Poison Mushroom

Once again, this is a colourful and attractive selection of characters. They are fun to collect and offer a good variety of new and recoloured parts. They display surprisingly well, too, on their miniature landscapes on 4x4 rounded-corner plates, which I've connected together by colour for this purpose. In terms of their influence on gameplay, only the poison mushroom offers something new and interesting. The others are simply more enemies to defeat. At the same price as collectable minifigures, I think they offer good value for money. more less

These are not any of the big names, such as Koopa Troopas or any of Bowser's inner circle instead they include some of the creatures, recruited by Bowser or that just take a dislike to Mario, during his adventures. Each of the characters is entirely brick-built and feature printed elements, with not a sticker insight, beyond the pre-applied Action Brick tags. They also include a themed display base, which not only shows off the various characters in a cool way but also allow them to be easily incorporated alongside other LEGO Super Mario Expansion Sets. more less

This box of bags impresses with the interesting selection of parts and general playfulness of the designs. Even without the electronic Mario they are fun and engaging. The price does seem a little steep when you look at the part count; perhaps the added value obtained when the characters interact with the rest of the line go some way to justify that, but as a parts pack it would be better to cross your fingers and hope they appear on sale at some point. more less