More information about LEGO Super Mario!

Cute

Nice idea for kids.

While of course I would've preferred actual sets, this seems like as really nice toy for younger mario fans.

Well... that's interesting. Looks like fun for kids, who let's face it, are the target demographic. Might me useful for a few new parts. I'll bet that neat-o Mario figure will be expensive though, like him and less than 90 pieces for 60 bucks? Yup, about right. Show this to my 4 y/o I shall not, lol.

This isn't lego... ya blew up

I think it's neat and agree they're continuing to innovate, and that's good. I wish (and still hope) that we're getting standard minifig-scale sets with the Nintendo license that would happen to also appeal to us adult fans, but these are cool too.

How many times does the word “LEGO” appear in this article?

I think this looks super fun! Can't wait to hear more about it.

Wow. It's LEGO pushing boundaries in play, yet again. Very creative and innovative.

I actually love this idea! It's def out there, but it's something I would have killed for as a child.

This did not go the way I thought it would, but I love the concept. The concept kills any interest I had, but kids will love it. These are toys, after all.

I think that the interactive Mario "minifigure" could have a USB type C at the bottom (like the Nintendo Switch, the new Macbook or the latest phones out here). That means there could be a possible integration with existing or upcoming Switch games... right?

@Cheeseisqwerty said:
"I suppose its just like a physical version of Mario Maker. Not my thing, but have to admire lego for always pushing the boundaries!"

I was about to say the same, I also want regular sets.

I hope we still get at least one Minifigure...but we probably won't.

I think it is fantastic!
Fun- Play- New - Interactive- Unexpected.
Wow!

So its essentially a Lego Games (from about a decade ago: https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Games) with a digital element added to it.

Looks interesting and different, and also it seems you don't need an expensive phone to use it like a lot of Lego lately (Hidden Side and Technic). I don't think I will be buying as it will probably be expensive for the amount of building and may get repetitive quickly unless you keep buying expansion sets.

Oh wow I really like that! It’s the kind of thing I expected with Nintendo partnering with LEGO. Looks like a lot of fun!

So weird, yet so cool. I want it! Looks awesome!

It they all look like this its GAME OVER!!

IF this is what the whole theme is going to be like it comes as Nintendo being odd in their own way again. They seem to have this certain way of doing things that doesn't collaborate with others (which is odd because of games like Smash Bros) they always seem to like being different so it doesn't match.

I will say one thing though, usually I don't like the marriage of technology with physical media (using phones with toys and board games etc) but since this is a video game company it actually fits, after all they do have amiibo.

In fact does that mean we could see a Lego minifigure amiibo in the future? lol

@inversion said:
"All the hints at the usual places point to a potential CMF line and traditional sets as well, so stop brooding. Now that Lego has the license and the cat is out of the bag, they won't leave the demand unserved.
"

The €4 blind bag is NOT a CMF, a lot of fake rumours were spread about it.

It's weird but cool at the same time. My young son's a big fan of Mario so I might be getting this. Though, I gotta say, I'm a big Mario fan myself, but if I didn't have kid, I'm note sure I'd be getting this for myself as opposed to more traditional sets. Still, an interesting product for sure.

As many AFOLS I suppose I was really expecting classic minifigs of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Toads and so on. So I am both deceived by how it eventually turned, while also positively surprised by the way the two brands now interact with those sets. Build your own Mario game level with Lego bricks! I mean I am sure that many kids will want and enjoy them :)

I won't say the the set is not good, but I will say that that video was awful. I don't understand anything about the product and the sound design is a bit eerie.

This looks actually sorta cool. I mean it bomb within the next couple years, but it will be an obscure lego line sorta like galidor that will live on forever.

Looks fun for the kids, and I'm hopeful they'll also make something for the more mature lego fan.

100
Really?

Ooh boy my expectations have been subverted ...... was it so hard to make a toadstool castle, bowser castle, yoshi island, or luigis mansion? Really just wantted minifigs with custom head molds like simpsons .... but this I will pass.

Expected more, but I love the new Mario electric figure.

I am definitely not the target audience and I guess my kids aren't either. At 8 and 12 years old they are probably over the age LEGO has in mind for this theme. At least I showed them the video and they found it totally boring. They love playing casual games on their mobile devices and our younger one still likes to play with LEGO Friends, but this new type of gaming experience seems to be geared more towards kids from 3 to 6 I guess.
Easy pass.

Interesting design choice they have made. Not for me, but I hope this will be worth LEGO's investment. However, they better have actual minifigs available.

I think the technology is impressive, and I appreciate the novelty. I just don't see where the 'play' is. Why would you deliberately move it onto a 'Fire Pit' tile for instance, if that's a penalty? Where's the fun in knowing that you're always short-cutting the 'game' by just scanning floor tiles?

