It's pretty safe to say that when LEGO Dimensions, the new Skylanders-alike, "toys to life" co-op adventure was announced, with a rallying cry about how it was going to blur the boundaries, no-one expected them to be blurred quite this much. Within a few weeks of the game's reveal trailer, which confirmed the game would be mixing together characters from the Lord of the Rings, the LEGO Movie, and DC Super Heroes, threads had popped up on forums around the world speculating about which other characters would be included - spurred on by a very blurry picture of the game's boxart, listing some very blurry characters that looked kind of like the Simpsons, Dr Who, and Chell. And, as it turns out, the rumours were all true. This confirmation followed an inadvertent discovery, on the website of the American retail giant Walmart, of a number of future packs that were rumoured to be released for the game. With listings for three Fun Packs based on the Lego Chima series, two Team Packs based on Scooby Doo and the approaching Jurassic World movie and two Level Packs based upon The Simpsons and the physics bending smash hit Portal, while the listings were soon taken down, it turns out where there's smoke, there really is fire, with the only possible downside being that they're listed at an RRP of $60 (?!) - that's roughly £40 in real money.
And if the Walmart listing wasn't confirmation enough, LEGO themselves then went and accidentally put up instructions for the various kits, along with images of the figures each would include, on their official website. And it's turns out there's even more to come beyond the Simpsons and Portal, as the full game will even feature Dr Who. Here's the full listing of all the add-on toys you'll be able to buy, to add new characters, levels and features to your game:
Fun Packs - each containing a character and vehicle
Unkitty, Krusty, and the wicked witch of the west? What a team they'd make...
Bart comes complete with a funky car, and Benny has, well, what else? SPACESHIP!
Gimli's mine cart looks like the best of the bunch here. Not sure we like Gollum's creepy spider...
Team Packs - designed for co-op play, with two characters, and two vehicles
The ninjas of Ninjago will be crossing over into LEGO Dimensions
Another Chris Pratt minifig - and that's one heck of a scooby snack!
Level Packs - each adding a character, two vehicles, and a level
The SImpsons pack seems to come with a level themed around a certain Evergreen Terrace... Oh, and Homer
And taking the award for most unpredictable new additions, here's Dr Who and Portal. Wow!
That's a lot of LEGO, and a lot of additions, some a lot more surprising than others.
Portal and its silent female protagonist Chell are both really popular amongst LEGO fans, even spawning a campaign to get official Portal themed LEGO kits made - and now with official confirmation of her inclusion, the dream has become a reality. With portal jumping being the core feature of LEGO Dimensions, to not include Chell would have been a missed opportunity, so we're happy she's been added.
The Simpsons was also another likely candidate, thanks to LEGO having the license for the sets, and there even having been a LEGO themed episode of the TV show not all that long ago, where the entire episode contained LEGO characters and objects in the likeness of the Simpsons characters and world.
Jurassic World was an odd title to see among the list, since LEGO are already doing a full game of the Jurassic Park series, but it seems that there'll be some Jurassic World themed fun to be had in Dimensions too. We can definitely say, however, that we are really looking forward to seeing our favourite prehistoric reptiles in the forms of Lego figures sitting on the portal board.
Perhaps the biggest surprise out of this new leak, however, is Doctor Who, as it was the only one that was not included in the leaked information from Walmart. We don't think many people would have predicted it being part of Dimensions, but when Warner said they'd be blurring the boundaries, they weren't kidding.
With so many popular franchises coming together in one LEGO game, there's one thing for sure - you won't be short of variety in LEGO Dimensions. But while this seems like a fairly complete list, it's likely there are still more characters and packs yet to be revealed. Maybe we'll see Indiana Jones, or possibly Luke Skywalker? What about Harry Potter or Ghostbusters? We may even see non-movie adapted LEGO sets - and we'd give our right arm to see one based on LEGO Racers.
Lego Dimensions is scheduled for release in September 2015, and will be released for the Playstation 4, Playstation 3, Wii U, Xbox One and Xbox 360. With the launch still a long way off, make sure you keep checking back for more!
