Super Mario

Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi

Turn the crank and Yoshi runs. That little trick got me instantly.

Brick Rated Score

4.5/5

Set 71438 · 2024

Pieces1,215

Minifigsn/a

Year2024

Set number71438

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The verdict

The moment you finish this one and give the crank a spin, Yoshi's legs pump, Mario bounces along on his back, and you'll grin like you're nine years old again.

It's part pixel-art wall piece, part working toy, and that combination is what makes it special. If you grew up with the SNES, this hits a very specific nostalgia nerve. If you couldn't care less about Mario, the repetitive tile work might wear thin.

Best for: SNES kids who want their nostalgia to actually move

The full review

What it is

There's a real trick to this LEGO® set, and it's the reason it stands apart from every flat pixel-art piece LEGO has made. You build Mario riding Yoshi as brick-built sprites straight out of the 1990 Super Mario World, then you turn a crank on the side and the thing comes alive. Yoshi's little pixelated feet shuffle in a running loop, his head bobs, Mario's cape flutters, and a separate dial pops Yoshi's tongue in and out. It's 1,215 pieces standing over 15 inches tall, and it manages to be both a wall-worthy display and a genuinely fun toy you'll keep going back to poke at. That dual nature is rare. Most display sets you finish and admire from a distance. This one begs you to reach out and spin the handle.

The catch

Now for the honest bits, because it isn't all sunshine. A big chunk of the build is exactly what it looks like: placing small colored tiles by number to fill in the sprite art. The technical sections are woven in nicely so you never go too long without something clever to build, but there are stretches, especially the middle bags, where you're just laying down tile after tile after tile. It's meditative if you're in the mood and a slog if you're not. The color-coding also asks a lot of your eyes. Some of the shades LEGO assigns different numbers to are close enough that builders have grumbled about squinting to tell them apart, and if you have any color-vision difference, that could be a real headache. One more thing worth knowing: Mario and Yoshi aren't separate free-standing figures. They're anchored to the base, so you're displaying the full assembly or nothing.

Who it's for

At 130 dollars this lands as one of the friendlier entry points into the adult Nintendo lineup, cheaper than the big NES console set and far more animated than the flat Art-style mosaics. If Super Mario World was your childhood, or you just love a display piece that does something, this is an easy yes. The working animation lifts it well past a static sprite on the wall, and the build has enough engineering to keep your hands interested. Skip it if repetitive tile placement drives you up the wall, or if you're a pure Technic person who wants function without the paint-by-numbers middle section. But for the right Nintendo heart, this one delivers on its promise and then some. Give it a crank and try not to smile.

The parts story

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

The build breaks into a rhythm you'll settle into fast. You start with the base and the guts, because neither Mario nor Yoshi stands on their own. That's where the good stuff hides: a Technic gear train and crank assembly that drives the whole running animation, plus a separate dial-and-linkage system for the tongue. Assembling that mechanism and watching it click into motion for the first time is the highlight of the whole box. From there you spend the middle stretch laying pixel tiles by number to fill in Yoshi's green body and Mario's classic red-and-blue sprite, then the final third is all Mario's flat form, which builds to a satisfying finish. Roughly 3 to 4 hours across 15 numbered bags and a 228-page book.

This isn't a set stuffed with exotic new molds, and there are no minifigures in the box, so temper expectations there. The value story is a mountain of small tiles and plates in useful sprite colors, ideal fodder if you do your own mosaic or pixel-art builds, plus a tidy little Technic gearbox you can learn a lot from. There's an Action Tag built in too, so if you own a LEGO Mario, Luigi, or Peach figure from the interactive line, you can perch it on top and trigger in-game sounds. At standard per-piece pricing for 1,215 parts, the money mostly buys you that working mechanism and a big pile of genuinely reusable elements rather than rare printed showpieces.

Fun facts

01The set recreates the sprites from Super Mario World, the 1990 SNES launch title that introduced Yoshi to the series.
02Designers Carl Merriam and Daire McCabe deliberately pitched it between the flat LEGO Art mosaics and the mechanical NES console set, cheaper and more animated than either.
03A single hand crank drives multiple motions at once: Yoshi's running legs, his bobbing head, and Mario's fluttering cape.
04A built-in Action Tag lets a separate electronic LEGO Mario, Luigi, or Peach figure sit on the model and play in-game sounds when placed.