Hidden Side

Ghost Train Express

A genuinely clever little train that flips from normal to haunted with one lever.

Brick Rated Score

3.7/5

Set 70424 · 2019

Pieces699

Minifigs5

Year2019

Set number70424

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The verdict

The Ghost Train Express is the set that made me actually like Hidden Side, and I say that as someone who was ready to dismiss the whole app-linked theme.

The transformation function on the locomotive is the real hook: pull a lever and the calm little train sprouts folding ghost wings and goes fully spooky. It's a smart, satisfying build with five figures and a full station, and it works completely fine as a straight toy or shelf piece. The catch, and it's a real one, is that the augmented reality app it was built around got switched off for good on January 1, 2023, so you're buying it purely for the bricks now.

Best for: Kids and collectors who want a playable spooky train and don't care about the dead AR app

The full review

What it is

The first thing I did with the Ghost Train Express was pull the lever, and I grinned like a kid. You build what looks like a tidy, slightly old-fashioned steam locomotive, and then one flip sends panels swinging out into these ragged ghost wings, the whole thing rearing up like it just woke up angry. That single function is what got me. It's the kind of hands-on transformation LEGO used to reserve for much bigger, pricier sets, and here it's the centerpiece of a mid-size Hidden Side box. Add the little station with its ticket booth, the platform steps, and a green recycling bin built with a genuinely neat technique, and you've got a set with real character rather than just a licensed gimmick.

The catch

I'll be straight with you about the elephant in the room. Hidden Side was LEGO's augmented reality experiment: you scanned the model with a phone and hunted ghosts through the app, and every set had a boss ghost to fight. It was a lovely idea, and it's dead. The theme wound down in 2020 and the app itself was pulled on January 1, 2023, so half of what you paid $79.99 for at launch no longer exists. That reframes the whole thing. You are now buying a 699-piece haunted train and station, full stop, and you have to decide whether that build alone is worth it. There's also no motor and no track loop in the box, so despite being a train it doesn't actually run the way a Powered Up set would. It rolls when you push it and that's it.

Who it's for

Here's how I'd sort it. If you love spooky, playable models and you have a kid who will happily flip that lever a hundred times, this holds up beautifully with or without the app, and secondhand prices (hovering around the high sixties) make it a fairer deal than it was new. Ghost train fans and Halloween-display builders will get a lot of joy out of it too. If you specifically wanted the augmented reality experience that the box art keeps promising, skip it and grieve quietly, because that ship has sailed. And if you're a hardcore train modeler who wants something that runs on a proper loop, this was never really for you. For everyone in the middle, it's a warm, characterful set that's aged better than the tech it was tied to.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building this is a pleasant few hours with more variety than the piece count suggests. The locomotive is where the engineering lives, because you're constructing a working transformation mechanism, so there's a satisfying stretch of Technic-ish linkage work hidden under the plates before the spooky wings will actually fold. The station side of the build is gentler and full of small rewarding touches like the platform steps and that clever little recycling bin, which are the sort of details that make you nod. Nothing here is brutally repetitive, and the two sub-builds give the box a nice rhythm rather than one long slog.

For parts hunters, the interesting bits are the train components. Reviewers at the time flagged a new rail element and updated train bearings, so this set mattered a little to people tracking LEGO's train pieces even though it's not a track-running model. Beyond that you get glow and translucent ghost elements, printed minifigure parts across the five characters (Jack, Parker, tech genius J.B., ticket agent Ms. Santos and ticket guy Chuck), and a good spread of greebly greys and greens for the haunted detailing. As a pure parts pack it's decent rather than remarkable, but the transformation linkage and the newer train elements give it a bit more to offer than the average licensed play set.

Fun facts

01The Hidden Side augmented reality app that this train was built to work with was officially shut down on January 1, 2023, leaving the physical set to stand on its own.
02The whole Hidden Side theme only launched in 2019 and was quietly discontinued in 2020, making it one of LEGO's shorter-lived original themes.
03When switched to haunted mode the train and station stretch to over 24 inches (61 cm) long, which is a lot of layout for a 699-piece box.
04It carried an original RRP of $79.99 and has settled to roughly $68.88 on the secondary market since retiring.