Review: 71422 Picnic at Mario's House
Posted by Huw,
This appraisal of 71422 Picnic at Mario's House has been written by new reviewer Freddy_Hodson:
The Super Mario theme started back in 2020, which was also when we had our first rendition of Mario’s house.
Repetition is often the bane of licensed themes, but given the endless creativity of the games, we may have been forgiven for not expecting another house so soon. Mercifully, however, there’s much more to this set than meets the eye.
Summary
71422 Picnic at Mario's House, 259 pieces.
£31.99 / $37.99 / €37.99 | 12.4p/14.7c/14.7c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A charming set for kids, but with limited appeal to AFOLs
- Bright colours
- Excellent, varied gameplay
- Impressive attention to detail
- Not outrageously priced
- Not the first Mario house
- No unique characters
- Weak connections
Character
The only character included here is Yellow Yoshi, who is not unique. The friendly dinosaur first appeared with his rainbow of siblings in Super Mario World, way back in 1990 on the SNES. An identical design appeared in a pair of 2022 sets: 71400 Big Urchin Beach Ride and the ultra-affordable polybag 30509 Yellow Yoshi's Fruit Tree.
He looks good nevertheless, and I’m particularly fond of the exposed studs above his eyes. Intentionally or not, they suggest the shape of the “real” character, and add a certain Lego-y charm. (You may—I stress “may”—be looking at Yoshi’s feet and wondering if they should be red. They were indeed red in that first appearance in Super Mario World, but have been green in virtually every game since.)
The house
We must move on from Yoshi. (Sorry Yoshi.) Mario’s house comprises the bulk of the build, and is a fairly unremarkable structure from the outside. Comparisons with 71367 Mario's House & Yoshi are inevitable, and deserved, but yield a surprising number of differences. The colour scheme is retained, but the shape is almost entirely different; one of the more notable aspects of the original is its tiny door and conspicuous lock—maybe that one’s being retconned as Mario’s shed?
Of course, the clearest improvement here is the fact that Mario can now actually get through the door, or just stand ominously in the doorway. Although with lights out, he looks a bit “5 Nights at Freddy’s” for my liking. The printed “Mario” tile above the door is the same as in 71367 Mario's House & Yoshi, and as far as I can work out, the house itself is based on its appearance in the first two Paper Mario games.
Since he can now enter his house, Mario’s treated himself to a cosy bed. (Being tragically stuck outside relegated him to a hammock.) Above it is an equally sweet and bizarre picture of Mario and Yellow Yoshi that looks like it may have been taken on a honeymoon—but sadly (or thankfully) the bed is only big enough for one. Lying Mario down will cause him to fall asleep and, eventually, start snoring. It’s a tight fit, but the walls of the house can be very neatly folded around with Mario still snoozing.
There are no other gameplay elements inside the house, but there are a couple of other things worth noting. The tennis racket above the bed is a reference to the recent-ish Mario Tennis Aces from 2018 (on the Nintendo Switch), and while the cross above the door could be to ward off vampires, it’s more likely a nod to 2021’s Mario Golf: Super Rush. Some “balls” are supplied, and the app encourages you to play a sort of mix between golf and croquet with the picnic table. There’s no gameplay reward for doing so, but it’s difficult to see what anyone would get out of it.
Outside
The real fun is to be had outside the house. There are three barcode tiles and each does something different. When we’ve got past wondering why Mario is having a picnic in his own garden, we can stand him on the barcode to pick something from the hamper. He doesn’t have to be facing the basket, and in fact it’s better if he isn’t, as a sequence of sweet foodstuffs will appear. Whichever is on-screen when Mario leaves, the tile will be selected. Tipping him forwards three times, accompanied by some hilarious chomping noises, will reward you with some coins.
Greeting Yoshi will also yield coinage, but you can also combine the two—picking something up from the hamper before scanning Yoshi’s tile will stimulate a victory motif, and, of course, there’ll be bonus coins coming your way.
