object not selectable when overlapping object

So I have a game where I have action bars on the top and bottom of screen when there is an object on a layer behind the anchored top and bottom bar I want it not to be selectable/clickable/whatever until it comes into the middle of the screen (the "in play" section)

I forgot to mention that it is a grid of one object MULTIPLE instances. so whatever the solution is it must address that some intances will be "inplay" while others are "outofplay"

You need to have different layers for that.

One for the action bars an other for your objects. The "action bars" layer has to be on top of the other so it hides the object making it not visible/clickeable.

I'm not very sure if I understood your problem anyway.

They are on separate layers.

But just because objects are on a higharchy of layers doens't mean that that object is not clickable, it just means it cant be seen.