Happy Mario Day 2023! To celebrate the festivities, the LEGO Group has showcased the latest lineup of expansions to the Nintendo theme. The reveals were a tad underwhelming compared to previous years, but builders did get a first official look at the upcoming Dry Bowser Castle set as well as the LEGO debut of Donkey Kong into the theme.
LEGO Dry Bowser Castle revealed
Headlining all of the LEGO Mario action, we have an official look at one of the largest additions to the collection so far. The upcoming Dry Bower Castle set will be landing later this summer as the next 2023 expansion set, stacking up to 1,321 pieces. The spooky build fittingly assembles a castle packed with all kinds of Mario enemies, like a bone Piranha Plant and bone Goomba. There’s of course Dry Bowser himself, because this is his sanctum after all, as well as a purple Toad figure who has been captured by the king of the koopas.
Officially hitting the scene on August 1, the new Dry Bowser Castle Battle Expansion Set will retail for $109.99. It’ll likely be joined by some other creations as part of the summer LEGO Mario lineup of sets, though we’ll have to wait for a look at those builds until later on in the year.
Coming later this summer, the LEGO Group is also teasing the full reveal of even more action into the Mario lineup. Alongside the Dry Bower Castle set, builders have one of the more iconic characters in the Nintendo stable to look forward to getting the brick-built treatment. Donkey Kong will be joining the collection later this year, though not all that many details were revealed.
Donkey Kong gets in on the LEGO action, too
Aside from just getting a look at the new design of Donkey Kong in LEGO form, we now know that he will be arriving come the summer. That’ll likely mean an August 1 launch just like the other set fully revealed today, though just how you’ll be able to get your hands on the ape has yet to be mentioned. He isn’t an electronic figure like we’ve seen from the rest of the LEGO Mario theme, so expect him to be included in a larger set that hopefully comes themed around Kong.
As a reminder for all of the expansion packs above, you’ll be needing one of the Starter Courses in order to fully take advantage of the Toys to Life action offered by the companion app. Right now, we’re luckily seeing price cuts on all three of them, including Mario, Luigi, and the all-new Peach at $47.99 each. Down from the usual $60 price tags, these let you get in on the action in addition to all of the expansions on sale below. All three feature electronic figures of the iconic Nintendo brothers that let you interact with the entire Nintendo collection.
You can learn more about what to expect from the LEGO Super Mario theme in our hands-on review. And if you’ve yet to try out the Mario experience, just about all of the kits are currently 20% off at Amazon right now.
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