{"id":22435,"date":"2022-08-12T00:01:35","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T00:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=22435"},"modified":"2022-07-09T12:39:58","modified_gmt":"2022-07-09T12:39:58","slug":"lego-super-mario-starter-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/12\/lego-super-mario-starter-set\/","title":{"rendered":"LEGO Super Mario Starter Set"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When I was a kid back in the early 80s, I loved going to arcades.\u00a0 But I didn\u2019t always have easy access to them or the games.\u00a0 I might be able to see or play a game at a gas station or in front of a grocery store, but going to an actual arcade was a rare treat.\u00a0 So sometimes when I was at home, I\u2019d play \u2018pretend\u2019 arcade games.\u00a0 One time I got a bunch of my dad\u2019s dot matrix printer paper and spread it out from the front door to the back door.\u00a0 On one side of the paper I drew a Xevious map, and on the other side I drew a Zaxxon map.\u00a0 Then I got out my toy spaceships and played \u2018pretend\u2019 Xevious and Zaxxon with them.\u00a0 Of course I got in a little bit of trouble for using so much of my dad\u2019s printer paper!\u00a0 Another time I cut out a paper chef\u2019s hat and pepper shaker and played \u2018pretend\u2019 Burgertime around the house!\u00a0 And I think that aspect of pretend play is the main inspiration for the LEGO Super Mario sets.\u00a0 A couple of years ago, LEGO and Nintendo teamed up to make these, and there are tons of sets and expansions for them.\u00a0 I got the LEGO Super Mario Starter Set for Christmas and finally got around to putting it together with my brother Jeff, so let\u2019s take a look at it!<\/p>\n

But before we get started, we have to take a look at the box.\u00a0 I swear whoever designed this box must\u2019ve been on medication.\u00a0 Sure makes it hard to wrap as a present.<\/p>\n

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And here\u2019s the back of the box.<\/p>\n

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The main draw of the starter set is the little LEGO man Mario that comes with it.\u00a0 It requires two AAA batteries and when you turn it on, an LED screen shows Mario\u2019s eyes and mouth.\u00a0 On the bottom is a scanner and when you put Mario over certain barcodes, he\u2019ll make a certain sound effect and sometimes display something on his chest area.\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty neat.\u00a0 You can even shake Mario and he\u2019ll make jumping sounds and even get dizzy if you shake him too much!\u00a0 And when you turn him off, he\u2019ll close his eyes and say, \u201cSee you later!\u201d<\/p>\n

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And here\u2019s what LEGO Mario looks like when he\u2019s turned off, in case you need some nightmare fuel.<\/p>\n

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One of the complaints I have with this set is that while it does have a print manual for building Mario, you have to download an app to get the rest of the instructions.\u00a0 And the app is like, more than a GB of data, too!\u00a0 I imagine this is par for the course for LEGO fans, and it does have good animated instructions and all.\u00a0 But I figured one of the purposes of this set was to give kids the fun of Mario without having to stare at a screen.\u00a0 And some parents may be uncomfortable with their kids messing with their cell phone.\u00a0 It just would\u2019ve been nice to have printed instructions.\u00a0 Oh yeah, and you have to press a Bluetooth button on Mario to update him as well, which I think lets him have new sound effects for new sets and such.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the starter set has all sorts of other Mario related items to build, and I think the point is to connect them all with the included long flat LEGO pieces so you can make your own pretend \u2018levels\u2019 for LEGO Mario to tackle.\u00a0 So let\u2019s take a look at what you can build!<\/p>\n

Here is a pipe, a Goomba, and a flagpole.\u00a0 I think you start the level with the pipe.\u00a0 When you put Mario on it, he\u2019ll make the pipe entering sound and a bit of the Mario theme song.\u00a0 A timer appears on his chest, and I think you\u2019re supposed to try and collect as many coins in the time limit.\u00a0 When you put Mario over the Goomba he\u2019ll make a stomping sound, and you finish the level by scanning the flagpole and Mario will show you how many coins you got.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This one\u2019s neat.\u00a0 You can make Mario stomp a plank and flip over a fortress and Bowser Jr. on top.\u00a0 Bowser Jr. has a barcode on his shell and you can put Mario over it to make more stomping sounds.<\/p>\n

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Next is some \u2018lava\u2019 Mario can jump over.\u00a0 I wish they had a barcode on it so you can make Mario burn his butt!\u00a0 Next is a cloud.\u00a0 Put Mario on that to make him do flying sound effects.\u00a0 There is also a question block you can put Mario on to get coins.\u00a0 Do it enough times to get an invincibility star to appear on his chest and they play the music from that.\u00a0 Next is a rotating platform.\u00a0 Put Mario on it to play some of the castle music.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You know how in some levels Mario has to hop around on treetops?\u00a0 Well here\u2019s some of those plus an extra fortress.<\/p>\n

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And here\u2019s a whole \u2018level\u2019 I made with all the parts.<\/p>\n

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And that\u2019s the LEGO Super Mario Starter Set!\u00a0 It was pretty easy to build, and would be good for beginner LEGO builders, too.\u00a0 There are TONS of expansion sets, too, like Bowser\u2019s castle and such.\u00a0 I really wanted to get the Luigi\u2019s Mansion sets, but in order to use those, you have to get the Luigi starter set, which is like 40 bucks, and then get one of the other sets, which run from 25 to 80 bucks.\u00a0 So maybe I\u2019ll ask for that for my birthday or Christmas.\u00a0 Where were these kinds of toys when I was a kid?\u00a0 I\u2019d totally play with these if I were a kid, as well as the Hot Wheels Mario Kart sets.\u00a0 Those are so cool, too, and I\u2019d get them as well.\u00a0 But the adult in me keeps me from that.\u00a0 Anyway, let me know what you think of LEGO Mario, and tell me which video games would make good LEGO sets (I\u2019d go for a LEGO Mega Man, Kirby, or Animal Crossing sets).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a kid back in the early 80s, I loved going to arcades.\u00a0 But I didn\u2019t always have easy access to them or the games.\u00a0 I might be able to see or play a game at a gas station or in front of a grocery store, but going to an actual arcade was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22436,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22435\/revisions\/22436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}