Hidden Side

Shrimp Shack Attack

A cheerful seaside diner with a giant grinning shrimp and a nasty secret hiding under the floorboards.

Brick Rated Score

3.7/5

Set 70422 · 2019

Pieces579

Minifigs5

Year2019

Set number70422

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The verdict

The big brick-built shrimp sign is what got me here, and honestly it is the reason to own this set.

It sits on top of a friendly little diner that flips into something menacing when you slide the ground open to reveal teeth and a hidden ghostly mouth. The catch is that the whole thing was built around the Hidden Side augmented reality app, which LEGO has since shut down, so you are buying it now purely as a physical playset. If you love a characterful roadside build and five fun minifigures, it still holds up. If the AR ghost hunting was the draw, that part is gone for good.

Best for: Kids and collectors who want a quirky, characterful diner build (and do not care that the app is dead)

The full review

What it is

The first thing I did with Shrimp Shack Attack was build the sign, that grinning cartoon shrimp perched on a pole, and it made me laugh out loud. It is such a happy, oddball centerpiece, and the way LEGO coaxed those curves and that goofy expression out of standard bricks is the cleverest thing in the box. Underneath it sits a small seaside diner with a counter, some booths, a little vehicle, and five minifigures milling about. In its calm state it looks like a perfectly normal roadside shrimp joint. Then you slide the ground open and it turns on you, with teeth, red splatter, and a hidden mouth that gapes when you turn a Technic gear at the back. That flip from mundane to menacing is the heart of the whole Hidden Side line, and this set nails the balance better than most.

The catch

Here is the part I have to be honest about. Hidden Side was designed as an augmented reality theme, where you pointed a phone or tablet at the model and the app layered ghosts, animations, and mini-games over it. LEGO has since retired that app, so the digital half of what you paid for in 2019 simply does not exist anymore. What is left is still a solid physical playset with genuine personality, but you should go in knowing you are buying a diner with hidden mechanisms, not a ghost hunting tech toy. Beyond that, the shack behind the sign is a straightforward 8+ build, and the diner leans hard on a sixteen-sticker sheet to sell its signage and grime. Neither of those is a dealbreaker, but they keep this from being a truly meaty build for older hobbyists.

Who it's for

If you want a characterful, slightly weird roadside scene with a great sign and clever surprises, this is an easy one to enjoy, especially for a kid in the eight to twelve range who will play with the transforming floor endlessly. It is also a low-key nice pickup for minifigure collectors, since three of the five figures are exclusive to the set. Who should skip it? Anyone chasing the augmented reality gimmick, because that ship has sailed, and adult builders who want a complex, sticker-free display piece. For everyone else, it is a warm, funny little set that has aged better than you might expect.

The parts story

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

Building this is a two-act experience. Act one is the shrimp sign, which is the fun, fiddly, satisfying part where curves and angles slowly resolve into a cheeky crustacean, and it is easily the highlight of the couple of hours you will spend here. Act two is the shack and diner, which goes together quickly and simply, more about set dressing and the hidden slide-and-gear mechanism than any advanced technique. The transforming floor is the neat trick, using a Technic gear to pop open the ground and expose the scary mouth, and it works reliably even under enthusiastic play.

The standout elements are mostly in the minifigures. Waitress Sally gets an eerie dual-moulded ghost hairpiece in yellowish green with transparent fluorescent green, an unusual and genuinely spooky recolor, and there is a new white hoodie over red baseball cap headpiece for this theme. The rest of the parts are useful everyday town and diner pieces in good colors, and at 579 pieces with five figures the value per part is fair for what was a fifty dollar set. It is not a parts pack you buy for exotic bricks, but the couple of ghostly minifig moulds are the kind of thing you will not find easily elsewhere.

Fun facts

01Shrimp Shack Attack was part of the very first wave of Hidden Side, LEGO's augmented reality theme that launched in 2019 and paired physical sets with a phone app that overlaid ghosts and mini-games.
02The set retired in December 2020, giving it a relatively short life on shelves, and LEGO later discontinued the Hidden Side app entirely.
03Three of the five minifigures, including Waitress Sally, are exclusive to this set and appear in no other LEGO release.
04The big grinning shrimp is entirely brick-built rather than a single moulded piece, and reviewers singled it out as the most ingenious part of the whole design.