I built a fish out of Lego, and now it lives in a virtual fish tank

Denmark has the best Lego things. The company opened its Lego House in the country this past year, and it sounds like an absolute dream. It’s filled with unique Lego concepts, like the Fish Designer, which lets visitors build fish out of Lego bricks, scan them, and then watch them live virtually in the space’s digital aquarium. Lego brought the experience stateside for the first time at SXSW this week, where I tested it out and made a fish. I discovered during this process that I don’t have much of an imagination, and that making a fish is harder than it looks, so good for these kids and their wild thoughts.

Here’s my creation. It doesn’t have a name, although I’ve gendered it, and it’s a boy:

I chose various colors and shapes because I really wanted to test the scanner, which just takes a 2D scan and documents the bricks’ size and color. Once the scan finishes, users can choose the eyes and mouth they want to add. They can’t select where these features populate on their creature. The company says it has no plans to make this an actual at-home experience, although it has already experimented with scannable sets along with other companies, like Play-Doh.

Once my fish was in the tank, it swam around and danced to DJ Octopus, who also lives in the tank. It’ll eventually eat food and react to sharks. There isn’t much kids can do once they’ve created the fish, but it’s neat to see your physical toy manifest itself in a virtual realm. I know my guy lives in a better place and will delight all the SXSW visitors, at least until Lego restarts the app.

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