​How Lego Fusion will build on Activision's and Disney's success with interactive toys​

Lego might seem like the ultimate interactive toy, but it’s about to get a bit of help from the digital side of things. The company is introducing Lego Fusion, a new product line that will combine the classic building blocks with mobile apps that use augmented-reality-like technology to incorporate what you build into different games.

Lego Fusion is the first product from a newly formed organization called Lego Future Lab, and if the idea of games and toys interacting with one another sounds familiar that’s because Fusion is definitely a riff on the “toys-to-life” genre that Activision invented with Skylanders. That console release enables players to zap their toys into games instantly by placing them on a USB-connected portal. Skylanders has made more than $2 billion in toy and game sales since debuting in 2011, and Lego thinks Fusion has the potential to snap into that market. But the toy brick company thinks it can set itself apart by encouraging its players to spend as much time with the physical toys as they do with the digital games.