Super Mario

Luigi's Mansion Entryway Expansion Set

A creaky little haunted house with a door mechanism that actually made me grin.

Brick Rated Score

4.0/5

Set 71399 · 2022

Pieces504

Minifigsn/a

Year2022

Set number71399

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The verdict

The doors are what got me.

You can open the mansion's arched French doors two different ways, either by pressing the pale landing out front or spinning a splat gear on the inside, and it feels wonderfully fiddly in the best haunted-house way. This is one of the cleverest Super Mario expansions LEGO put out, dense with little mechanical tricks for the money. Just remember it is an expansion, so it does almost nothing on its own without a Mario, Luigi, or Peach starter to bring it to life.

Best for: Super Mario players who already own a starter and want the moodiest, most mechanical expansion of the wave

The full review

What it is

This is the set that turned the LEGO Super Mario line into a proper little Luigi's Mansion diorama, and I loved building it more than I expected to. The heart of it is a set of arched French doors flanked by ornate stone pillars and a pair of windows, and the trick is that they open two ways. Push the light grey landing out front and they swing, or reach inside and spin a dark grey splat gear and they swing the other direction. It sounds small written down, but in the hand it is the kind of mechanism that makes you open and close the doors ten more times than you need to. Add the wrought-iron gates that swing freely on their stone posts, topped with little blue flames, and a well out front with a bucket on a lever, and the whole thing reads as a haunted house even before you scan a single tile.

The catch

I have to be honest about what you are actually getting, though. This is an expansion, not a starter, and that matters more here than the box lets on. On its own it is a handsome little scene with some clever moving parts, but the interactive heart of Super Mario lives in the Mario, Luigi, or Peach electronic figure, and none of those come in this box. Without one, the barcode tiles, the coin counts, and the whole point of jumping on the lever to raise the bucket just sit there quietly. The other honest snag is thematic. If you came here for Luigi's actual Poltergust vacuum, the signature tool of the whole video game series, you will not find a meaningful version of it, and a few fans found that a genuine letdown for a Luigi set. As a pure display piece it can also look a touch bare next to a fully built sealed model, because so much of the cleverness is in the mechanisms rather than the bulk.

Who it's for

So who is this really for. If you already own a Super Mario or Luigi starter and you want the moodiest, most mechanically interesting expansion of the 2022 wave, this is an easy yes, and I would rank it near the top of that lineup. Kids around seven and up get a real kick out of the door tricks and the shell-launching tile slammer, and Polterpup makes an adorable companion that softens all the spooky business. If you have never bought into the line at all, do not start here, because you will get a pretty scene and not much play. And if you are a hardcore Luigi's Mansion devotee hoping for a faithful Poltergust recreation, temper that particular hope before you open the box.

The parts story

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

The build runs about fifty minutes and never feels like filler, which is impressive for a 504-piece set at this price. Most of your time goes into the entryway facade and its layered door frame, then the gates, then the little graveyard module where purple Bogmire lives. The mechanisms are the real fun of the assembly, because you are building the two-way door linkage and the tile slammer that fires a brick-built black shell across the base, and both come together in that satisfying click-and-test way where you keep pausing to make sure it works. It is a build with genuine personality rather than repetition.

Piece wise, the star colour is Earth Green, with around 57 dark green bricks giving the mansion its overgrown, gloomy tone. Polterpup is the charmer of the parts haul, faithfully recreated from tail to tongue with that red collar intact, and Bogmire the graveyard spirit is exclusive to this set, so collectors chasing the full ghost roster need this box specifically. The Boo has only ever appeared in one other set before this, which makes it a rare little inclusion too. The blue flame elements on the gate posts and the printed action tiles round out a parts mix that punches above the sticker price.

Fun facts

01At 39.99 for 504 pieces, this was the lowest price per piece of the entire Luigi's Mansion expansion wave.
02Bogmire, the purple graveyard ghost, is exclusive to this set, and the Boo had appeared in only one prior set (71369 Bowser's Castle Boss Battle) before this one.
03The mansion's front doors can be opened two separate ways, either by pressing the exterior landing or by spinning an interior splat gear.
04Now retired, sealed copies have climbed to roughly double the original retail price on the aftermarket.