Over the last couple of years, it has become increasingly common for a kid scaled version of a build to be matched up with an ICONS 18+. build, and this time it’s Mario’s turn. To celebrate March 10 (Mar10 day!), the LEGO Group and Nintendo have revealed a new large scale Mario build, complete with a Standard Kart from Mario Kart. The set has 1972 pieces and will be priced at $AUD250/ €169.99 / £139.99 / $USD169.99. It is due for release on May 15th 2025. The model measures 32cm long, 19cm wide and 22 cm high
It’s still March10 (Mar10 Day) in some parts of the world…
There are a few things that make playing Mario Kart Fun: one is beating the computer powered racers around the track. Another is thwarting the efforts of your families and friends by throwing bananas and shells at them. The Standard Kart was missing any form of Power-up. Today we look at the 72031 Yoshi Bike. With a Brick-built Yoshi, Yoshi themed cycle, and a new Mario Kart ‘?’ Brick, it has the potential to make the race a bit more fun. How will it turn out? Is it worth adding this $AUD19.99/USD14.99/€14.99/ £12.99 set to grid?
Lets take a look. We will explore the build, look at the power-up – use it in a single-player time trial and a two-player race, and see how the experience pans out for us. We shall also see how legacy powerups (Yellow ? blocks, POW, Time Bonus, Star Power and Super Mushroom) work in this setting.
If you have been following Rambling Brick for a while, you will know that I was quite taken by LEGO Super Mario when it was first released. The timed gameplay provided interesting challenges, maximizing the capabilities of the Smart Brick/Mario figure. Each subsequent year saw new environments and new capabilities. I drifted away over the last year or so, with too many other shiny things providing a distraction, but the Mario Kart wave has piqued my interest again.
Mario Kart on the Wii was the game my family first bonded over on the Nintendo Wii, years ago. Fifteen years later, we still play on the Nintendo Switch from time to time. I was keen to try the LEGO version, so I dropped into my store and (delighted to see the set on the shelves on New Years Eve), picked up the 72032 Standard Kart. With 174 pieces, and priced at $AUD29.99/$USD19.99/€19.99/£17.99, it felt like a reasonable price of entry to the theme. But is it enough on its own?
Back on March 10 (Mario Day), the LEGO Group teased next year’s release of LEGO Mario Kart sets. Today, at the gamescom event in Cologne, six new Mario Kart sets were revealed. The new sets will bring a new look to the Super Mario range when they launch on January 1 2025 and will bring some of the relatively under-represented characters from Super Mario to LEGO Form. We will also see the classic Mario Kart course features: ‘?’ block, wheels and banapeels, to name a few.
To add a layer of digital play, fans can also add a LEGO® Mario™, LEGO® Luigi™ or LEGO® Peach™ (figures not included) to the new Mario Kart sets which takes the interactive experience into high gear when putting one of the figures into the driver’s seat. This includes iconic Mario Kart audio and visual effects for race-starting, horn-honking, kart-drifting and gliding sounds from the game. Players can also use these characters to scan Item Boxes, allowing them to collect extra coins and help boost their score as they finish the race!
Its March 10. And in its own special way, this becomes Mar10 – Mario day. To celebrate, the LEGO group have posted a video revealing 3 new LEGO super Mario Play sets, for release in August 2024. In addition to this, LEGO MarioKart has been teased for 2025.
Every year, around this time, we see an adult focussed set drawing inspiration from LEGO Super Mario: be it the Retro TV, the Mario 64 Question Mark Cube or the Mighty Bowser. These sets have drawn heavily on nostalgic aspects of the Super Mario games, to present an artefact that has certainly been a talking point in many households around the wolrd. Each of these sets has had a suitably impressive price tag attached, too (priced from 300-400AUD This year, perhaps as a sign of the times, with cost of living being what it has become in 2023, the scale has been somewhat reduced. This year’s adult focussed LEGO Super Mario set is a shelf sized model of the Pirhana Plant. With 540 pieces, the set will be released on November 6th and priced at $AUD94.99/$USD59.99 / €64.99 / £57.99.
Over recent years, the LEGO Group have been responsive to the cries of adult fans – Give us more, give us bigger – and now it has become apparent that the major problems that these large LEGO sets have give AFOLS are related to two major factors:
one is cost with the previous adult focussed Super Mario sets, we have seen prices starting at $USD199.99
another is display space. I love the look of the new Concorde, but at over 1m in length, there is no doubt that I have nowhere to reasonably build it or display it without causing major disruption to the family living spaces.
The forthcoming LEGO Super Mario Donkey Kong’s Tree House has been revealed and is available for preorder from the Australian Certified Stores for $94.99 AUD. It will be available on 1st August 2023.
It comes with 2 buildable figures: Donkey Kong and Cranky Kong.
I seem to be slipping behind with my LEGO Super Mario Reviews: I have a few sets from the current wave remaining to look at (as well as some more from last year); sometime soon, we will see what the LEGO Group have in store for us later in the year.
The figures were released earlier in 2023, and cost USD6.99/AUD9.99 each. I picked up an unopened box at Toybricks. Read on to see who’s inside, and how they score:
As we approach the pointy end of the year, we are now beginning to get some information about next year’s releases: first up are the next wave of LEGO Super Mario sets. Once again, we have a collection of Character Packs, as well as Expansion packs, large and small. Here is a quick overview of the new sets: I’ll bring more information later, when I have had a chance to think about them properly. In the meantime, I shall be brief…
Almost as consistent as the appearance of a certain Italian Plumber across a series of Nintendo Video Games over the past 30 years has been that of Bowser: ruler of the Koopalings, a fierce, fire breathing, Princess stealing warrior tortoise. We have seen him appear in 2 previous forms over the years: One in several of the LEGO Super Mario Expansion packs (Bowsers Castle, and Princess Peach’s Castle), and a microscale version in last year’s ‘?’ Block.
This is the Super Mario tie-in set to be specifically aimed at adult builders, and it promises an intriguing large scale build, imposing to display, but also incorporating some play features, posability as well as some impressive puppet like movements.
As I write this review, I am almost as far from the model as I can possibly be, on a little holiday before attending the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend. Fortunately, I got the model built and photographed before I left.
So, how does the model stack up with the stated aims? We shall start off with a general look at the finished model, before diving into an in-depth, spoiler-filled look at the build. I’d love to know if you appreciate this style of review, so drop me a line in the comments below, or reach out on social media. I still have some more Mario sets to review, and these will be coming up after we return from holiday.
