Super Mario

Donkey Kong's Tree House

The set that finally brought big, brawny Donkey Kong into LEGO Super Mario, and the figure alone is worth the fuss.

Brick Rated Score

4.2/5

Set 71424 · 2023

Pieces555

Minifigs2

Year2023

Set number71424

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The verdict

This is the one that launched the Donkey Kong side of LEGO Super Mario, and the buildable DK figure is the reason to own it.

He is chunky, characterful, and full of clever slope work, and he towers over the little scanner-based Mario figure in the best way. The tree house itself is a fun playset with a banana-drop tree, a hammock, and conga drums, though it leans younger and needs a separate starter course to do anything electronic. If you already have a Mario or Peach or Luigi starter and a kid (or inner kid) who loves DK, this is an easy yes.

Best for: Super Mario fans who already own a starter course and want the definitive LEGO Donkey Kong figure

The full review

What it is

The Donkey Kong figure is what got me. LEGO could easily have phoned this in with a flat printed character on a chunky base, the way the earlier Mario line handled its heroes, but instead DK is a proper brick-built ape with real presence. Slopes stand in for the ridges of fur and muscle across his back and arms, and there is one tiny 1x1 corner slope perched on his head that nails his little hair tuft so exactly it made me laugh. Set beside the small scanner Mario, he looks appropriately huge and dopey and lovable. This 2023 release was the first proper Donkey Kong crossover in the theme, and you can feel the designers enjoying themselves.

The catch

I will be straight with you about the caveats, because there are a couple that matter. First, this is labelled an expansion set for a reason. On its own it is a nice little diorama, but every bit of the electronic magic (the coins, the sounds, the scanning of the banana and the character tiles) only comes alive if you also own a starter course, either 71360, 71387 or 71403. If you are coming in completely fresh with no Mario, Luigi or Peach figure at home, budget for one of those too, or a lot of this set just sits there quietly. Second, there is no paper instruction booklet in the box at all. Everything runs through the LEGO Super Mario app, which is genuinely well made and lets you rotate and zoom the steps, but if you like building offline or handing a booklet to a child, that is a real adjustment. And at the original 59.99 RRP for 555 fairly simple pieces, this is priced for the license and the play features more than the parts.

Who it's for

So who is this actually for. If you already have a starter course and either a kid who adores Donkey Kong or the DK-loving child still living inside you, this is an easy recommendation and one of the warmer, funnier sets in the whole line. The banana-drop tree, the hammock nap, the conga drums, and Cranky Kong grumbling in the corner all land really well as play. Who should skip it: pure display AFOLs who want an intricate build, and anyone with zero Mario starter set who is not ready to buy into the wider system, because on its own it is only half the experience it was designed to be. Go in knowing that, and it delivers exactly what it promises.

The parts story

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

Building this is quick, cheerful, and clearly aimed at younger hands, but the two Kong figures are where it gets satisfying. Donkey Kong comes together as a stack of clever slope and curve work, and watching the fur texture and that hair tuft appear is the highlight of the whole box. Cranky Kong is the sneaky-fun one: most of the front of his face and that long white beard is built as a separate sub-assembly and then slotted into the body, which is a neat little technique to find in an eight-plus set. The tree house around them goes fast, with the banana-drop trunk being the main mechanical moment.

For parts, the standout is the trunk, a big 2x4x14 support element in reddish-brown that anchors the whole tree, plus a new banana piece sized just right for a Kong to hold. There are cheerful jungle greens, some nice printed tiles for the TV and radio details, and the usual Super Mario action bricks. It is not a set you buy to raid for rare recolors, the value here is squarely in the two brick-built characters and the play functions rather than a deep parts haul, so treat any useful spares as a bonus rather than the reason to buy.

Fun facts

01This set headlined the arrival of Donkey Kong in LEGO Super Mario in 2023, the first time the big ape joined the theme after years of Mario, Luigi and Peach.
02There is no printed instruction manual anywhere in the box. LEGO ships it with the building steps living entirely inside the LEGO Super Mario app.
03It is an expansion set, meaning it has no starter figure of its own, all the interactive scanning depends on a separately-sold Mario, Luigi or Peach starter course.
04Cranky Kong's face and beard are built as their own sub-assembly and then pushed into the finished figure, an unusually fiddly little trick for a set rated eight and up.