1 unique to each member and 2 that are random—and a mini stage/base
Stage sets (at varying prices) that act as AR-enabled stages and backdrops for your music videos with specific band members and BeatBits
The minifigs themselves sport stylish designs that reflect various musical genres, such as a punk rock pirate and an alien who is into EDM. At a higher price than typical minifig packs, these aren’t just regular Minifigs. They have a number of uniquely printed details in atypical places, like their arms and the sides and back of their legs. They have specially processed molds for their heads and lower body too. The BeatBits tiles themselves are rather nifty, too. Printed with unique, intricate, and colourful designs actually printed onto the tile.
The LEGO group definitely wants you to buy more sets. They’ve taken a loot box approach to the band members and BeatBits. There are currently 12 different BeatBoxes to choose from, and over 130 BeatBits to collect. Building the BeatBoxes is simple, consisting of four or five pieces, a strap, and some dots and tiles to decorate it. The carry handle looks like a pair of headphones, which is a nice touch. Though the sets have a lot of details and special touches, they are expensive for the number of pieces you get.
Getting the band together
You can add multiple characters to your band if you own them (or find scannable photos online), but you’ll need to re-scan one of them each time you want to perform. Each band can only have three members maximum. The app lets you create and manage multiple bands, each with its own artwork, costume choices, etc. Like most things in the app, naming your band is a controlled experience. Bands can't be given a custom name—the Vidiyo app will generate random names that are family-friendly. After initial band creation, you can edit the name and lock particular words before running it through the randomized again.
Put your records on
To start a performance, point your phone camera toward an empty space and scan around so the Augmented Reality system can recognize the environment. Here’s where things get really interesting. On the left-hand side, you can choose the scale that your mini-figures perform at:
Minifig scale, which is the same as actual LEGO sets, so you can have them dance alongside your existing LEGO without looking out of place; or build them a custom stage.
Human scale, so you can dance alongside your band, or just see them in life-size.
Massive, where they become giants.
There’s also an auto setting and the app will pick an appropriate size for your environment. As you record more videos, you earn in-game currency to unlock cosmetics, such as bright, red hair or heart-shaped sunglasses. As your band performs, you can move the camera like a director to get new angles or pause the action to snap a pic when figures strike particularly cool poses. The real way to guide your video, though, is by activating imported BeatBits. Like a DJ’s air horn hyping up a dance hall crowd, BeatBits drop in fun effects, from sounds to dance choreography to flashing lights to wardrobe changes.
Exploring the different BeatBits fosters a great appreciation for their improvisational potential. Timing effects can be fun and generates great effects. LEGO Vidiyo doesn’t give much control over editing your music or your video. You can only choose which 5-, 10-, or 20-second chunk you want to upload when you’re finished.
Limited release
As you'd expect from a LEGO app, it's heavily moderated. The LEGO Vidiyo app serves as its own kid-safe, self-contained social network. Every uploaded video goes through a moderation process, so you don't need to worry about private details getting revealed to the community feed. There’s no way within the app to share directly to any social networks. There’s also no way to download the video to device storage for a a parent to manually share out.
Device screen recording is also disabled while the app is open. If you're absolutely determined, maybe you could hook up your device to a computer and record the screen. On top of that, you can only share a 5-20 second clip of your video to the Vidiyo community feed. You should only do so if there aren't any actual people featured in the video.
Not having the ability to export the video in any way at all feels like a massive missed opportunity. It’s probably because of rights issues with the music, but that seems unlikely given they're 60-second clips, not even whole songs.
No perfect mix
The LEGO group says it doesn’t want to overwhelm young users and make them think videos need to be perfect by giving them complex editing tools. Vidiyo could’ve been for music production education what Lego Mindstorms kits are for robotics, or what old Lego filmmaking kits were for stop-motion animation. Until whatever form it takes next, Vidiyo is currently more of a shallow interactive toy that’s just fun to remix. At least they offer plenty to remix with, even if most is behind a loot box approach. In partnership with Universal Music Group, Lego Vidiyo includes dozens of licensed songs from Katy Perry, Diana Ross, The Weeknd, and many other artists. New songs are uploaded weekly, alongside free daily mixes.
Video star
Vidiyo is great in how it fosters music creation and creative remixing. The exporting options are limited, and the sets can be expensive for the number of pieces of included, but the pieces you do get are highly detailed and unique and remixing with them is a lot of fun. I’m curious to see what form the theme will take next.
