Super Mario 2020 - Rumors & Discussion

[UberCorp]

While I do think the concept is really neat, I wonder how this will do with younger demographics considering its entry price. Parents might be hesitant to spent $60 on a LEGO set as a gift that has a lot of playability tied up in expansion sets. At least when I was a kid, $60 sets weren’t in the price range for gifts.

Though I’m not a parent and don't really know what the average spending amount for LEGO buyers is, so this is just conjecture.

[Mesonak]

Does anybody know whether the Monty Mole preorder bonus is still available on LEGO.com?

[BigGuy4U]

2 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Even builder mario has an inverted color scheme! Honestly, brick-built helmets for the propeller and cat could have been more accurate than this.

Well said. The literal only way to give these sets any value is to purchase a $60 set.

Oh wow, I didn't even notice that, Fire Mario does too. I take it back then, the whole line-up is awful. I guess they can't recolor Mario for these since he's only available in one set, but it makes me question why they bothered doing these at all if they couldn't make them look even close. This theme just continues to disappoint...

[GK733]

Pretty sad these don't include even a printed solely brickbuilt version of the mario for display/stand purposes. An excellent shelfwarmer design. Not even cardboard Mario.

[Vorkosigan]

5 hours ago, BigGuy4U said:

The main issue here is that the entire theme is being pushed on the interactivity aspect, which cost us minifigs and more traditional system-based sets most of us were hoping for, but then it's being locked behind a $60 set. I agree that every set including Mario and having a drastic jump in price as a result wouldn't be the best thing, but I don't think having the lowest cost to get the interactive Mario being $60 is good when the whole theme revolves around it, especially since it's clearly targeted at kids who probably don't have a ton of money to throw around for Lego sets.

I agree that more traditional minifigures would be preferred for myself as well and most adult fans. But I think at some point we need to judge the theme for what it is and not what we would have preferred it to be. I don't see a value to having a smaller set with Mario in it, because you need some decent amount of "level" for him to interact with for it to be worthy anything. If Mario was available stand alone, he'd probably cost $25 to $30, and then you'd have to buy a $20+ set for him to interact with. 

More generally, I think there is a tendency among LEGO fans to try to argue that a product they don't like won't sell well, for various reasons. Probably happens in other fandoms as well. But to me it is not really that productive of a discussion, because we consumers never have that much data on what sells well. And it tends to start from a place of justifying an opinion of the product. For myself, I am cautiously optimistic about LEGO Mario and will get at least a couple sets to try it out. If nothing else, it is introducing some interesting parts.

[Mandalorianknight]

4 hours ago, BigGuy4U said:

Oh wow, I didn't even notice that, Fire Mario does too. I take it back then, the whole line-up is awful. I guess they can't recolor Mario for these since he's only available in one set, but it makes me question why they bothered doing these at all if they couldn't make them look even close. This theme just continues to disappoint...

Yeah, I was hanging onto hope for this theme, but those suits just broke it.

[Lego David]

So,10$ for those suits that are made up of like... 4 pieces? Are you kidding me? Not only are those suits completely useless unless the you have the 60$ Starter set, but even on their own the price just isn't worth it. 

I am sorry to say it, but other than a few hardcore Nintendo fans, I can't see anyone buying those. 

Edited May 21, 2020 by Lego David

[nintendude64]

8 hours ago, Lego David said:

I am sorry to say it, but other than a few hardcore Nintendo fans, I can't see anyone buying those. 

I am a hardcore nintendo fan, and there is no way I'm buying these... \

That being said, if they release a D2C Peach's castle, I think we can all agree to forgive them and forget the missteps.

[Vorkosigan]

9 hours ago, Lego David said:

So,10$ for those suits that are made up of like... 4 pieces? 

FYI they each include a themed stand so like 12 pieces.

[Lego David]

10 minutes ago, Vorkosigan said:

FYI they each include a themed stand so like 12 pieces.

Still not worth it... 

[BigGuy4U]

15 hours ago, Vorkosigan said:

I agree that more traditional minifigures would be preferred for myself as well and most adult fans. But I think at some point we need to judge the theme for what it is and not what we would have preferred it to be. I don't see a value to having a smaller set with Mario in it, because you need some decent amount of "level" for him to interact with for it to be worthy anything. If Mario was available stand alone, he'd probably cost $25 to $30, and then you'd have to buy a $20+ set for him to interact with. 

