Review: 71406 Yoshi's Gift House
Posted by benbacardi,
Since I was a child, Yoshi has always been my favourite Super Mario character. I couldn't put my finger on why, but there's something very whimsical and fun about the dinosaur-like cartoon creature that's willing to carry Mario around on his back and help out wherever he can.
He's an iconic part of Mario lore, and has fittingly appeared in a number of sets so far in the Super Mario line. 71406 Yoshi's Gift House is the latest to feature the character, and is the largest with him as the sole protagonist; though that's not saying much, at fewer than 300 pieces.
Summary
71406 Yoshi's Gift House, 246 pieces.
£29.99 / $29.99 / €34.99 | 12.2p/12.2c/14.2c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A relatively small set with a well-loved character, but does not add much to the game.
- Yoshi!
- Traditional Super Mario location
- Not particularly interactive
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Before we get into the set, I want to preface the review by saying that my four-year-old son built everything, with only a few calls for help, which I think is testament to the ease of use of the digital instructions. He was often rotating the 3D models with his fingers to get a better view of where to place the parts, which is something you definitely can't do when faced with paper instruction booklets. They may seem dumbed down or less efficient to us, but they certainly helped my son build a set targeted at an age a few years older than himself.
Yoshi's Gift House
Yoshi's house has appeared in a number of games in the franchise, almost always built inside some trees bearing fruit that Yoshi can eat. It's odd that LEGO has chosen to incorporate a gift element, as that's more traditionally associated with Toad houses where Mario can usually receive a power up or other reward.
The fruit trees, however, remain accurate to the source material, with two scannable fruits provided in the set. The first simply sits on a ledge in one of the two trees that flanks Yoshi's front door.
Behind this tree there's a bed, presumably Yoshi's, although there is nothing interactive about it whatsoever. Mario has always gone to sleep when laid on his back, at least now he has a bed to sleep in, I guess?
The second fruit is more interesting, sitting precariously on another ledge but behind a tree this time.
Knocking the red lever from the side causes the ledge to tilt and the fruit to drop.
Once picked up (i.e. scanned), the fruits can be eaten as usual, put in the present box, given to Yoshi, or taken to the turntable. This is an odd contraption on top of which Mario (or Luigi, or Peach) can stand and be spun using the crank at the side.
If spun enough times while holding a fruit, the apple will eventually turn gold, and earn more coins when eaten than a regular fruit.
Yoshi himself can be found standing in his doorway, next to a quaint red postbox and a little blue bird in the trees above. The name plate tile above his door is printed and unique, and looks great.
You can interact with him in the same way as you can with Yoshis in the other sets - scanning his tile will place a little graphic of him on the character's chest screen, and he will eat apples or earn you points as you jump around.
A simple Monty Mole character is also provided. You can jump on his head for one coin, or eat him with Yoshi.
Conclusion
The best thing going for this set is its cuteness. Put together it's a delightful little home, and Yoshi is always going to be a plus in my book. However, there's not a huge amount of interactivity - especially considering there's a good chance you have a Yoshi already from one of the other expansion packs or the Luigi starter pack. I found the crank quite difficult to turn, due to how close to the table it is, but I admit that my hands are larger than the average child who are more the target audience.
If you don't yet have a Yoshi, particularly a green one, I think this is a worthwhile addition to your collection. The house is a cute little build, and the mole a nice change from a Goomba. However, it's definitely not a must-have, given that it adds very little to the actual gameplay.
I do like the printed Yoshi sign, though.
It's available at LEGO.com for £29.99 / $29.99 / €34.99.
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14 comments on this article
Is the only difference between this Yoshi and the first one is the semi-circle tile for the belly?
This set is still more interactive than 71367, whose only interactive elements were Yoshi (which you can only talk to, not ride!), a Star Block and a Goomba. However, it also costs more depending on where you live.
Also, Yoshi isn't just "a green Yoshi". He's Yoshi, Mario's lifelong companion. One of his kind, but a much more significant character. Not everyone would be content just having a Yoshi in any other color without this one, even if some might. I'm considering BrickLinking the green Yoshi tile from this set so my Mario and Luigi can ride him. I'm not sure I want to buy this set as a whole just for that. But I don't have a Monty Mole yet either.
"Behind this tree there's a bed, presumably Yoshi's, although there is nothing interactive about it whatsoever. Mario has always gone to sleep when laid on his back, at least now he has a bed to sleep in, I guess?"
The same could be said about the hammock in 71367. I think the point is to give Mario (or anyone else) a physical bed to sleep in so you don't have to build your own if you'd rather have a prebuilt one.
Nice review! I love this little set—it manages to stay fairly true to Yoshi's house from Super Mario World while also adding a bed behind the tree to make it feel a little more home-y.
The use of the angled connectors from this year's Ninjago mechs to connect level segments at 45 degree angles in some of these new Mario sets is neat.
@MarkingX said:
"Is the only difference between this Yoshi and the first one is the semi-circle tile for the belly?"