I'm not a fan of Super Mario, so I was going to pass anyway, and having seen a bit of the video I haven't changed my mind. It reminds me of that Mousetrap game, except in a build your own concept.

This is going to be a very cheap year for me, Lego. Typical now that I have the cash to spend.

@Squid_Kid8 thanks, I didn't notice that.

grabs popcorn

I'm just really confused

I'm interested is this going to be hit with kids, because it looks Trolls are not

It’s Mouse Trap meets Mario but built with Lego.

Echoing the sentiments of others- not at all what I expected, but I love it! Leave it to Nintendo to do something truly unique and out-there. I really like the big chunky Mario, and I hope they have more characters in future (especially Luigi!)
The video notes that multiple sets are shown there... Can’t wait to see the full lineup, and how it’s all divided up! I’ll be spending a lot of coins on this line!

@HOBBES said:
"OMG! This is going to be so much fun...for about 3 seconds... (once you've bumped Mario on every different tiles available, the novelty is gone, next, give me my tablet back!)

The problem with Lego and technology is they make things too simple. Even EV3 is too simple. A good useful robot needs 2 actuators for movement alone. After that, you need 4 degrees of freedom for a proper arm doing any meaningful work. So at least 6 ports for motors only. You then need sensors for direction (to make sure you go in a straight line), and a few sensors to control accurate movements of the arm (notably the force in the grabbing device). A 12-16 ports EV4 would be fantastic - all 12 being either input or output (a bit like control+ but all 12 in the same box).

The capability of this thing will most likely be exhausted very quickly - and that makes for an expensive toy with limited functionality.

I guess there will be reasonable demand if only just for the novelty or because it is a very good IP and might gather value over time.

Since 2016-2017, looking at Lego going, I'm getting worried that the company is once again spreading itself in non-core areas and we might see a remake of the debacle of the late 1990s early 2000s. Very well if I'm wrong on this but sometimes less is more.

As others have mentioned, let's just hope they will make some regular sets with Mario/Luigi/Peach/etc minifigs and some build-able opponents and vehicles."
—————————————————

If you look at the technology aspect alone, yes they are limited in scope. I’m looking at these as toys with additional functionality, they are exactly that - Lego with some cool lights, sounds, and sensors. Toys don’t lose there playability because they are fueled by imagination.

I think these will do well with kids + anyone who loves Mario and Nintendo IP.

I could see Mario minifigs being a good choice if they did a Mario Kart lineup with karts and figures, sort of like Speed Champions.

It’s good to see something new, but I would have prefer traditional sets. Might pick one or two up though.

I bet kids will enjoy it. Another item I will not buy this year. Lego has done a great job at saving me money! Thank you.

@yellost:
Based on what I'm seeing, you use LEGO parts to build a "level" full of readable tiles that indicate various in-game stuff like enemies and collectibles, and then you Hand Of God your Mario character around from one tile to the next, causing the "game" to play out on Mario's chest. It's an intriguing concept, but where an actual SMB game would require practice/skill/talent/sheer dumb luck to play through, this seems like it would take all of the pressure out of the game play by letting you just place it on the next tile instead of having to be able to gauge speed, distance, and timing to achieve difficult jumps.

@swaggers:
I'm expecting they'll release some character packs that give you one playable character that can be subbed in or Mario.

@fakespacesquid:
Can you? Does the face screen default to a normal facial expression when it loses power, or does it turn black?

@AcademyofDrX:
As a LUG member who participates in group displays, minifigs are the gold standard. Everyone from young kids to their grandparents will light up when they recognize a character or real person who holds a special place in their heart. It's a lot easier with young kids, obviously, but you wouldn't believe how many time we've had someone walk around our layout with a "that's neat, I suppose" expression on their face until one minifig catches their eye and they start freaking out.

@Carbohydration:
It took them a long time to come to grips with the idea that they _did_ have adult fans. It's weird, considering how many of their employees enjoy tinkering around with bricks, how they have parts available all over the company for staff to build with, and the fact that every single one of them is an adult who doesn't think it's strange for _them_ to do this. And yet, until a small group of them were dragged to an AFOL convention, the vast majority of them just assumed that any adult who enjoyed building LEGO models worked for the company. A lot of them probably still do.

@fakespacesquid:
More zombies! I've only got enough to pack a quart bag. A gallon bag would be so awesome. Oh...you weren't talking about actual zombies...were you?

Looks awesome, but I hope there will be some normal minifig sets as well.

@axeleng said:
"As Holdre007 and Hobbes says, this looks like suitable play value for a Duplo set - it may be enough to keep a toddler preoccupied, but older kids will get bored pretty quickly. Even with "advanced" challenges like touching the tiles in a specific order within a time limit doesn't make it much more than an overengineered "Simon Says" game.

