Today, we continue our exploration of the Second Wave of LEGO Super Mario Sets, and this time we have one of the most frequently suggested characters from our Super Mario Contest: Chain Chomp.
The Chain Chomp Jungle Encounter is the smallest expansion in this wave, and features 160 elements. It will become available on January 1, 2021 and cost 19.99 USD/ 24.99 EUR -19.99 GBP – 39.99 AUD – 24.99 CAD. There are two characters to overcome: the Bramball, as well as the Chain Chomp; and a brand new treasure box mechanic. All existing in the new biome of the Soda Jungle.Want to know more? Read on…
Every so often, there comes a set that has the chance to appeal to both older and younger demographics . When a sequel comes along 36 years after the original, you normally have a level of expectation. When the release of the sequel has been delayed as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, I have only nostalgia to go on… Join me as I take a close look at the new 10274 Ghostbusters ECTO-1.
The Mandalorian, season 2 premieres this week on Disney +. In preperation, we were rewatching season 1. Towards the end of the first episode, but before the big reveal, Miss 18 speaks up: “It’s Alright, I guess, but I don’t get the hype about Baby…” and the hood pops up on the ‘pram’, revealing the child within ,”Oh my goodness, it’s so freaking gorgeous, I get it now.”
It was a masterstroke of Disney Merchandising, last year: there was no merchandise featuring The Child, who appears to be, more or less, a baby of the same species as Jedi Master Yoda. We never saw it coming, there were no spoilers on the toy shelves, and before we know it, we were going weak at the knees with adoration.
The Minifigure was introduced with the Spaceship ‘Razor Crest’ set earlier this year, based on the torso for the LEGO baby.
The set is due for release through LEGO any day now, but one of my local retailers had some stock on the shelves a day or two ahead of time. I picked up a set, handed made a contactfree credit card purchase, brought it home, and started bingewatching the rest of season one. Costing $AUD119.99, with 1073 pieces, the set is designed for builders of 10 and older.
The Batwing was only given a couple of minutes of screen time in Tim Burton’s BATMAN (1989), but it was key to a number of iconic images from that film. The LEGO Group sent over a copy of the new 76161 to review: how does it fit in
It was the mid-year holidays in 1989, and Blockbuster movies were yet to have global release dates. And in the Northern Summer of 1989, this was one of the greatest years for the popcorn industry: Ghostbusters II, Star Trek V, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: as these franchises were coming to an end, one was threatening to rise up: In Australia, we had heard tales from across the seas, of people buying a full priced ticket in the US that summer, just to see the trailer for Tim Burton’s Batman – and then leaving the cinema.
In which I reminisce about childhood music lessons, and evening television, build the LEGO® Ideas Grand Piano while listening to some of my favorite piano music. Then I troubleshoot it, with some help from the fan designer.
Somewhere lost in the midsts of time, I spent my Thursday evenings going to piano lessons. My personal progress was approximately in proportion to my lack of commitment commitment to regular practice, but I enjoyed nonetheless. During the early 80’s, I found these lessons to be a little bit of a drag: Doctor Who tended to shown on the ABC from Monday to Thursday: and the final episode of any story (back then they were typically 4 episodes long) would due to screen at the same time as my lesson. No Netflix, no iTunes, no DVDs and the timer in a VCR could easily be disrupted by failing to find a blank tape before I headed off to my lesson.
It’s coming up to the tail end of the year, and we have just had the official announcement that this year’s ‘Winter Village’ set – the seasonal Creator Expert model – is the Elf Club house. Last year, we had the whimsical Gingerbread House, and this year, we continue our journey into the fanciful with our journey to the Elf Club House. A place for Santa’s helper’s to go and hang out when not busy in Sant’s workshop.
I was fortunate to be sent a copy of the set to review, and I’d like to share my impressions with you. I will occasionally drift towards the way that the experience is different to previous Winter Village sets, but I will cover that in greater depth in a few weeks time.
The box adopts the increasingly familiar 18+ design style: along the bottom inch of the box, we have the strip of elements in relief – this time in white – declaring the set number, 1197 elements and a recommended age of 18+.
When I first saw the images of the new 60271 LEGO® City Main Square, I was pretty nonplussed. My first response to a casual view was along the lines of “… another quad bike police chase, another helicopter, a new tram, a recycled limousine, some landscape and a couple of buildings. And they are asking $AUD275/$USD199.99 for this?” Please understand, I actually thought in terms of the currency conversion
” Meh.”
“And the characters have names now. What?? In the past decade, LEGO City has been the last stronghold of the anonymous minifigure!” Some of the characters might reappear, but I’ve never had anyone tell me what to call them before.
But after closer examination, there are aspects of this set which are worthy of further attention: drawing on some of the characters and situations seen in the animated series LEGO City Adventures, this is one of the largest LEGO City sets ever produced.
It is being marketed heavily as a set for the family to Build Together. As such, it is aimed a a variety of ages, not just something to leave your adventurous 8 year old to work on by themselves. As such, while some builds may feel overly simple (Aimed at a 6 year old), some represent building styles not seen in LEGO City for many years.
Come with me on a tour through the Main Square of LEGO City. You might not enjoy all that you see, but you might discover some things that leave you pleasantly surprised.
If, like me, you have enjoyed having a LEGO® train run around the tracks of your LEGO City, you are probably starting to think that you might like something a little more realistic running on the rails. If, like me, you are finding that coming up with your own model is harder that you expected, then this book: LEGO Train Projects by Charles Pritchett might just be what you are looking for.
