Super Mario

Bowser's Airship Expansion Set

The biggest Mario expansion there is, and the fold-out trick is the whole point.

Brick Rated Score

4.0/5

Set 71391 · 2021

Pieces1,152

Minifigs3

Year2021

Set number71391

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The verdict

The thing that got me here isn't the size, it's the fold-out.

This LEGO® set snaps from a tidy flying ship into a sprawling course you can actually play across, and that hinge is genuinely clever. It's a play set first and a display piece second, so if you own a Starter Course to scan across it, you'll get real mileage. If you want a static shelf model, the wobble when it opens might bug you.

Best for: Super Mario players who already own a Starter Course and want the biggest playground going

The full review

What it is

Bowser's Airship is the biggest expansion LEGO ever made for Super Mario, and once you understand what it's doing, that title makes sense. This is a ship that refuses to sit still. Fold it one way and you've got a compact airship, roughly 35cm long, ready to sail across your shelf. Fold it the other way on those warm gold Technic hinges and it opens right out into a playable course, doubling in size, with Action Bricks and enemies waiting on the deck. That transformation is the reason to own it. It's not a set you build and park. It's a set you keep flipping open because the mechanism is fun in your hands. You get three enemies to deal with too: Kamek the Magikoopa on his barrel-tipped broomstick, Rocky Wrench hiding under the poop deck popping up to lob wrenches, and a Goomba with a removable hat over its barcode. Each one plays differently when you scan across them, and Kamek's broom is a nice touch since a beaten Mario can hop on it for bonus points.

The catch

Here's the honest part. This is an expansion, and the name matters. On its own the Airship doesn't do the interactive Mario magic. You need a Starter Course set, the one with the actual Mario, Luigi or Peach figure, to scan across the barcodes and Action Bricks and make the play features come alive. So if this is your very first Super Mario purchase, it'll feel oddly quiet out of the box. The build itself runs long, close to ten hours, and a decent chunk of that is repetitive framework and hull structure rather than clever technique. And that lovely fold-out trick has a cost: several reviewers, me included, noticed the model feels a little flimsy while it's mid-transformation. It holds together fine once it's set, but the wobble as you open and close it isn't the reassuringly solid click you might want at this price. At $99.99 it isn't cheap, though the piece count backs it up.

Who it's for

So who lands where. If you're already deep in LEGO Super Mario with a Starter Course and a shelf of expansions, this is close to a must. It's the grandest playground in the line, and the enemies and Action Bricks add proper variety to how you play. Kids who love the folding, flipping, rearranging side of LEGO will get their money's worth here. If you're brand new to the theme, start with a Starter Course first and come back for this, because the Airship needs a partner to sing. And if you're strictly a display collector who wants a rock-solid model to admire from across the room, know that this one earns its keep through play, not poise. On the Brick Rated scale it lands at a solid 4.0: a genuinely good set with a standout gimmick and a couple of caveats worth knowing before you commit.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building this breaks into two moods. The first is the airship hull itself, which is a lot of steady structural work, plates and framework and that big boat body coming together into something sturdy. It's satisfying in a slow way but it's where most of the ten hours goes, and it does get repetitive. The second mood is the fun part: rigging the fold-out mechanism. Those warm gold Technic connectors form the hinge system that lets the whole thing swing open from flying mode into course mode, and watching it work for the first time is the payoff for all that framework. You also assemble the three enemies and their play functions, like Rocky Wrench's spring-up under the poop deck, which break up the pacing nicely.

On pieces, there's plenty for a parts fan to like. The set leans on medium nougat boat hull elements and 8x8 rounded corner plates in a big way, so if you build ships or custom bases, this is a useful haul. It debuted a black warp pipe for the first time, and brought an arched window in reddish brown to the party, plus a reddish brown stepping foot element for the Goomba. The warm gold Technic connectors are the real character piece here, both structural and good-looking. At 1,152 pieces for $99.99 you're right around nine cents a part, which is fair for a licensed set, and the secondary market has held it just above retail since it retired at the end of 2022.

Fun facts

01It's the largest expansion set LEGO ever released for the Super Mario theme, at 1,152 pieces.
02The whole model folds on warm gold Technic hinges between a compact flying mode (around 35cm long) and a spread-out course mode that roughly doubles its size.
03It introduced the black warp pipe for the first time in LEGO history, along with a reddish brown arched window.
04All three enemies, Kamek, Rocky Wrench and the Goomba, are unique to this set, and Kamek rides a broomstick a defeated Mario can hop onto for bonus coins.