And to all the apologists saying "Don't judge it by an early teaser" and "I'm sure we'll get proper minifig sets too" - this is how Lego/Nintendo has chosen to present it, then they'll have to tolerate being jugded by what we see. If they gets their feelings hurt and think "You get the wrong impression" or "It'll be better later, we promise", then maybe they should have presented it differently? They may have gone for the "shock value" of presenting the most radical parts of the theme first, be we really can't count on it - this may actually be all we get.

To me it feels like some really half-baked concept from the early Ideas/Cuusoo era (when there wasn't any rules on introducing software and new parts) complete with excessive use of non-brick technology and overestimating its play value. Putting a computer inside a Lego figure can't be cheap (even by today's standards*), I wonder if they intend yo go with the "razor and blade" model and sell the base Mario set at a reasonable/attractive price while grossly overpricing the additional playsets and accessories.

Also, wonder if the figure will look even creepier when turned off and all-black eyes, it really makes me think of "Sonic.exe" and similar creepypastas.

* If it actually has became so cheap, how come we don't get a much more compact and affordable Mindstorms set?"

———————————————

Kids play with Lego for hours, I’m not sure why they’d quickly get bored with this.

I dunno how I feel about this one...I think I need to see it in the brick.

This is so weird. I can’t wait to buy all of it!

@norikins: I mean, I guess. But you can also just knock a Bionicle character's mask off with your hands instead of making another character punch it off. Outside of those buyers who decide to really devote themselves to set speedrun records for LEGO Super Mario in the "anything goes" tier, I don't think most buyers are gonna go out of their way to "cheat" in a way that bypasses all the fun parts of the play experience.

@axeleng: As far as the cost is concerned, Mario seems to be the only electronic component in any of what we've seen so far. It's possible that the actual software/processing side of things might run through another device like a tablet, smartphone, or Nintendo Switch, sending signals back and forth to Mario via Bluetooth to identify scanned tiles and respond accordingly. If that's the case, then the Mario figure itself would probably be closer in cost to the various "light and sound" elements from over the decades (controlled via Bluetooth rather than a manual switch), as opposed to an "intelligent brick" like the ones from LEGO Mindstorms.

But even if the computing is done internally, being able to ID and react to simple cues like scanned tiles or the passage of time probably only raises it to the complexity of, say, a Tamagotchi, not a robotics kit. By comparison, Mindstorms has to be able to react to a wider variety of input and output modes (and often differentiate between a range of values for each, not an itemized list), AND freely reassign outputs to inputs according to which programs the user creates. Here, the programming appears to be fixed, and the creative part of the play comes from how you physically build each "stage" for Mario to go through.

There are also no motors or exposed electrical bits in these Mario sets as far as I can tell, which probably cuts down a lot on how much money and time has to go towards repeated rounds of safety testing to stay in line with toy safety regulations around the world. I've seen interviews and online comments from set designers over the years which suggest that testing is a major factor in the cost of introducing new electronic systems for stuff like LEGO Mindstorms or LEGO trains.

There's a list of rumored set numbers/price points/piece counts for the rest of this year that I'm reluctant to link to since some of the info probably comes from unauthorized leaks, and there's no telling if it's all reliable, but it makes it sound like there will be a "starter set" with the sort of higher price per piece you'd associate with electronics-heavy sets: probably the main set that includes Mario.

They also list some $10 supplemental packs with 10–15 pieces each, which are most likely alternate player characters like Princess Peach, Luigi, Wario, etc. So that would give an idea of how high the price is for Mario or an analogous character. Nintendo their own Amiibo NFC figures at a similar price, and those don't even have any electric light or sound functions, just NFC chips like the LEGO Dimensions toy tags.

There are also a lot of sets with a more "normal" price per piece, so I wouldn't be surprised if those ones focus on scenes featuring enemies like Koopa Troopas or non-player characters like Yoshi or Toad who wouldn't require any elaborate electronic components, just standard LEGO building and a few printed or stickered parts. So, sort of the inverse of the "razor and blade" model you're describing.

On an unrelated note, it just occurred to me that if the Mario figure reacts to characters like Goombas just by scanning a printed tile… some clever builder out there will probably be adding those tiles to their own MOCs. Imagine somebody building Cacodemons from "Doom", Moblins from "The Legend of Zelda", Stormtroopers from Star Wars, or a cartoonish self-portrait of themselves, but having Mario react the same way he would to stomping a coin block or enemy! There's some definite creative potential there which would be interesting to explore.

@560heliport
Yup!

@Ladondorf said:
"I really hope these weird sets aren't the only things LEGO does with the Mario license.

They're interesting to be sure, but they're really just watered-down versions of the games. I can't imagine a kid playing with this for more than 30 minutes before setting it aside and going back to playing Mario Maker or Odyssey."
———————————————————————
I don’t think the option is “play with this or play video games”. If that were the case then most toys can’t compete. However this is Lego and it can easily be integrated into building and playing with existing Lego fun.