Since the early days of Super Mario, back in 1985, Mario has had the ability to dress up in alternative suits, and gain additional powers. With the release of LEGO Super Mario, we have 4 Power Up suits available to choose from. These are some of the cheapest sets available in the range, and add to the game play, so important questions remain to be asked: what do they do, and which one should I get?
These suits share a few things in common: externally, they all look the same, although on the inside it becomes apparent that each suit comes from a different mould. They each come with a unique hat mould, and two 4×4 rounded plates, as well as a 2×4 plate, as well as a couple of elements to add to the landscape. When you see LEGO Super Mario naked, you can see 6 small switches under the chest screen. These switches are activated by tracks inside the suits – and each of the suits available today is slightly different to the others.
Looking inside the suits, we can see the ridges in different positions. These seem to be arranged in 2 groups of 3: Whichever switches are activated determines which switches are pushed.
In case you like to look for patterns, this is what we see.
Set
Name
Switches -binary (decimal):
71360
Starter set
100001 (33)
71370
Fire Suit
010010 (18)
71371
Propellor suit
001100 (12)
71372
Cat Suit
010001 (17)
71373
Builder
100010 (34)
In theory, there could be up to 16 different combinations, but if we take the simplest approach of only one ridge in each group of 3, we are looking at 9 possible switch combinations in total, that might be used. These are 5 of them.
So how do they PowerUp LEGO® Super Mario?
Fire up with the Fire Suit (73170)
This white suit, and peaked cap come packed with 2 4×4 landscape plates, as well as some trans orange pyramids.
The suit allows Mario to Throw fire balls – which he does by tilting forward slightly – akin to leaning forward on tip-toes. Attacks with fire balls are cumulative. – and can be translated into a ‘net sum’ scan, when you scan the next enemy: especially useful if it is a multi hit enemy, such as Baby Bowser, Thwomp or Whomp. Fire balls can be thrown by walking along on tip toes. It is harder to throw fireballs than just jump on the back of the multiscan enemies.
The fire suit does not feel like it has a lot to offer, other than throwing fireballs while walking towards an enemy. they can then have that number of ‘strikes’ delivered with a single scan.
To add to the disappointment I felt with the fire suit: enemies which require fire balls to be defeated in the video game, such as spiny, can be beaten with regular plain old unadulterated scanning.The reverse is also true: Buzzy Beetle is invulnerable to fireballs in the gamebut can be damaged by them here. The mechanism for launching fireballs felt a little awkward at first, but I quickly became quite used to it. It just didn’t feel like it was offering a significant advantage here.
Fly away with the Propellor Suit (71371).
A bright red suit, with a white stripe, and blue boots, as well as helmet sporting a bright yellow propellor. The propellor suit allows Mario to fly without the aid of his cloud, and being able to accumulate lots of coins, through active flying: The suit exploits the accelerometer, and it is particularly responsive to rapid changes in direction. The propellor suit accumulates coins at a higher rate, compared to the Cloud, which requires a slow, gentle oscillation.
Propellor suit Mario comes with two yellow landscape plates, as well as a flower and small stone.
The propellor suit is quite useful if you wish to spread your level over several rooms: something which could certainly be a bit of a fun way to make Mario work. A rapid liftoff, and occasional changes of direction seem to work well to ensure additional coins being collected by Mario.
Walk the walls with Mario’s Cat Suit (71372).
This yellow suit, with a white belly and printed tail, along with ears on his hat, gives Mario cat like prowess. In case there is any doubt, there is a bell that appears under his chin. This suit allows LEGO Super Mario to gain additional coins when walking up and down vertical surfaces, such as a TV or the outer walls of a tower. (Over 50 steps up and down my computer screen, regular Mario earned no coins, Cat Mario earned 36)
Cat Mario comes with some green landscape plates, as well as a flower.
The cat suit works well for taking the coin count up as Mario scales any vertical surface. This certainly gains coins faster than ‘regular Mario’ gains them while walking along the ground.
Pile drive with Builder Mario (71373)
Another yellow suit, with a yellow hard hat, sees Mario wearing solid workbooks, and a hammer on his chest. and is anything but nimble. However, when he strikes a surface, it is equivalent to 3 scans. this is accompanied by the young of a Jack hammer.
Builder Mario comes with a couple of grey plates, as well as some dark orange masonry bricks.
Builder Mario was a little harder for me to take advantage of. Slamming him down on the back of a ‘multiscan’enemy such as Baby Bowser seemed to be worth 3 regular scans – regardless of suit.
So, which is my choice?
The Powerup Costumes play an important role in Super Mario Video Games, BUT offer variable enhancement of game play in the LEGO version of the game. I probably found that either the Cat Suit or Propellor suit offered me more, as far as enjoying my gameplay, than the other two. If you enjoy building ludicrous towers for Mario to climb, there is no doubt that having the cat suit will bring you better value. If you like to spread you game play out around the house, I think the propellor might be a better choice for you.
Whats your favourite powerup suit?
Of course, these are only a few of the suits that Mario might find over the course of a game: he has many others that feature in the video game, including a frog suit: fantastic for doing things in water, amongst others. What’s your favourite? What would you like to see come out in a future wave?
Why don’t you leave your comments below, and until next time
Play Well.
These powerup suits were provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
This is the largest set in the range: while 71360: Adventures with Mario is the set that everyone will get, 71369: Bowser’s Castle Boss Battle is the set that many will want. Bowser is Mario’s nemesis, and leader of the turtle like Koopa race. And so it makes sense that the flagship set in the theme will involve LEGO Super Mario taking him down.
Even with all the wits and power ups at his disposal to, Mario will still need a little bit of luck to defeat Bowser.
