Super Mario

Luigi's Mansion Haunt-and-Seek Expansion Set

The spookiest, cleverest mansion the Mario line ever built, if you already own a starter figure.

Brick Rated Score

4.0/5

Set 71401 · 2022

Pieces877

Minifigs4

Year2022

Set number71401

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The verdict

This is the big finale of LEGO's Luigi's Mansion mini-run, and the room that rotates on a turntable when you drop Mario or Luigi inside is genuinely one of the smartest bits of play engineering the whole Super Mario theme ever produced.

I love how much personality is packed into 877 pieces, from the scared little Toad to King Boo perched up his tower. The catch is real though: you need a separate starter course to make any of the electronics do anything, and at its old $79.99 price it asked a lot. Best for households already deep in the interactive Mario system who want the moodiest playset in it.

Best for: Kids and parents already invested in the interactive Super Mario starter system

The full review

What it is

There is something wonderfully theatrical about this set that got me right away. The whole thing is built around a rotating hallway mounted on a turntable, and when you set a LEGO Mario or Luigi figure inside it, an Action Brick spins the room so you can reach the next haunted chamber. It is the sort of mechanical idea you expect from a much pricier set, and here it anchors a whole spooky little villa of four modular rooms, three hidden gems and four ghostly characters. As the last and largest of LEGO's short Luigi's Mansion run, it feels like the designers threw every good haunted-house idea they had left onto one baseplate.

The catch

I have to be straight with you about the price and the fine print, because it matters more here than with most sets. This is an expansion, which means it does absolutely nothing interactive on its own. You need a Super Mario Starter Course (either 71360 or 71387) with its electronic figure before a single one of these modules reacts, and that figure is not in the box. So the real cost of entry was never the $79.99 sticker, it was that plus a starter set. And $79.99 for 877 pieces with no headline figure is on the expensive side even by Mario theme standards, where the interactivity always carries a premium. If you go in expecting one big impressive build, you may be a little surprised at how much of this is smaller scattered scenery rather than a single grand mansion facade.

Who it's for

So who lands on the happy side of all that? Households already living in the interactive Mario ecosystem, with a starter course sitting on the shelf and a kid who wants the moodiest, most character-packed playground to run it through. For those families this is the crown jewel of the sub-theme, full of surprise triggers and genuinely funny ghosts. If you are a display-first adult collector, or you do not already own a starter figure, I would think hard first. Without that figure the electronics sit silent, and as a static shelf piece this reads more as a busy toy than a showcase model. Now retired and climbing past its RRP on the aftermarket, it is a lovely thing, just make sure you have the rest of the system to power it.

The parts story

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

Building this is a string of quick, gratifying little wins rather than one long marathon, and I mean that as a compliment. You assemble it as separate modules, a haunted pool table, a painting that traps Toad, King Boo's tower, then clip them around the central turntable hallway, so at every stage you finish a small self-contained thing that actually does something. It runs a comfortable two to three hours, and the constant reveal of a new gimmick keeps the momentum up. It is a build that rewards curiosity, because half the fun is figuring out how each module's trigger works as you make it.

On parts, the headline is the rotating turntable assembly and the January-2022 start plate that plays different background music, both of which do real mechanical and electronic work here. The four characters are the standouts and all unique to this set: a Toad wearing a lovely scared expression, the Green Garbage Can Ghost, the Red Grabbing Ghost and King Boo. New Elementary noted the ghosts' arms are the set's only genuinely unique recolored elements, so this is not a parts-pack goldmine for MOC builders, it is a gameplay set first. With the four figures alone valued near 48 percent of the retail price, the character count is where a lot of the money quietly sits.

Fun facts

01This was the third and largest set in LEGO's short Luigi's Mansion sub-run, and at 877 pieces it served as the grand finale of that little haunted collection.
02The set includes no Mario or Luigi figure at all; it is a pure expansion that relies on the electronic figure from a separately sold Starter Course (71360 or 71387) to trigger its play features.
03It uses a new-for-2022 start plate that cues up different background music, part of that year's refresh to the interactive Super Mario system.
04Retired not long after release with an RRP of $79.99, it has since climbed on the secondary market to roughly $130, one of the better-appreciating Super Mario expansions.