The main downside I foresee is that these will not be cheap.

Now this is a theory I found, but it actually makes sense: https://youtu.be/R5YuvmpHtYE

@Squid_Kid8 That theory could be correct overall, but I can’t see how a $9.99 set comes with a Mario type figure. I would guess those are supplemental sets with 1 sensor and a brick based character. Very interesting either way.

@historynut:
A common, and likely, possibility is that many of those sets have nothing to do with this playable LEGO Mario. Other sets could include regular minifigs, with a few including accessories and/or characters that are compatible with this system.

@B_Space_Man:
Mindstorms is a much more complex system. That requires motor outputs, variable sensor inputs, the actual hardware to allow you to plug in motors and/or sensors, and the ability to hook it up to a computer so you can program it. This only requires a single input with a single sensor to scan playable tiles, and all the programming is likely baked in at the factory. I mean, there was a time when you could get a free calculator with a pack of pencils.

@Aanchir:
I'm not sure how you "not-cheat" with this format. In a real game, if you fail a jump, you die, you start over again, and you keep trying until you get it right. In this...you just have to not drop Mario and have a moderate level of hand-eye coordination. Unless you're timed, in which case you might need a tiny bit more.

@Squid_Kid8:
One possibility for those two $30 sets that don't really fit either price scale is that they could come with bigfigs like Donkey Kong or Bowser.

Kind of weird. Not really a Mario fan to begin with. This seems fun, but hat after you in? I wonder how well it will work...

@fakespacesquid said:
" @commandervideo said:
"I have been wanting Nintendo and LEGO to partner with each other for years, and now that it’s finally happening, I’m so disappointed. I think a theme like the Minecraft or Overwatch themes would have been SO MUCH BETTER.

Can you imagine a brick-built modular Zelda dungeon, or a Peach’s Castle akin to the Disney castle?

Each with Link, Peach, Zelda, Toad, Luigi and Mario minifigs? And then of course, down the road... Samus and Mother Brain, etc!?

Instead, we get this weird thing. I’m really not very stoked on this one. "

There's 14 sets in this wave, and that video doesn't look anywhere near 14 sets. There will almost definitely be minifig-scale sets. "

Good point. Thank you for calming my nerves!

@PurpleDave the large DK or Bowser idea would be pretty cool!

@fakespacesquid said:
" @gabri_ves said:
"AFOLS: we want the return of classic space, classic pirates, 9V trains and the monorail!
Lego: how about this?

In the meanwhile...

Fans: We want a Nintendo Direct, it's been over half an year!
Nintendo: how about this?"

Let's add 'bionicle' to the list of things that need to return!

Ah wait, just remembered how that turned out.

Let the past be in the past. Stop trying to resurrect themes from 30 years ago. All you're going to end up with is zombies (and unsuccessful zombies, at that. If there was a good reason to bring back space and castle and monorail, Lego would've brought them back two years ago.) Stop derailing every single new theme or announcement with something that is not going to happen"

Hey, don't crush my Bionicle dreams just yet! :P

If it’s 4+ I’m gonna rage

I think the idea has potential, but I would prefer if they maybe mixed in a couple of traditional sets. I might pick one of these up though, just because it sounds kind of cool.

If a couple of traditional sets and/or CMFs are released next year, Lego will win me over again.

@Antoine_23 said:
"All they had to do was something like the Minecraft crafting box!! Period! Enough said."

No one says they aren't doing that

Oh, wow. These sets are going to skyrocket in price, just like 75253 Droid Commander did.

hoping to see a minifig series dedicated to mario

Definitely not what I was expecting, but I’ll take something new and innovative over the old and boring every day.

Looks like so much fun to play with my kid! It might actually be better than what I expected (just sets in a Mario theme) - time will tell.

With "Nintendo" now an official link to LEGO, now is the chance for everyone to maybe try to push a Nintendo Character to come forward and even BE brought here to LEGO. That being Link from Legend of Zelda.

This looks worse than I could have possibly imagined. Wow.

all I want is few gumbas I can place here and there on my desk. Rest is not my cup of tea, thou I can see kids loving this.

Love it! The style of the brick-built characters matches their likenesses so well.

@bananaworld said:
"This is gonna bomb so hard."

————————————
I agree this isn’t a runaway success (as far as Lego community at large) but I don’t think this will bomb. If you look at the number or people who “liked” the teaser article vs those who “liked” this announcement article: 111/149 = 75% is a decent approvable number. Of course this doesn't mean much (people may “like” for different reasons for example), but it's at least an interesting starting point with people who seemed interested in Mario Lego.

This might actually be a fun exercise to look at teaser vs announcement responses for past products.

Is anyone else seeing Zelda in the future? That would be awesome!!

Two great classics that combined, make something underwhelming. Long term, most people, including kids, will choose the path of least resistance/effort.

