Stumbled on this little toy today and was amazed by the nicely designed trophy. When designing modular systems – systems that recognize and identify their detachable parts, always pack all the technologies in the core module and keep the detachable parts minimum to no technology. This toy trophy is not only a status quo, but also a short throw lens and a magnifier. Every vehicle in this game comes with a mini QR code underneath. In order to read the QR code accurately with the built-in camera on iPad, the code has to be held steady at a fix distance using a short throw lens. The trophy was designed to do exactly that and with the clear body, it bought in light for the camera to see better. Very well made, not interested in the game at all.
=====A similar setup was recently used in Pokemon tretta (ポケモントレッタ) lab reader on 3DS. It was mind-bottling why this 3DS scanner accessory came out with a low and reasonable price tag. Then I realized all the reader has inside was a set lens, mirrors, LEDs, and on/off switches, there was no scanner circuit nor serial port at all. It took the advantage of the dual cameras on 3DS to read the hidden barcode on the tretta chip. Brilliant!