When Lego and Nintendo first announced a collaboration to bring the Mushroom Kingdom to the world of plastic bricks, we all immediately dreamed up collectible minifigure sets and lavish models. What we’re getting is…not that, but something much weirder and cooler than your standard licensed sets—and its latest additions are just as fascinating.
Lego revealed a new look at two Super Mario expansion kits that will release alongside the upcoming starter set—which will include that oversized, electronic Mario figurine that reacts to your Lego-built levels like some kind of real life Mario Maker setup. The first leans a bit more into that zany, make-your-own-platforming-course: the Piranha Plant Power Slide, which retails at $49.99 and lets you build a hellish, twisty-turny slide to imperil the poor plumber with, with a deadly Mario-eating Piranha Plant at each end.
The second, while still evocative of that level-building theme, is probably a little more in line with what you might have first expected from a Mario Lego theme. The $149.99 Bowser’s Castle Boss Battle set gives Mario a vast new locale to be played around with, and to go toe-to-toe with a brick-built version of his Koopa archnemesis. It’s still got plenty of the interactivity that’s making this crossover so unique (for better or worse for fans who wanted something traditional), but it’s basically a big ol’ Bowser Castle for you to build, which is fun in and of itself.
The $89.99 Mario Starter Course is available to preorder for an August 1 release now, with the two new additional sets arriving on the same date.