Super Mario

Fliprus Snow Adventure Expansion Set

A snowy little Mario course that punches well above its size for pure playability.

Brick Rated Score

3.9/5

Set 71417 · 2023

Pieces567

Minifigs4

Year2023

Set number71417

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The verdict

This is one of the very few Super Mario expansions I'd tell people to actually chase down.

You get four characters (one of them a genuinely obscure pull), a snowman whose head rolls off on command, and more built-in functions than a 567-piece box has any right to include. The catch is real though: without a Starter Course this is a diorama, not a game. If your household already has Mario, Luigi or Peach in play, this earns its shelf space.

Best for: Families already invested in a Super Mario Starter Course who want the most function-packed expansion

The full review

What it is

The Fliprus is what got me here. It's a giant pink walrus that first showed up in New Super Mario Bros. U, the kind of deep-cut enemy most people have never laid eyes on, and LEGO handing it a whole snowy set feels like a wink to anyone who actually played that game. The set builds into a compact ice course: a big platform with a snowman standing over a Freezie, an icicle overhang, and a little spot where a baby penguin waits for a fruit. For a box this size, the amount going on genuinely surprised me. Reviewers keep landing on the same word, fun, and after reading through the functions I understand why. You jump on a branch to knock Freezie over and reveal a hidden fruit tag, then rotate the top so the snowman's head rolls off the icicle and clobbers the Red Koopa Troopa below. That's two distinct mechanisms plus the fruit-to-penguin gift moment, all in one small course.

The catch

I have to be straight about the caveat, because it's the whole ballgame with Super Mario expansions. This set does nothing on its own. There's no Mario, Luigi or Peach figure in the box, and those interactive Barcode-reading tags only come alive when one of them skates across the course. So if you don't already own a Starter Course (71360, 71387 or 71403), this is a lovely static scene and not much more. On top of that, the value math is fine rather than thrilling. At 64.99 for 567 pieces you're paying a bit of a character premium, and a chunk of the build is white round parts stacked into a snowman and sloped parts stacked into Freezie, which does get a touch monotonous. Several people snagged it on clearance for closer to twenty dollars, and at that price the calculus changes completely.

Who it's for

So who should grab it? Anyone whose kids (or, honestly, anyone) already have a Mario figure roaming the living room floor. This is arguably the most function-dense expansion in the whole line, and the character lineup is the best kind of specific. If you're a parts person hunting for a clever engineering build, this isn't that, and if you have no Starter Course and no plans to buy one, skip it entirely because you'll be paying for a game you can't play. But for the family already in the ecosystem, especially now that it's retired and floating around at a discount, this is an easy yes.

The parts story

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

Building this is quick and kid-friendly, which is clearly the point. The instructions move fast and a seven-year-old can put most of it together solo. The snowman is the heart of it: a stack of large white round parts topped with a printed round tile for the face, mounted so the whole body tilts and the head pops free on a spin. Freezie is a satisfying little pile of sloped pieces with a printed shield tile for its face and an action tag hidden on the back. It's more about the toy-like functions than tricky technique, so don't come expecting a challenge, come expecting play.

For parts people the draw is the winter palette. There's a healthy scoop of white round bricks and plates plus icy trans-blue elements that are handy for any snow or water MOC, and New Elementary flagged the set as a solid source for those slopes and rounds. The printed character tiles (the snowman face, the Freezie shield) are the standout prints, and the Fliprus itself is a chunky brick-built figure rather than a simple molded piece, so it doubles as a bag of useful pink and tan parts. It's not a set stuffed with brand-new molds, but the recolored basics in bulk are the real value if you build your own scenes.

Fun facts

01The Fliprus is a rare pull for a LEGO set, first appearing as an enemy in New Super Mario Bros. U on the Wii U back in 2012.
02The Red Koopa Troopa and the Fliprus are both exclusive to this set, which is a big reason collectors sought it out.
03The snowman is designed so that spinning the top platform makes its head roll off the icicle and knock over the Koopa below, one of two separate topple mechanisms in the course.
04The set retired at its 64.99 RRP but was widely discounted late in its run, with some buyers reporting clearance prices as low as around twenty dollars.