Long before you could catch Pokémon whilst simply going to the toilet and taking your phone with you, back in 1989, Nintendo revolutionised gaming on the go. Back in the 80s, gaming was reserved for the home or the local arcade. But Nintendo used its expertise in bite-sized gaming through the Game & Watch systems to create an all-new gaming system. The Nintendo Game Boy was born. The handheld gaming system may seem archaic by today’s standards, but at the time, it was a technical masterpiece. The green-tinged screen brought to life popular games like Mario, Zelda and Tetris whilst also being the launch pad for the Pokémon franchise, all powered by 4 AA batteries. Now the beloved Nintendo handheld has been transformed into the latest LEGO® Super Mario 18+ set. It follows in the footsteps of the Nintendo Entertainment System, Question Block, 2D Mario & Yoshi and the recent Mario & Standard Kart set. Get those brick-built batteries at the ready and take a look at the LEGO Nintendo Game Boy.
Product Details
Set Name: Game Boy | Set Number: 72046 | Pieces: 421 | Theme: Nintendo
Number of Bags: Bags x 5 + loose elements | Instructions: Paper booklet + Builder App | Stickers: sheet x 1 | Characters: N/A
RRP: £54.99/59.99€/$59.99/99.99AUD/79.99CAD
Availability: LEGO Stores & LEGO Online from September 1st
Brick-built objects have become quite prevalent in recent years. Everything from cameras to typewriters has been replicated with LEGO bricks. The world of Nintendo has already inspired one such set thanks to the Nintendo Entertainment System, aka the NES, released in 2020. This faithful LEGO recreation of the classic Nintendo home console offered a 1:1 scale set filled with Easter Eggs, and the LEGO Game Boy is a similar sort of set.
The brick-built handheld is an almost exact recreation of the real thing. Not only in size but also in terms of its various connection points, buttons and switches. The innards of the set have been crafted to mimic the functions of an original Game Boy. So it has the iconic pink buttons, a LEGO-studded D-pad. Both have the feel of the real buttons. The ‘Start’ and ‘Select’ buttons are crafted from tyres, which are neatly slotted into the shell of the handheld. It even has a clickable on/off button. The satisfaction of sliding the switch also brings a blast of nostalgia. Its simple design flares like these, which elevate a set and show how much its designer has managed to capture the magic of the source material.
Many of the detailed parts of the Game Boy’s shell have been captured with printed pieces. These include the speaker grille on the front of the handheld, the branding around the screen and on the various switches. The panel on the back of the Game Boy is also printed, and all these pieces offer an incredible finish to the console. It wouldn’t look half as good if any of these parts used stickers. Another interesting feature of the set is the ability to add one of these lenticular screens. These replicate the iconic dot matrix screens, including the descending Nintendo logo, along with screens inspired by two classic Game Boy adventures, Super Mario Land and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. As they are lenticular, moving the panels brings them to life with a brief bit of movement. It’s particularly effective with the start-up animation. They aren’t the easiest thing to photograph, but hopefully the images here at least offer a taste of what they show.
A Game Boy needs a game, and the set includes two Game Boy cartridges. These are also built to an almost 1:1 scale of the real thing, and they can be slotted into the handheld. One thing I love about the games is how faithful they are to the real thing. They include various elements sandwiched between the outer casing, which resemble the circuit boards within. The cartridge labels are even stickers, and for once I champion them being so. The stickers are just as they looked on real game cartridges. The two games match those represented by the screen panels. As well as being nods to other Nintendo game series used for inspiration for other LEGO sets. I’ve seen disappointment that Pokémon wasn’t included, but that may be due to licensing issues, as the Pokémon LEGO sets won’t launch until next year. Tetris would have also been a popular choice to be included, but despite the strong connection to Game Boy, it’s not a Nintendo property and would require additional licensing.
In addition to the handheld and games, the set also offers two stands to help display them. These simple black stands allow you to perch the Game Boy on one and a game cartridge on the other, along with a slot to store the screen panels. These allow the set to be displayed in a much more dynamic fashion.
This is another wonderful celebration of a true gaming classic. The Nintendo Game Boy is a revolutionary piece of gaming history, and this set perfectly recreates it. It’s hard to find any issues with it, even the price is quite good for what the set offers. Especially when you factor in the unique printed elements and the lenticular screen panels. It would have been nice to include an Action Tag so that it would tie into the wider Super Mario theme, but that’s the only ‘issue’. The LEGO Game Boy set will be available from September 1st.
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This set was provided to BricksFanz by the LEGO Group for review purposes. 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.