Given the choices, play a video game, instant gratification or build a game, that also takes up physical space, which will the kids choose? Can't step on a virtual LEGO.

I'm calling it an epic fail.

I was interested in Mario in Lego when I read about it the other day. But having read that there aren't traditional minifigs or traditional Lego building sets, my interest has plummeted to zero. I was hoping there would be building sets such as Peach's castle. But it is not to be. Shame.

@Sabreman64 said:
"I was interested in Mario in Lego when I read about it the other day. But having read that there aren't traditional minifigs or traditional Lego building sets, my interest has plummeted to zero. I was hoping there would be building sets such as Peach's castle. But it is not to be. Shame."

There could be a Peach's Castle

Looks kind of Duplo-y.

@Sabreman64 said:
"I was interested in Mario in Lego when I read about it the other day. But having read that there aren't traditional minifigs or traditional Lego building sets, my interest has plummeted to zero. I was hoping there would be building sets such as Peach's castle. But it is not to be. Shame."

No idea where you read that there won't be traditional minifigs or sets. Cuz absolutely none of the announcements or videos have said that. Where did you see that there won't be traditional bits?

@thehornedrat said:
" @swaggers said:
"I am both intrigued and horrified by this."

You're not the target market :)"

I still want it. It's just a weird concept to wrap my head around how its going to work.

@fakespacesquid: The fact that in the interview he states that he can't comment on future sets that might or might not be planned when asked about traditional minifig style sets to me sounds like they hadn't thought about making such sets. But he also said that they read the comments. If that is the case then they will see the backlash and reconsider producing minifig style sets I am sure.

I personaly LOVE new baseplates!

What in the love of all that's holy is this?

kids will get very bored very soon because there is no challenge present like in the real game.

I would much rather see more traditional LEGO sets, mini figs with buildings and/or vehicles.

@Sabreman64 :
From the price schedule that's floating around out there, assuming it's legitimately tied to this theme, the price per piece of each set would be, in US cents, 26, 17, 11, 11, 15, 14, 23, 15, 15, 10, 91, 77, 91, and 100.

That's a pretty wide spread. Dalek Bricks has a YouTube video where he speculates that the last four will be four digifigs, which many of us had already concluded on our own (we've seen similar price structures many times in the past). He also speculates that four other sets will include these digifigs, hence why their price/piece ratio is out of whack as well. Then he figures the less expensive sets (plus the 17, which he thinks is a polybag) would all be minifig-based.

Seeing these actual ratios, however, I don't agree with his break down. The last four, absolutely, look like they're just digifigs. We do see components being built onto Mario, so assume that Luigi and a few other characters will be made available. The 17 set makes sense as a polybag, since the CMF price is now $1 higher than this set's listed price. The 10-11 sets make perfect sense as minifig sets, since they clearly don't include any expensive electronics, and the 10 has the highest price on this list. It's the stuff in the middle that gets messy. He's got 26, 15, 23, and 15 as digifigs, and 11, 11, 14, 15, and 10 as non-polybag minifig sets. 26 and 23 could be explained by digifigs (maybe more than one per set). It's the 15's and 14 that he split evenly between the two groups that I'm questioning. The second most expensive set is one of the digifig 15's, and that I don't have a problem with. But the other three could all be really small sets with one digifig, or they could be minifig sets with bigfigs like Donkey Kong or Bowser.

@AustinPowers:
It tells me they either just aren't ready to reveal them yet, or they have them in the works for a later release. Otherwise, they would have just said no.

@PurpleDave said:
I suspect that a lot of the sets with more normal price-per-piece are probably sets without "digi-figs" OR standard minifigs, but rather brick-built "good guy" supporting characters like Yoshi or Toad and enemies like Koopa Troopa and Piranha Plant. That's enough to allow the toys to function as either a stand-alone play experience without any digital elements, or as expansion sets for the other sets which include a player character like Mario.

Of course, there's also a possibility that some of the sets with a more ordinary price-per-piece could be something else entirely, like the sort of large-scale character sculptures we've seen in so many licensed themes over the years like SpongeBob SquarePants Toy Story, Cars 2, Frozen 2, Minions, Star Wars.

There certainly MIGHT be some sets in this theme with actual minifigs. But even then, my feeling is that at least at first, traditional minifigures would only be likely to show up as an exception to the norm in the Super Mario theme, sort of like how in the Disney theme they've been largely limited to blind bags or D2C sets.

With all the emphasis we're seeing on this interactive level-building format, I doubt the LEGO Group would want to confuse buyers right off the bat by releasing a bunch of sets that are not in any way tied to that format. That sort of discontinuity is a big part of what made the LEGO Explore brand in the early 2000s such an expensive disaster.

Not something I'd buy for my AFOL collection, although perhaps with the licensing agreement something minifigure-scale will come, which would be a near insta-buy for me.

