MAR10 day announcement: Dry Bowser Castle Battle Expansion Set revealed
Posted by Huw,
Here's the press release:
The LEGO Group hosted its biggest celebration of MAR10 Day yet with a dedicated YouTube premiere filled with a product reveal, exclusive behind-the-scenes content and an exciting teaser.
MAR10 Day is a global celebration of the entire Super Mario franchise. Each year, fans mark the special occasion by dressing up as their favourite characters, hosting themed parties or by simply playing Super Mario games.
One of the biggest announcements was made by Didier Agani, Senior Interactive Play Designer on LEGO Super Mario, who revealed the LEGO Super Mario Dry Bowser Castle Battle Expansion Set. Made from 1,321 LEGO elements, it’s a truly impressive recreation of an iconic Super Mario character and setting.
This Expansion Set invites LEGO Super Mario fans to rescue Purple Toad from within the deep, dark depths of the castle. The set is packed with action-fuelled missions and endless play possibilities for interactive LEGO Mario, LEGO Luigi or LEGO Peach figures to explore.
Didier Agani said: “at the LEGO Group, we celebrate the Super Mario universe every day, but we’re delighted to do something extra special to mark MAR10 Day. We’re so excited to reveal the 71423 Dry Bowser Castle Battle Expansion Set.
Set in an iconic Super Mario location, fans are tasked to find the secret entrance (just watch out for the Magmaargh!), defeat the Bone Piranha Plant and Bone Goomba, use the crane to rescue the Purple Toad, then quickly grab the key. What lays behind the door is secret – you’ll have to wait and see what’s revealed!”
The LEGO Super Mario Dry Bowser Castle Battle Expansion Set will be available from August 1st 2023 via LEGO stores and lego.com, priced at $109.99 / €104.99 / £94.99.
The Bowser fandom didn’t stop there. The YouTube premiere also featured exclusive content with Carl Merriam, Senior Designer on LEGO Super Mario, explaining the development and creation of the LEGO Super Mario The Mighty Bowser set for adult fans.
The Mighty Bowser was released last year and is a highly detailed recreation of the King of the Koopas, complete with controllable movements and the ability to launch a fireball. Carl talked about the year-long development process of The Mighty Bowser from beginning to end, including design inspiration, technique experimentation and different display platform exploration.
What’s more, there was also a behind-the-scenes look at how the king-sized Bowser was built; a larger-than-life recreation of the character made from 663,900 bricks. The YouTube premiere included timelapse shots of it being constructed at the LEGO building factory based in Kladno. The final result was an epic-proportioned Bowser weighing around 3.9 tones, which took approximately 3,290 hours to build from start to finish.
The YouTube premiere ended with a teaser of what’s to come for the LEGO Super Mario universe. Excitingly, the teaser showed a new brick-built character, Donkey Kong, is coming to the LEGO Super Mario universe this summer. Stay tuned for more information!
To catch up on the LEGO Super Mario YouTube premiere, the recording can be found here https://youtu.be/1L8qJUwZ94A or visit the dedicated page at www.LEGO.com/supermario.
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42 comments on this article
So far, this presentation was absolute garbage.
Cool that LEGO already sent you guys the video- I'm watching it right now. Glad to know I can stop since there is no minifigure reveal.
I do like the captivated purple Toad!
I see those new leaf/fern pieces in grey.
Nice to see the black 6 x 6 tile still kicking around. Need more of those…
Anyways I got no interest in the super Mario theme past the parts, it’s not really my thing but I hope people like this one. I know most want movie sets.
So LEGO and Nintendo hyped up this live presentation for days, and all they have to show is a 11 minute video? What a waste. Just 1 set revealed, and it's nothing we haven't seen before.
DK looks cool even if this blocky style. Hpwever the video - wtf that was? That youtuber havent even played peach stage propperly LMAO
@PetesBricks said:
"Cool that LEGO already sent you guys the video- I'm watching it right now. Glad to know I can stop since there is no minifigure reveal."