To scan the Yoshi tile at all, you may want to move him back from where the instructions suggest—it’s uncomfortably close, although maybe that’s in keeping with their narrative so far. Scanning Yoshi first will trigger the classic egg-hatching sound effect and bring up a picture of Yoshi on Mario’s chest. I’m a little mystified about what this achieves, but it’s an impressive attention to detail to feature so many sounds from the games.
Fishing is easily the best feature. Plonking Mario on the boat’s barcode will bring up a picture of the rod—ostensibly his view, if you have him facing forward, which again isn’t essential—which after some time, either moving or stationary, will start to pull. Tipping Mario backwards, you can then see what you’ve caught.
After a long time playing I got Cheep Cheeps of the red, purple (Snow Cheep Cheep), green (Deep Cheep), spiny and gold varieties; a larger Cheep Chomp; Huckit Crabs; Bloopers; Fish Bones; and a manky old boot. The boot and some Bloopers won’t yield coins (the Blooper will squirt ink and incapacitate Mario for a few seconds, adding a surprising level of risk if you’re playing a timed game), whereas the Cheep Chomp and Gold Cheep Cheep will deliver bonuses.
It’s difficult to be certain that that’s all of them, but the only way to be sure is to do it for yourself. It’s great fun, and is well-designed for children. If you accidentally take Mario off the barcode while tipping him back, the animation will still play uninterrupted. Pleasingly, most of the things Mario can catch are, or have been available in Character Packs.
The different scenes are designed to be moved around, since the gameplay is not linear. The connections are weak and will easily break apart if moved, although I’m unsure that will be a huge problem since the set is not designed as a display piece and can be displayed in any orientation. The absence of any enemies (or the ubiquitous projectiles) might seem unusual, but in truth you don’t really notice as soon as you start playing.
Verdict
71422 Picnic at Mario's House Picnic at Mario’s House is almost uniquely unappealing for AFOLs, but there’s a reason I don’t think that matters. As a display piece it’s dreadful, and totally outclassed by the smaller but more house-like 71367 Mario's House & Yoshi. That set was also £6 cheaper, so if it’s a display model you’re after, you’re definitely better off looking elsewhere.
As with all Super Mario sets, there are no paper instructions, and using the app can be exceptionally tedious, making each step take at least twice as long as it usually would; however, being able to orientate each step in three dimensions might help young children understand better how each piece interacts. It's also pretty rubbish as a parts pack, what with the pieces being large, and none of the printed pieces being unique apart from the picture above the bed. I wondered how useful the giant terrain pieces would be, but the round corners make them difficult to tesselate.
However, the Super Mario theme is—unlike any projectiles—firmly aimed at children. The Mario house is bigger than the previous version, and more in keeping with the theme’s overall style. More importantly, I think the fishing minigame is the best to date. I enjoyed it immensely, and for a surprisingly long time, and have no doubt that young children will get even more out of it.
The price doesn’t actually seem unreasonable—the price per piece is almost identical to its predecessor, and I believe the improvements add more value than a difference of 54 pieces or £6 (U.K.) would suggest. The U.S. and European prices are less attractive, but still don’t strike me as absurd. Apart from the gameplay additions, there’s nothing unique of any real value, but after years of overpriced sets packaged with a single exclusive minifigure, that’s by no means a bad thing.
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16 comments on this article
Fantastic review, more of this please! Well-written, funny, thorough. My only suggestion would be maaaaybe tightening up the verdict a little, but if this is the standard of new reviewers going forward I'll be extremely happy. Well done, @Freddy_Hodson!
Seeing this house set makes me wonder how LEGO would do something different a like Paper Mario set.
Excellent review @Freddy_Hodson! I enjoyed your humor very much! Although, I think I would prefer to see Mario and Yoshi social distance a little bit after that. I'm not sure Peach would appreciate his two-timing tendencies.
This isn't even a house.
I actually like all the small details in this set. Giving LEGO Mario more to do than just go through a course gives him a lot of personality. It’s also fun seeing the references to his spin-off sports games!