This I might consider buying for my niece, however and like others I certainly appreciate the ingenuity even if it seems a bit large and clunky to me.

I feel like a lot of people are forgetting that at the end of the day Lego is a toy.
I feel like TLG does a ton for us AFOLs,
But at the end of the day not everything they do is centered around us.
I think this one is (Like Wu-Tang)
For the children.
As soon as I heard the news that TLG & Nintendo would be doing a Mario thing.
Of course I didn't in any way imagine this,
But I had a feeling it would be geared towards children
I never expected a 16+ build.
However,
I have been and still am more excited about The Lego Technic Lamborghini announcement that will hopefully be happening soon.
I loved building The Porsche, And I just bought the bugatti this week so I'm really looking forward to that Lamborghini Set.
I'm sure it will most likely Be an Huracan,
Or a Aventador.
But I'm really really hoping it's going to be a
Reventon,
But the one thing I'm sure We can all agree on.
Is that it better not be a Lamborghini Urus!!!!

Well, this announcement has became an utter clusterf**k. This slow trickle of information has only served to fuel rumors, speculations, high hopes and subsequent disappointment (the exact reason Lego says they don't like leaks), unless they reveal everything (including some good news like minifig sets) in the next week I'll say they've got a burning turd on their hands. It's particularly bad how essential information has been fragmented across multiple interviews on different pages, some revealing this, some revealing that - making separating facts from rumors and patching together the full picture a real chore.

There's a price list floating around listing 14 sets. The first set is rumored to be a starter pack with 231 pieces at 60 euro, if so it probably contains what's shown in the pictures here (the Mario "digifig", the Goomba, Baby Bowser and the landscape parts), meaning the Mario figure would cost about 35e by itself. According to Zusammengebaut the Mario figure is the only part with electronics, but there's talk about how the blue overalls and hat are removable to be replaced with alternative outfits (fire, raccoon etc) - this might explain the four 10-13p/10e sets as they possibly features one such power-up and a few effect tiles each (even if there's a slim chance they contain a minifig and some accessories).

There's one 464p/70e set which may also contain a digifig (either a second Mario or another character like Luigi, Bowser or the princess), then there's four other sets with odd parts/price ratios (133p/20e, 217p/30e, 132p/30e and 205p/30e) - I'd guess these don't have actual digifigs but probably more costumes or similar specialized parts.

Then we have a 23p/4e set which is rumored to be a blind bag, but from the 23 parts I'd guess they consists of a brick-built character and a few effect tiles rather than the regular CMF series we all wanted.

In the end we have three sets with a more normal parts/price ratio (468p/50e, 180p/20e and 1010p/100e) which probably doesn't feature digifigs or costumes. These might still be expansions of the game system with brick-built characters and effect tiles but maybe, just maybe, these are the minifig sets we're looking for.

i may purchase the whole line however never open it. lol

Maybe... one of those

@axeleng said:
"Well, this announcement has became an utter clusterf**k. This slow trickle of information has only served to fuel rumors, speculations, high hopes and subsequent disappointment (the exact reason Lego says they don't like leaks), unless they reveal everything (including some good news like minifig sets) in the next week I'll say they've got a burning turd on their hands. It's particularly bad how essential information has been fragmented across multiple interviews on different pages, some revealing this, some revealing that - making separating facts from rumors and patching together the full picture a real chore.

There's a price list floating around listing 14 sets. The first set is rumored to be a starter pack with 231 pieces at 60 euro, if so it probably contains what's shown in the pictures here (the Mario "digifig", the Goomba, Baby Bowser and the landscape parts), meaning the Mario figure would cost about 35e by itself. According to Zusammengebaut the Mario figure is the only part with electronics, but there's talk about how the blue overalls and hat are removable to be replaced with alternative outfits (fire, raccoon etc) - this might explain the four 10-13p/10e sets as they possibly features one such power-up and a few effect tiles each (even if there's a slim chance they contain a minifig and some accessories).

There's one 464p/70e set which may also contain a digifig (either a second Mario or another character like Luigi, Bowser or the princess), then there's four other sets with odd parts/price ratios (133p/20e, 217p/30e, 132p/30e and 205p/30e) - I'd guess these don't have actual digifigs but probably more costumes or similar specialized parts.

Then we have a 23p/4e set which is rumored to be a blind bag, but from the 23 parts I'd guess they consists of a brick-built character and a few effect tiles rather than the regular CMF series we all wanted.

In the end we have three sets with a more normal parts/price ratio (468p/50e, 180p/20e and 1010p/100e) which probably doesn't feature digifigs or costumes. These might still be expansions of the game system with brick-built characters and effect tiles but maybe, just maybe, these are the minifig sets we're looking for."