They’re not going to have the brick-style Mario and a minifig Mario existing at the same time. It wouldn’t make sense.
great parts pack which I'll make sure to pick up once it inevitably drops to below €50
Does Dry Bowser have a gym? Is that a heavy bag and a bench press setup?
I like the way those chains are made, a good idea to follow suit.
@PetesBricks said:
"Cool that LEGO already sent you guys the video- I'm watching it right now. Glad to know I can stop since there is no minifigure reveal."
Yes because they're going to randomly do minifigs this far into it's life.. it's a given that will never happen as Nintendo don't want it
@B_Space_Man said:
" @PetesBricks said:
"Cool that LEGO already sent you guys the video- I'm watching it right now. Glad to know I can stop since there is no minifigure reveal."
They’re not going to have the brick-style Mario and a minifig Mario existing at the same time. It wouldn’t make sense.
"
Especially when their current lineup appears to be consistently popular and a strong seller. This is the theme's fourth year running, and it shows no sign of stopping.
AFOLs can grumble all they want, but Lego's decision to gamify their Mario line was absolutely the right way to go. I have a hard time imagining a standard minifig scale Mario line being as successful.
Wish I got this one rather than the first Bowser's castle, but oh well. They're going to be dissapearing regardless if I got this or not.
Wait, that's it?
Wow a single set reveal.
That Blaaarg is awesome.
Rats, was hoping for a new display model.
MAR10 Day is such a fetch concept... ;D
Looks cool. My kids are going to love this... not sure about the DK teaser at the end of the video; they haven't really gotten into those games yet.
I'm not a Mario fan, but that castle looks pretty cool, and there are some nice bits of construction in it that certainly give me some inspiration for my own stuff.
Sadly, this is an underwhelming unveiling for me. At least I know I won't be spending a lot of money due to MAR10 day.
Gotta say, that video was very underwhelming. Disappointing, even.
"The LEGO Group hosted its biggest celebration of MAR10 Day yet with a dedicated YouTube premiere...." I guess its previous celebrations have been basically nonexistent if this was the biggest....
Anyways, Dry Bowser's Castle looks decent. The giant chain links look great, and Dry Bowser's gym is a funny addition. Another chance to get a purple Toad as well. Also, 1,321 pieces for $110? This must be one of the only expansion sets to be less than 10c/p.
But that Dry Bowser figure.... He's one of my favorite Mario characters, but man, that build is off. I can't even pinpoint what's wrong with it, or how to make it better, but it misses the mark IMO. It's strange too, since just about all the other figures in this line look very accurate.
I don't know how iconic Dry Bowser really is. I mean, are the DS/3DS games as popular as the console titles? I only know him from Mario Kart. Would have been cooler, if they were going this route, to do something inspired from Super Mario Galaxy instead. Doesn't much matter since I've only dabbled in this theme and another big castle wasn't on my wish list anyways. I think I somehow get annoyed at Nintendo over-emphasizing Gameboy / DS titles, lol. So it's really a lament at them canonizing minor characters like Daisy or this knock-off Bowser as somehow iconic that gets under my skin. Had to complain about something!
For MAR10 this year, I really went all out. I said they should do minifigs, but that they won’t. Now I’ve said it twice. Alright, guys, same time next year?
Did Lego give any indication at all that there would be minifigure sets announced? Seems like a lot of people who were expecting that, but zero reason for them to expect it.
The Mario take on 71722
@B_Space_Man said:
"They’re not going to have the brick-style Mario and a minifig Mario existing at the same time. It wouldn’t make sense.
"
Why not? We have SW minifigs and SW constraction. I'm not saying the way they went with Mario was wrong--I get it, it's a huge hit. But why not both? The 18+ line seems ripe for a tribute set or something. Wouldn't have to be a whole line. I suspect they're under contract not to, but I can't quite see why.
Really like the look of this set. Dry Bowser was one of the bosses on my wishlist to see, and looks great. Love the Magmaargh as well, and the overall presentation with the giant chains is cool too.
The Bone Piranha Plant seems to use the new fern piece from Rivendell in grey, which ought to be great for classical architecture.
@ra226 said:
" @B_Space_Man said:
"They’re not going to have the brick-style Mario and a minifig Mario existing at the same time. It wouldn’t make sense.