Physically, I think so. But the scannable tile in this one lets you "ride" Yoshi like the pink and yellow Yoshi from later sets, unlike the one from Yoshi's original Lego appearance (where the interaction was just a "hello" and coin bonus like it was with Toads).
This feels very timely with the movie trailer released yesterday. X-D
There may only be so much to it, but this is actually the set I’ve been the most excited to get from the current line, purely because it emulates Yoshi’s House as it appeared in Super Mario World. The only thing I’m sad that it’s missing is his signature brick fireplace and a colorful bird or two!
https://www.mariowiki.com/Yoshi%27s_House
@Kalking said:
"it’s missing is his signature brick fireplace"
No, it's there, to the right. It's a little more inconspicious than the original thing, but that's unmistakeably a brick structure with smoke billowing out at the top.
A charming little set, great parts and Yoshi always looks adorable. But it almost looks like as if the trees are just facades - like they're flat pieces of plywood painted to look like trees.
What dark secrets are you hiding, Yoshi?
This is such a charming set design! While there are a lot of recurring course features in the Mario series, specific recurring locations are much fewer in number, and Yoshi's house (always funny to me to call three trees with a fireplace, chimney, and mailbox a house!) is a particularly iconic one.
Obviously, the design of Yoshi's house varies somewhat from game to game, but this build is generally a good likeness of its original appearance from Super Mario World, albeit splitting the treetops apart instead of having them form one solid canopy, and moving the "Yoshi" sign from the mailbox post onto said treetops. Adding a bed behind one of the canopies also helps the setting feel a little more "house-like" — after all, Yoshi must have SOMEWHERE to sleep when he's not adventuring, even if it's not shown in the games!
Yoshi's beloved fruits are an iconic item in their own right, and it's neat that the designers were able to introduce a cool new gift-giving game mechanic with them. It was also clever of them to repurpose the gift boxes from more recent Mario games as a way for "player characters" like Mario, Luigi, and Peach to share items like this with EACH OTHER, instead of just with friendly non-player characters like Toad and Yoshi. I could definitely imagine the designers utilizing similar designs and game mechanics in future sets for botanical items from other games, like the tropical fruits from Super Mario Sunshine or the turnips from Super Mario Bros. 2!
The "treat carousel" for upgrading fruits into golden fruit doesn't seem to have any sort of equivalent in existing Mario or Yoshi games, and it's a somewhat odd feature conceptually. But it definitely adds some nice kinetic play value — who DOESN'T love stuff that spins? And it's certainly in keeping with the whimsical spirit of the Mario games, in which actions like stomping on, climbing on top of, or running circles around suspicious objects often yields special hidden rewards.
All in all, the Mario games have clearly been a very rich source of inspiration for set designers, and they definitely haven't come close to running out of new ideas to base sets around. Thanks for the review!
@Robot99 said:
" @Kalking said:
"it’s missing is his signature brick fireplace"
No, it's there, to the right. It's a little more inconspicious than the original thing, but that's unmistakeably a brick structure with smoke billowing out at the top."
…WOW, I completely missed that and mistook it for a tree. Not nearly enough coffee yet today, apparently.
EDIT: Somehow I missed the blue bird on top too. Wow. On the upside, now I like the set even more!
@GBP_Chris said:
"A charming little set, great parts and Yoshi always looks adorable. But it almost looks like as if the trees are just facades - like they're flat pieces of plywood painted to look like trees.
What dark secrets are you hiding, Yoshi?"
He's hiding the fact he's secretly also in league with Bowser and his pals, with this being a fake house hiding an extensive underground bunker HQ. He never got so much as a thank you for the Yoshi's Island -debacle and saving Mario as a baby, so now he plots to usurp Mario and Princess Peach, and eventually to get rid of Bowser and Co. themselves by playing both sides against the middle, Darth Sidious style. Imagine it: Lord Yoshi, Emperor of the Mushroom Kingdom and master of all the sun touches! (insert evil laugh here)
@Murdoch17 said:
"He never got so much as a thank you for the Yoshi's Island -debacle and saving Mario as a baby"
Not to mention all of the pits Mario has dropped him into to get a little extra jump height
You know what they say - don’t look a gift house in the mouth
@The_Rancor said:
"You know what they say - don’t look a gift house in the mouth"
I never understood where phrase the came from. Who would look any horse in the mouth, besides a veterinarian? It 100% makes no sense.
@Murdoch17 said:
" @The_Rancor said:
"You know what they say - don’t look a gift house in the mouth"
I never understood where phrase the came from. Who would look any horse in the mouth, besides a veterinarian? It 100% makes no sense."
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/dont-look-a-gift-horse-in-the-mouth.html:
As horses develop they grow more teeth and their existing teeth begin to change shape and project further forward. Determining a horse's age from its teeth is a specialist task, but it can be done. This incidentally is also the source of another teeth/age related phrase - long in the tooth.
The advice given in the 'don't look...' proverb is: when receiving a gift be grateful for what it is; don't imply you wished for more by assessing its value.