UPDATE: New Dimensions sets have begun to leak

UPDATE 2: The second series of content has been officially revealed

With Disney Infinity’s cancellation, LEGO Dimensions is now arguably the biggest player in the Toys to Life genre. Not being tied to a specific platform or license, it could pop up anywhere it wants to at E3. And what an exciting E3 it will be for Dimensions fans – with the first phase of content having concluded last month, it’s time to begin the second year of the three year plan. It’s already confirmed that a big announcement will be coming later this week – depending on timezones this could be anytime on Thursday or Friday. It’s also likely that it could appear onstage during some of the big publisher presentations as well. So ahead of these showings, let’s attempt to piece together what Dimensions announcements we could be seeing.

New Packs

This one goes without saying – new content! Woohoo! The first official tease is this short teaser posted on the official Dimensions Twitter account.

Who OR what’s got Batman on a roll? Get the BIG news and more this Thursday! #LEGODimensionshttps://t.co/bshdTwGkIj

— LEGO Dimensions (@LEGODimensions) June 7, 2016

Not a lot to go off, but we’ll revisit this later!

The Twitter account also posted some new teasers this morning (just as I was just putting the finishing touches on this article too *shakes fist*) that are a lot less vague.

The first is a video that not-so-subtly hints at Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter being in the game. Whether he’s a playable character or just a boss is yet to be determined, but given the franchise’s popularity I wouldn’t be surprised if he got his own pack.

Can you unlock the secret? Come back this Thursday for the exciting reveal! #LEGODimensionshttps://t.co/9EZMF1MEy1

— LEGO Dimensions (@LEGODimensions) June 7, 2016

The next is another short teaser like the one with Batman, that shows the Wicked Witch having an Adventurous Time in a new world. Yes, it certainly looks like an Adventure Time World alright.

Something BIG is making a splash. Get ready for the reveal happening this Thursday! #LEGODimensions pic.twitter.com/VDVYujXb3n

— LEGO Dimensions (@LEGODimensions) June 7, 2016

This is actually a sneaky re-upload of the original video because keen-eyed fans noticed a new character hiding there – take a closer look at the Witch’s broom – it’s Gizmo from Gremlins! If you keep an eye on the bottom-left of the screen while watching the new teaser, you cans till see his ear cheekily popping into the frame.

A while back there was a semi-official hint at some sets in the form of a list of set numbers that leaked months ago. These contain abbreviations relating to the franchise in the set. Some of these franchise names have been hinted at or outright confirmed by various leakers in various places (like ‘S’ standing for Sonic) and now the official teasers have safely confirmed a few of them too. These are my guesses at what each stands for based off these leaks:

• 71242 GB 1 – Ghostbusters (2016 reboot)
• 71243 HP 1 – Harry Potter (CONFIRMED)
• 71244 S1 – Sonic the Hedgehog
• 71245 AT 1 – Adventure Time (CONFIRMED)
• 71246 AT 2 – Adventure Time (CONFIRMED)
• 71247 HP 2 – Harry Potter (CONFIRMED)
• 71248 MI – Mission Impossible
• 71249 AT 3 – Adventure Time (CONFIRMED)
• 71250 GB 2 – Ghostbusters (2016 Reboot)
• 71251 Mr T – Mr. T/A-Team
• 71252 KR – Knight Rider
• 71253 FB 1 – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Harry Potter spin-off)
• 71254 TTG 1 – Teen Titans Go
• 71255 TTG 2 – Teen Titans Go
• 71256 GR 1 – Gremlins (CONFIRMED)
• 71257 FB 2 – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Harry Potter spin-off)
• 71258 ET 1 -E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

As for which sets will be revealed specifically, Harry Potter, Adventure Time and Gremlins are a lock going off the official teasers. Beyond that I’m not too sure. Multiple supposed leaks have popped up stating different franchises will be revealed. Some of these mention two franchises not in the above list – The Goonies and PowerPuff Girls. Both of these would be great – PPG is a lot of fun with a memorable supporting cast, and would add some noticeably absent female representation to the playable roster. The Goonies was one of my most desired series to be included in the game – it’s a classic film from my childhood that would be a perfect fit to the LEGO game format, the only problem being that you couldn’t make a full game out of the one movie. So it’d work really well as a level or two in Dimensions. But while both of these series would be great choices, I’m going to remain skeptical of whether they’ll be in the game as there’s less tangible evidence for these ones compared to other franchises. Neither of these leaks mention Adventure Time or Gremlins, either, which could be taken as a strike against them, but they might have just not had all the information.