"
Why not? We have SW minifigs and SW constraction. I'm not saying the way they went with Mario was wrong--I get it, it's a huge hit. But why not both? The 18+ line seems ripe for a tribute set or something. Wouldn't have to be a whole line. I suspect they're under contract not to, but I can't quite see why."
I get what you’re saying, but we very much don’t have SW constraction, not for quite a few years
Meh. Good for parts when on clearance I spose.
This strongly reminds me of 71722...
This set is tagged with 'Bowsers Castle' but 71369: Bowser's Castle Boss Battle isn't?
Looks great.
There's a Mario movie coming up. It seems like a missed opportunity to not release minifig sets based on the film at least.
@B_Space_Man said:
" @PetesBricks said:
"Cool that LEGO already sent you guys the video- I'm watching it right now. Glad to know I can stop since there is no minifigure reveal."
They’re not going to have the brick-style Mario and a minifig Mario existing at the same time. It wouldn’t make sense.
"
They did something similar with the Minecraft and Star Wars Buildable Figures (although those weren’t tech-based).
I cant read "dry Bowser" without thinking of that one Brian David Gilbert bit
"Their naming conventions confuse and frighten me. When I die will I become dry Brian? Is a living bowser 'wet bowser'? Why do piranha plant have bone in it?"
Just as a castle this is actually quite a cool set. I also really like the characterisation of Dry Bowser, so much animation in his face even though it's Lego bricks. The new Donkey Kong is very well done.
The giant chains are funny and creative, but one thing I really like is how this is a proper playset. Not just some random builds to go with the game but you could just use it as a castle and crane and so forth.
@ra226 said:
" @B_Space_Man said:
"They’re not going to have the brick-style Mario and a minifig Mario existing at the same time. It wouldn’t make sense.
"
Why not? We have SW minifigs and SW constraction. I'm not saying the way they went with Mario was wrong--I get it, it's a huge hit. But why not both? The 18+ line seems ripe for a tribute set or something. Wouldn't have to be a whole line. I suspect they're under contract not to, but I can't quite see why."
Than how many will complain when Mario minifig form is the same size as Bowser, Waluigi and DK for instance? There would then be riots on scale of those..
@Trigger_ said:
" @B_Space_Man said:
" @PetesBricks said:
"Cool that LEGO already sent you guys the video- I'm watching it right now. Glad to know I can stop since there is no minifigure reveal."
They’re not going to have the brick-style Mario and a minifig Mario existing at the same time. It wouldn’t make sense.
"
They did something similar with the Minecraft and Star Wars Buildable Figures (although those weren’t tech-based)."
Same with Chima, which has minifig sets and "bionicle / hero factory" styled characters at the same time.
@Brickchap said:
"Just as a castle this is actually quite a cool set. I also really like the characterisation of Dry Bowser, so much animation in his face even though it's Lego bricks. The new Donkey Kong is very well done.
The giant chains are funny and creative, but one thing I really like is how this is a proper playset. Not just some random builds to go with the game but you could just use it as a castle and crane and so forth."
Yeah it seems to have a lot in common with 71722: Skull Sorcerer's Dungeons
@ra226 said:
" @B_Space_Man said:
"They’re not going to have the brick-style Mario and a minifig Mario existing at the same time. It wouldn’t make sense.
"
Why not? We have SW minifigs and SW constraction. I'm not saying the way they went with Mario was wrong--I get it, it's a huge hit. But why not both? The 18+ line seems ripe for a tribute set or something. Wouldn't have to be a whole line. I suspect they're under contract not to, but I can't quite see why."
It would go against the whole idea they have going, not to mention might cause confusion.
A lot of Bricksetters here could not care less about this interactive Mario theme and I personally echo the sentiment that we want minifigure-scale Mario sets, but as with the recent BTS Dynamite set, we have to remember that just because we (the Brickset community) don't want these sets, doesn't mean that LEGO's target audience don't either.
After 3 years of the theme, LEGO still produces these sets and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon, which must mean that there's a market for these sets.