After some teasing and online speculation, Lego has officially revealed its next collaboration with Nintendo: A brick-built Piranha Plant that will fit perfectly on your desk or bookshelf. Unlike previous Lego Mario sets, this one won’t break the bank with its price tag.
Nintendo and Lego have been working together for a few years now on Super Mario-themed sets, including a popular line that features electronic Mario characters and custom levels built out of Lego bricks and pieces. This collaboration between the two family-friendly brands has led to some big and expensive sets, like the impressively large Bowser from 2022 and the giant Super Mario 64 block from 2021. While these sets were cool, they weren’t cheap, with Bowser costing $399 and the big block priced at $300. So I was pleasantly surprised to see Lego’s latest Nintendo set—a wonderful-looking Piranha Plant—is under $100.
Revealed on Thursday, The Lego Piranha Plant—set number 71426—is 540 pieces and costs $95. According to Lego’s site, the Piranha Plant is set to launch on November 6.
The oddly affordable Mario-themed plant set isn’t as pricey as that rad NES set, but it doesn’t look like a budget set, either. The brick built Piranha Plant isn’t blocky or too covered in custom pieces, so it still looks properly Lego while also being instantly recognizable. That’s not easy to do, I mean, look at Lego Chewbacca. Also, it’s nice to see such a cheap set with fully posable parts. The set’s plant head, mouth, stalk, and leaves can be moved and set into funny (or suggestive) poses. And Lego’s site mentions that the set also comes with two Super Mario coins.
It should be noted that this Piranha Plant set can’t connect or interact with the Super Mario playsets and levels. However, you could just put this guy next to the levels and it would look awesome. I mean, it would be weird if someone tried to stop you.
I really hope this is just the start of something new. I’d love to see more Mario enemies and characters in affordable brick-built display sets like this, instead of everything being expensive, massive, or connected to the level-based playsets. Next up: I want a Goomba the size of a cantaloupe.