I think this set also embodies the theme as a whole. If you love the digital figure and the course system, then you will love this set. If you don’t care for it, then there’s not a whole lot it can offer you. The house is designed for the digi-fig and the game. If it was designed like a more traditional set, then it wouldn’t work as well.
> However, the Super Mario theme is—unlike any projectiles—firmly aimed at children.
That made me laugh.
Fantastic review! Informative, well-written, and entertaining. This is the way. (oops, wrong theme).
The other guest reviews were fine, but this is the type of review that enhances the BS brand.
This is a great set for "pretend play", less for the Mario app play. I can see how this one can be a loved one by kids.
Side note: most here probably know this, but for those who don't - you can download a PDF with classic style instructions for all Mario sets from the Lego website. You don't need to use the Mario app to build it if you dislike the experience.
Hm... It's definitely a little less cohesive than the previous Mario's House set, but on the other hand seems to be far less cramped and pack in more details and playability. The fishing minigame sounds surprisingly deep (no pun intended), and makes the set a little more tempting to me despite the lack of new characters. If the set had featured a new Yoshi color instead of the yellow one (arguably one of the most common, since it came in a cheap polybag), I'd definitely add this to my to-buy list.
The honeymoon photo alone might be enough to get this set. Great review, it was an entertaining read.
Love the Harry Potter reference! Great job!
I like the review.
But isn't it kind of sad that not being outrageously priced nowadays has to count as one of the positives?
Shouldn't that be a given?
Yeah, I know, many sets today teach us otherwise, but I find it sad nonetheless.
The product doesn't interest me but I enjoyed reading this review, I hope Freddy does more for Brickset.
I love this review. Keep it up!
And I'm not even remotely interested in this theme or Mario as a whole. The review itself was just an enjoyable read.
Good review!
One of the Twitch streamers I follow recently played through the original Paper Mario (a Nintedo 64 game I loved as a kid), and I was tickled to be reminded that in that game, Mario's house not only has a wood stove very similar to the one in this set, but also a matching pair of red and green coffee cups for Mario and Luigi!
In general, both of the Mario's House sets somewhat resemble its portrayal in the Paper Mario games (yellow walls, a red roof, and a nameplate over the door). That said, those games use a lighter shade of yellow paint, closer to LEGO's Cool Yellow and the corner posts and rafters are painted white on the outside (though their natural brown color is visible from within).
A glance at the Mario Wiki (https://www.mariowiki.com/Mario_Bros.%27_House) also tells me that the weight-driven wall clock in this set is likely based on an interior detail portrayed in Super Mario RPG, which had a similar green peaked "roof". It's pretty nice to see this sort of attention to detail with the furnishings, particularly since 71367 had pretty much no interior detail besides the hidden star block in the rafters.
The fishing boat game mechanic seems very fun and clever, although having a Cheep Chomp as one of the potential "catches" makes me a little sad we haven't gotten a brick-built one in any sets yet! It's also nice that the picnic scene includes cups for all three "player characters", and the basket construction is very charming with the arched window frame as its handle!
Despite the arguable redundancy of having two Mario's House sets, I honestly think they could look alright displayed back to back. I don't own the set, but I've tested this out in stud.io and it looks alright — the larger scale of this set is kind of evocative to the expansion in the back of the house in the first two Paper Mario games (although in those games this part of the house has light blue walls and a green roof instead of matching the colors of the front half).
I can explain the Yoshi game mechanic you were confused about (where you scan Yoshi's back and a picture of Yoshi appears on Mario's chest), since I've read about it in reviews of other sets with Yoshi. Essentially, this functions as a power-up similar to riding a Yoshi in Super Mario World. As with the Super Mushroom power-up, Yoshi allows LEGO Mario to fall without getting dizzy for a few seconds and losing the power to collect coins during that time — instead, Mario just "dismounts" Yoshi and continues gameplay as normal.
Thanks for the review! I know this set is less exciting to a lot of folks since it lacks new characters or enemies, but I feel like it's quite charming, and am very glad the theme has "leisurely" sorts of sets like this in addition to those focusing more on adventure and conflict.
GREEN MUG!!!