Super Mario

Game Boy

A grey brick that made grown adults gasp out loud.

Brick Rated Score

4.6/5

Set 72046 · 2025

Pieces421

Minifigsn/a

Year2025

Set number72046

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The verdict

I built this on a Sunday afternoon expecting a cute novelty and ended up completely charmed by how seriously LEGO took the assignment.

Every button clicks, the D-pad rocks, and you swap real lenticular cartridges in and out of a working slot. This is one of those sets where the engineering is the whole point, and it earns every bit of the attention it got in 2025.

Best for: Anyone who grew up thumbing a D-pad in the back seat of a car on a road trip

The full review

What it is

I did not expect a grey plastic rectangle to be one of my favorite builds of the year, but here we are. The LEGO Game Boy nails the exact proportions of the 1989 original, right down to the rounded corners and the tiny screw details on the back, and it does it with real hinges and clicking buttons rather than just gluing a shape together. The two included Game Pak cartridges, Super Mario Land and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, slide into a working cartridge door, and I found myself popping them in and out just because it felt so satisfying.

The catch

It is a fast build, so if you are used to spending a whole evening on a set, this one will not stretch to that. The window piece for the screen also shipped a little loose in my box and I know from reviewer notes that a few people got theirs with light scuffing in transit, so it is worth checking that piece carefully when you open it. At $59.99 for 421 pieces it is not cheap per piece, but the specialty elements here (the lenticular screens, the printed shell pieces, the custom curved corner) are doing work you cannot get anywhere else in the LEGO catalog.

Who it's for

Get this if you had a Game Boy as a kid, or if you just love display pieces that actually do something when you touch them. Skip it if you need volume for your money or want a long, meditative build, because this one is over before you know it.

The parts story

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

The build moves fast and in stages that mirror how the real device goes together: the shell first, then the button cluster, then the internal frame that holds the cartridge slot and screen assembly. It never feels repetitive because each section introduces a new mechanism, whether that is the hinge for the battery cover or the little gear-like wheel for volume.

The standout piece is a brand new curved 4x4 slope with a rounded corner, printed with the speaker grille and B button label, designed specifically to fake the Game Boy's molded plastic curve at LEGO scale. The two Game Pak cartridges are printed rather than stickered, and the three lenticular screen inserts (Mario, Zelda, and the Nintendo logo) are unlike anything else in a mainstream set. For a modest 421 pieces, the ratio of unique specialty parts to generic bricks is unusually high, which is exactly why fans and reviewers called it some of the best value of 2025.

Fun facts

01The set includes three swappable lenticular screen panels: one for Super Mario Land, one for The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and one showing the classic Nintendo startup logo.
02A new curved corner piece was created specifically for this set to mimic the Game Boy's rounded shell, complete with a printed speaker grille and B button label.
03The Super Mario Land cartridge's internal circuit board is intentionally simpler inside the model, with no RAM chip piece, mirroring how the real 12-level game had no save feature.
04LEGO stacked in extra printed detail rather than stickers throughout the shell, which is unusually generous for a $59.99 set.