Similar to Peach’s Castle, another of the newly released LEGO® Super Mario Expansion sets is connected to one of the interactive figures. It’s also revisiting a location which has previously inspired past sets. In 2022, the Mario sets took a spooky turn and focused on Luigi’s fearful trip around a spooky mansion. Those previous sets focused on different parts of Luigi’s Mansion. This new set is a little more contained but does borrow elements from other sets. Grab that Poltergust 3000 and get ready for another visit around a Boo-filled haunted mansion.
Product Details
Set Name: King Boo’s Haunted Mansion | Set Number: 71436 | Pieces: 932 | Theme: Super Mario
Number of Bags: Bags x 10 (paper) | Instructions: Paper booklet + Builder App | Stickers: N/A | Characters: King Boo, a Boo, Yellow Baby Yoshi & Dry Bones | Action Tags: 9 | Insiders QR: Yes
RRP: £64.99/$74.99/74.99€/CAD99.99/AUD199.99/NZD129.99
Availability: LEGO Stores, LEGO Online & General Retail
Like many locations from the Mario game series, they often appear across different titles. Boo ghosts were first featured in Super Mario Bros. 3 where they would follow players once their backs were turned. But their leader, King Boo is more closely associated with the Luigi’s Mansion games. So this new expansion set has a connection to both Mario and Luigi. As mentioned in my review of Peach’s Castle, the LEGO Super Mario theme has had a soft reboot, with new packaging, in-box instructions and three new Starter Packs each focused on the three interactive LEGO figures. So this could be considered Luigi’s set.
Haunted buildings and ghostly graveyards have featured in previous Mario sets. But all of those sets only featured parts of the locations they were based on. Similar to Peach’s Castle, King Boo’s Mansion is also a self-contained set. It can still be integrated with other sets, but as it can be folded together to create a building it feels a little more complete. The mansion is made up of three connected sections. These offer both the exterior of the mansion and its feature-filled interior. The outside of the building isn’t that spooky to be fair. It has the appearance of a traditional German castle, with a large wooden doorway, iron railings and wooden framing. The only suggestion of its haunted leanings is the additional section added to the front of the mansion. This features a creepy tree, a couple of pumpkins and an extremely spooky-looking ‘Baby’ Yoshi.
Inside the mansion are several different play features. With the set opened up, you can flip down three different platforms. On the left of the mansion, is a floating chair, which can be moved by a lever found on the outer side of the building. On the right is a bookcase, above this is the smaller Boo, which can be stomped on to reveal a key block. It’s a simple function to achieve this but creates a fun play feature. The central platform is much bigger and includes a plate which wobbles when the extended platform is moved from side to side. This is where King Boo can be perched. Once an interactive figure is connected to the plate you can topple King Boo and defeat him.
King Boo and his ghostly minions have appeared in several previous expansion sets. The first was released in 2020 and then again in 2022 with the Luigi’s Mansion sets. This is the third version of King Boo, although he looks identical to the version found in set 71377, there is a slight variation in the print detail colouring. The smaller Boo was first featured in the Series 3 Character Packs. I love the choice of face chosen for the Boo. Both characters do an impressive job of capturing the look of the characters whilst also conforming to the unique style of the LEGO Mario universe.
The Boos are joined by two other buildable characters who have also appeared in other sets. The yellow-coloured Baby Yoshi was first featured in the fifth series of the Character Packs. This is based on the dumpy-looking version of the infant dinosaur and not the much cuter Baby Yoshis introduced in later games such as Yoshi’s Island. A Dry Bone was previously featured in the much more expensive Bowser’s Castle set. It’s basically the same, although the eyes are slightly different.
Action Tags remain the key play feature of the Mario sets. I’ve briefly mentioned some of them already, but in total there are 9 Action Tags. Four of them are linked to the buildable characters, whilst others are woven into the scenery of the set. The key block in the bookcase can be used to unlock the chest block found outside the mansion and other tags are found on the floating chair and King Boo platform. These can all be used to unlock coins, power-ups and other similar features connected to the Mario series.
King Boo’s Haunted Mansion is available now alongside other new LEGO Super Mario Expansion Sets. Please note the Luigi Interactive Figure is not included in this set.
Shop Now: UKIrelandUSCanadaMexicoGermanyFranceDenmarkAustraliaNew Zealand
The LEGO Group provided this set to BricksFanz for review. The thoughts within this review are those of BricksFanz and do not reflect those of the LEGO Group or Nintendo. Providing a set for free does not guarantee a favourable opinion of the set.