To summarise – we have an accurate idea of which franchises will feature in the second phase/series of Dimensions, but not which will actually be revealed for E3. Harry Potter, Gremlins and Adventure Time are definites, but we’ll have to wait and see what else.

Connectables

The leak of set numbers also had some interesting listings that no-one has really deciphered yet – a type of set called ‘Connectables’.

• 71259 Connectable 1
• 71260 Connectable 2
• 71261 Connectable 3
• 71262 Connectable 4
• 71263 Connectable 5

I think these are going to be a big part of the second phase of Dimensions, and will be a substantial new type of pack. If you recall, in one of Dimensions’ patches, a mysterious glowing area appeared next to the in-game portal that didn’t appear to do anything. One of the common beliefs was that this would be used for some sort of portal extension released later in the game’s life. I believe this is what the Connectables will be – themed additions to the portal that add in more content than any of the current expansion packs.

Currently, Level Packs only add in a single level for that specific franchise, as well as a character and some items. Connectables will expand on this concept, adding multiple new levels and new gameplay mechanics as well. Attaching the Connectable to the portal will unlock levels the same way Level Pack characters do, but that won’t be all. Given that the portal is a big part of the experience, and the way it interacts with the game makes it almost a controller of sorts, I feel that the main reason you would need to add to it would be to add new ways to interact with the game. Each Connectable will have a mechanical gimmick used in the levels added by them in order to keep the gameplay fresh and interesting. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was one that added a new main storyline into the game that continues where the original storyline left off.

There’s a rumour that there’ll be a LEGO set based off the Chinese Restaurant used as the base of operations for the Ghostbusters in the upcoming reboot, that will be a brand new type of LEGO set. It’s possible that this is referring to a Connectable, and would imply that these will feature prominent locations from different franchises.

Most of these will probably be from new franchises being added to the game rather than existing ones, but if they do revisit any from the original game the most likely candidate would be DC Comics. DC is Warner Bros’ big moneymaker that they’ll want to build brand attachment for to generate hype for their upcoming movies and Rebirth comics relaunch. In addition to this, there’s plenty of characters they could still add into the game and there was no dedicated DC Comics story level last time.

Given how popular Batman is, I could see a Connectable Batcave happening. It’s an iconic location that many people would love to have a miniature model of it. The Watchtower is another likely candidate with the Justice League movie being a huge event for WB and DC. Another possibility is STAR Labs. Green Arrow and Supergirl are being added to the game, who are stars of two of DC’s biggest TV shows, and despite The Flash arguably being their most popular one, Flash isn’t playable yet. It could be because he’s going to be part of a bigger set like this.

One of the game’s leaked franchises is Sonic the Hedgehog. This is a big franchise with a lot of unique characters, yet the leaked set numbers only has one ‘S’ pack in there. The reason for this could be that one of the Connectables is a Sonic the Hedgehog one. I can visualise a model of the iconic loop-de-loop from Green Hill Zone being a nice add-on for the portal.

Some people believe that the cave that Batman breaks into in the original teaser is the cave from The Goonies, where One-Eyed Willie’s treasure is being held. If that’s the case, a Connectable based off of it would be really interesting, as there’s a lot of traps and puzzles that could be used as mechanics. They would want to show off Connectables in the initial reveal, so a location tied to a Connectable being in the first teaser makes sense. This could also explain why there’s no Goonies sets in the leaked set list – because the series is just represented with a Connectable, not a standard pack.

