The new red Duplo train does not look like a revolutionary product. Designed for toddlers aged two and up, the train can be pushed back and forth on its track.

But for Lego, the Danish family-owned company that is the world’s most profitable toymaker, it is a pivotal product. The €60 set is its attempt to build a bridge between its traditional world of physical play and the digital sphere of iPads and smartphones. The train can be started with a push of a hand but also by a flick on a mobile app, where youngsters can move and even tickle a cartoon train driver and play mini-games.

“I don’t think digital is very different from other stuff, in that we still think the brick and the play system is at the core of what we do,” says Niels Christiansen, who became Lego’s chief executive in October 2017. “But digital is an opportunity for us to enhance that.