Dude one of those Mario figures couldn't cost 35€ that's ridiculous they're 10 at the very most

@Aanchir:
There are two sets on the list that pretty much guarantee this wave is not all focused on this new digifig. The cheapest, at $3.99 with 23pcs, is square in polybag territory, as well as being too inexpensive to involve electronics. The most expensive, at $99.99 for 1010pcs, has the lowest price per piece at $0.10. There’s no way you sink a bunch of money into developing this new electronic game system and leave all the electronics out of the most expensive set if it ties into that game in any way. You may be right that they don’t involve minifigs at all (both could be Mario sculpures in wildly different scales), but they also don’t use digifigs.

@magmafrost:
Seriously? You don’t think it’d be more appropriate to play Super Mario Land?

@axeleng:
You’re forgetting the four $10 sets, which have the highest price per piece ratios maxing out at $1 per piece. Those scream “digifigs”. Mario can’t be the only digifig because you can see a Bowser that has the exact same shape in the video.

@PurpleDave: My suspicion is that the $3.99 set would include a brick-built ally or enemy character… e.g. Yoshi, Toad, or Lakitu.

I also don't think we can really assume that the $100, 1010-piece set would include a "digifig". After all, the bigger a set is, the more low-priced standard bricks it can include to balance out the cost of a more expensive gimmick. And big sets in general often have a lower price-per-piece than smaller ones from the same themes due to economies of scale.

It's not even that uncommon for large sets without digital components to have a price per piece much LOWER than 10 cents: for example, 70425-1 from Hidden Side, 70678-1 from Ninjago, 70357-1 from Nexo Knights, 70912-1 from The LEGO Batman Movie, 70617-1 from The LEGO Ninjago Movie, 41130-1 from Friends, and 76057-1 from Marvel Super Heroes.

All in all, I wouldn't say that the $99.99 Mario set is LIKELY to include a "digifig", but I wouldn't rule it out either.

On another note: I watched the video a few times and don't see any Bowser figure. There's a Bowser Jr. figure that is close to the same height as Mario, but he is brick built like the other enemy characters in the video, and doesn't have any display screens like the Mario figure has.

But of course, Bowser's absence from any of the teasers or videos so far are just further evidence of how much more there's likely to be in this theme than what we've seen so far. What's been released mostly seems to be aimed at showing off the core tech innovations and level-building format by focusing in on what are probably just a small number of sets from the first wave.

If I had to guess, the builds in the video are probably assembled from one or two grass level sets (including the "starter set"), one or two water level sets, one lava level set, and one desert level set. Based on the leaks/rumors that have been circulating, that would still leave more than ten sets we haven't seen yet.

I think there's a strong likelihood that LEGO probably had plans to reveal more details about this theme at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in June. But since that event has now been cancelled due to COVID-19, we can probably expect them to do as most other big-name attendees are now planning, and make those announcements online in a few months instead.

PurpleDave - I didn't forget about the 10e sets, as said in the second paragraph I believe these might contain alternative outfits to replace the removable blue overalls and a few effect tiles. Toniboeh says 35e sounds too much for a digifig, but given the complexity of the electronics (color screen, CPU, barcode scanner, bluetooth and possibly a rechargeable battery) combined with Lego's premium I think it sounds about right. Comparing with the prices of PF parts (which ranges from 4e for a short cable and 7.50e for the lights to 25e for the servo motor and 60e for the li-po battery) there's no way we can expect a digifig in the 10e sets.

If there's a Bowser digifig too I'm pretty sure it's part of the 464p/70e set as that would fit the 35e price.

Regarding Magmafrost's comment - there has been a thing the latter years to try running Doom on unlikely hardware, probably due to its iconic status, medium requirements and being somewhat open-source. There are also official versions of it for both SNES, GBA and Switch.

@axeleng said:
"PurpleDave - I didn't forget about the 10e sets, as said in the second paragraph I believe these might contain alternative outfits to replace the removable blue overalls and a few effect tiles. Toniboeh says 35e sounds too much for a digifig, but given the complexity of the electronics (color screen, CPU, barcode scanner, bluetooth and possibly a rechargeable battery) combined with Lego's premium I think it sounds about right. Comparing with the prices of PF parts (which ranges from 4e for a short cable and 7.50e for the lights to 25e for the servo motor and 60e for the li-po battery) there's no way we can expect a digifig in the 10e sets.

If there's a Bowser digifig too I'm pretty sure it's part of the 464p/70e set as that would fit the 35e price.

Regarding Magmafrost's comment - there has been a thing the latter years to try running Doom on unlikely hardware, probably due to its iconic status, medium requirements and being somewhat open-source. There are also official versions of it for both SNES, GBA and Switch."

Personally I doubt antagonists like Bowser will be getting digi-figs. Bowser rarely has the same "gameplay" styles as Mario so the way the digi-figs "scan" objects by "jumping" on them probably wouldn't make much sense for him. Bowser would more likely be a buildable figure like Bowser Jr. (though probably the biggest one we've seen so far if so).