New Storyline

The crossover story was one of the most praised aspects of Dimensions. Seeing all these iconic characters interacting with each other was fantastic. I feel that with the developers having the rights to a new set of franchises, they’ll want to make the most of the opportunity and include a new storyline. Two of the teasers that have been posted show what appear to be new cutscenes, and remember – there was a short scene after the game’s credits that hinted at Lord Vortech (the game’s villain) making his return.

The delivery of this content could be done in a few ways. The base game had level packs unlocked by playing as specific characters, so it’s possible they could have a sort of Starter Set-Lite with a set of characters and items that unlocks new levels in the game. This would allow new levels to draw from a larger ability pool for the puzzles, because it will be assumed that the player has Batman and his Batmobile, Wydstyle, Gandalf and all of the new characters.

Another possibility is that the content will be unlocked with one of the Connectables. It could be a mini portal or something that ties into the storyline, and provides access to a new set of levels.

The third, unlikely scenario would be that the new levels are patched in and unlocked all for free, to incentivise people to return to the game if they’re already done with it. The downside to this option would be that the new levels would be restricted to the same pool of abilities as the base game.

Figure Handouts

We know that two mysterious figures, Supergirl and Green Arrow, are in the wild in special packaging marked ‘Exclusive’ and ‘Limited Edition’ respectively. These characters are accessible in the base game through hacking/spoofing and feature special gold/orange bases. What we don’t know for certain yet is how these will be distributed.

promobricks has said that Supergirl will come in a new, ‘themed’ version of the existing Starter Set, exclusive to PS4. This would line up with the fact that Supergirl’s parts only appeared in the part list for the PlayStation Starter Sets. This would be a bummer for people who already own the game, or want to buy it on other platforms, so hopefully it’s just the coloured base that’s special about this figure, and Supergirl will be available for purchase separately later on. Supergirl being a PlayStation exclusive means that LEGO Dimensions will likely be appearing on-stage at the Sony press conference, so keep an eye out for more news then too.

Green Arrow is probably going to be given out at E3. Skylanders and Disney Infinity have both had convention exclusive variants, so it wouldn’t be shocking for Dimensions to have a convention giveaway as well. This would explain the difference between the ‘Exclusive’ and ‘Limited Edition’ brandings. Again, if Green Arrow isn’t available for purchase separately, the game would lose some goodwill from a lot of fans. While these two characters don’t have any new, unique abilities, it’d still be disappointing if you had no way of getting them to play as.

Related prediction: Mon Amiibo editor misses out on exclusive toys and cries like a MasterChef contestant

No Disney

When the news broke of Disney Infinity’s cancellation, many assumed Disney’s franchises would be coming to Dimensions immediately. People still suggest that a deal between Warner Bros. and Disney would be done and dusted quickly, and existing assets from LEGO Avengers and Star Wars can be ported to Dimensions. It’s not quite so simple.

It’s been less than a month since the announcement of Infinity’s cancellation, and reports suggest the cancellation came out of nowhere for the Infinity team. This means it likely wasn’t something being planned a long time in advance, and so Disney wouldn’t have been licensing properties off to a genre competitor that early. Warner Bros, LEGO, and Traveller’s Tales would need to all come together and decide which Marvel and Star Wars characters would sell and be worthwhile additions to the game, and also come up with LEGO designs for any vehicles/items/locations included in the pack and the game as a whole. The physical elements would all need to be produced as well, and so a plan for that would need to be created.

Then, since all parties involved wouldn’t want such big properties to be half-assed inclusions, dialogue and story for these properties would need to be produced as well, and incorporated into the game. This new phase of Dimensions would have been in the works for quite a while, and so upturning that to add in new franchises with late notice could result in a really messy end product.

So there’s a lot more at play than just coding the characters, which people need to consider. I really doubt that there’ll be Disney content included in this next phase, and by extension revealed at E3, but Warner and Disney might be at a stage where they can at least announce that they’ve made a deal and Disney properties will come to the game at some point in the future. Just don’t expect to play as Spider-Man or Darth Vader some time soon. It will definitely, 100% happen later, but I feel it’s just too soon after Infinity’s cancellation for it to happen right now.

All we can do now is wait for more teasers and the official reveal. What are you hoping will be shown off?