If there are other digi-figs I would sooner expect them to focus on characters like Luigi, Peach, and Toad who have been protagonists in more traditional Mario platformers and have iconic voice lines and sound effects that could be used to scannable tiles in much the same way Mario does.

Lyichir - It was PurpleDave who said he saw a Bowser digifig in a video, as videos no longer plays in any of my browsers I'm not able to verify this, and Aanchir couldn't find it. Maybe PurpleDave can provide a screenshot?

I'm also believing Bowser probably will be brick-built (especially due to his large size and different shape) and we're more likely to see Luigi or Peach as digifigs. I wonder how they'll do Luigi - will they take the easy route and just make a green Mario, or will they put some effort into actually making him look thinner?

@Aanchir:
$99.99, 1010pcs, $0.10/pc
$69.99, 464pcs, $0.23/pc
$59.99, 231pcs, $0.26/pc

Those are three most expensive sets. I just can't see them being able to soak the cost of electronic component so well that they could more than double the piece count of a $70 set for another $30. That just defies logic. Economy of scale only works if you can scale stuff, which is why both UCS MF sets still ran close to $0.10/pc while the Taj Mahal (with 13 elements ranging from 100-388 in quantity) was able to halve that ratio. This just defies logic, unless the $60 and $70 sets contain several digifigs and the $100 set only includes one.

The alleged polybag has a specific piece count, so it's almost certainly not this rumored blind bag (which should have a variable piece count like CMFs). At 23pcs, it could only contain a minor villain from the game, and is unlikely to be one of a selection of random villains. Would they really crank out cases of, say, Goombahs to sell in checkout lanes? I'm highly skeptical of that, and think it's far more likely to be either a minifig-based set, or some sort of small sculpture (however, after thinking on it, 23pcs seems too low to be a Mario sculpture).

On Bowser, I'm not really a huge Mario fan, so the "Bowser" I saw may have actually been this Bowser Jr. I just know he had the right coloration, and a turtle shell on his back. In the video, he looked like the same form factor as Mario to me, but if I was seeing the same character that's in the image at the top of this article, I can't identify any screens on that either.

On the levels, I really expect those $60-70 sets to contain large starter kits for the game, which may contain multiple terrain types. But doing a rough count on one of the Goombahs (figure 15pcs minimum for every "space"), yeah that's unlikely to be a single set that we're looking at.

@axeleng:
If all you get is the parts to reskin Mario for $10, I don't expect those to sell well if they don't also convey special powers (e.g. tanuki suit, or frog suit). There's no way the digifig includes a rechargeable battery, though. Presently, the only one they sell is for EV3 at ~$100. While PF included one, it was dropped for PU. They've never forcibly included one, either. All Li-Poly batteries have been stand-alone purchases, probably because of some EU law about not being able to plug toys into outlets.

And yeah, I know people like to cram Doom onto any device they can get to play it, but there are also people who like to port some of the Mario games as well. I figured Super Mario Land would be easiest, since it's a B/W Gameboy game.

@Squid_Kid8 said:
"Now this is a theory I found, but it actually makes sense: https://youtu.be/R5YuvmpHtYE "

Hahah, thanks for posting the vid here :D

Interesting concept, but not going on my list.

I wonder how this tech could be implemented into other themes?

@tarnizhed_bricks Oh what I wouldn't give for any of those, especially Undertale

I am a huge fan of Super Mario, I have played hours when I was a kid and teenager. But this set does not seems very attractive. As many other users said before, it would have been much more fun to get all this, in mini-figs with different sets with all the characters from the video games. Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Toad, Bowser, etc...
A giant version of the main characters would be nice as well in Lego Creator Expert.

I saw this news the day it came out but I did not have a brickset account so I could not comment that is why I am commenting super and I mean SUPER late, anyway,

Epic set, yeah it's not in minifig form, but there is still a chance that later LEGO would create minifig scale sets, but even if they don't i can create custom minifigures of Mario characters and these sets are amazing it's like LEGO, FURBY, and Super Mario all in one!! and maybe LEGO would create more FURBY like sets in the future like maybe MARVEL, DC, or Star Wars, themed FURBY like sets. Anyway great sets overall and can't wait for the reveal of each set and their names, prices, and release dates!! Oh and one more thing IT"S LEGO MARIO TIME!!

Wow, this is going to flop. A CMF set would have sold. I couldn't imagine how Mario was going to export to the brick format. But this weird hybrid of System, Duplo-esque components, and electronics gizmoery.... Yeah. Because TLG has such a stellar record for legacy-proofed electronics.

Flop. Like a fat man into a swimming pool.

(context: My battle of the bulge is always on the verge of turning into a rout.)