More generally, I think there is a tendency among LEGO fans to try to argue that a product they don't like won't sell well, for various reasons. Probably happens in other fandoms as well. But to me it is not really that productive of a discussion, because we consumers never have that much data on what sells well. And it tends to start from a place of justifying an opinion of the product. For myself, I am cautiously optimistic about LEGO Mario and will get at least a couple sets to try it out. If nothing else, it is introducing some interesting parts.

That's true, although we don't know how much Mario would cost by himself - maybe $60 is the absolute cheapest they could do for Mario and anything for him to interact with, maybe not. The best we can go by is ppp, which suggests Mario alone is around $35/$40, but we don't know for sure. It still leaves a sour taste in most people's mouths that the interactivity feature, which was done at the expense of minifigs and traditional set designs which most people wanted (this is why I bring it up - my point isn't really that we aren't getting it, but rather that it's the interactivity aspect itself as the reason we aren't getting it), is what the entire theme revolves around, yet is gated behind one of the theme's most expensive sets.

tl;dr We wanted traditional sets, we don't get them because the entire theme revolves around the interactivity, interactivity is gated behind a $60 set.

[Mandalorianknight]

8 hours ago, Vorkosigan said:

FYI they each include a themed stand so like 12 pieces.

So, using the fire mario as an example, there's 1 new-for-august-2020 mold that's got a bit of technology in it, a hat mold with no technology but a new mold for the theme, 2 parts of a commonly appearing new mold, and 7 extremely common parts for a total of 11 pieces for $10. That's a PPP of almost a dollar, which is insane. Dimensions wasn't even close to that rough for the pack sets. 

It's not much different for the other suits. Trousers mold in a different color with some tech in it, new mold for a hat, 2 of the common new mold that's the rounded 4x4 plate-type, and a few common parts.

[BigGuy4U]

1 hour ago, Mandalorianknight said:

So, using the fire mario as an example, there's 1 new-for-august-2020 mold that's got a bit of technology in it, a hat mold with no technology but a new mold for the theme, 2 parts of a commonly appearing new mold, and 7 extremely common parts for a total of 11 pieces for $10. That's a PPP of almost a dollar, which is insane. Dimensions wasn't even close to that rough for the pack sets. 

It's not much different for the other suits. Trousers mold in a different color with some tech in it, new mold for a hat, 2 of the common new mold that's the rounded 4x4 plate-type, and a few common parts.

Do we know for sure there's technology in the overalls at all? I was under the impression that all of the technology was in the main Mario body.

[Mandalorianknight]

1 hour ago, BigGuy4U said:

Do we know for sure there's technology in the overalls at all? I was under the impression that all of the technology was in the main Mario body.

There's an image of him without the overalls and looks like he connects to them. Also, from the trailer, you see the "abilities" they get form the overalls, so there's got to be something.

[Harkonen]

The Mario figure starts to grow on me but I really hope by next year we get normal minifig sets with new additions for these(if they sell). Might buy the starter but not at full price. Bowser's castle looks very nice and if we do get minifigures I wouldn't mind a brick built Bowser instead of a new mould. 

[Clone OPatra]

On 5/22/2020 at 1:11 PM, Mandalorianknight said:

There's an image of him without the overalls and looks like he connects to them. Also, from the trailer, you see the "abilities" they get form the overalls, so there's got to be something.

I think it's more likely that there's something on the pants that the body reads and knows to have the relevant abilities when it's in those pants, but that's my guess. Either way it seems like a lot for a DLC when every individual level is also pretty much an expensive DLC.

Price aside, my main wonder with this whole theme and concept is: how fun is collecting coins really and how much longevity of play does it have? As a kid I could play Mario games for hours on end until I got a headache from staring at a screen, and I could play with LEGO for hours on end, but waving a thing around that makes noise and gets coins? Forget about it.

I'm sure they've playtested it, but LEGO playtests most things, and they don't always get it right.

[Mandalorianknight]

17 hours ago, Clone OPatra said:

I think it's more likely that there's something on the pants that the body reads and knows to have the relevant abilities when it's in those pants, but that's my guess. Either way it seems like a lot for a DLC when every individual level is also pretty much an expensive DLC.

Price aside, my main wonder with this whole theme and concept is: how fun is collecting coins really and how much longevity of play does it have? As a kid I could play Mario games for hours on end until I got a headache from staring at a screen, and I could play with LEGO for hours on end, but waving a thing around that makes noise and gets coins? Forget about it.

I'm sure they've playtested it, but LEGO playtests most things, and they don't always get it right.

That’s possible, but if there isn’t any tech, those costumes are easily over twice the price they should be.
 

yeah, I’m not sure about the playability of this either. The “coins” are just a digital thing, a number the figure has, there’s no real motivation for kids to get them.

[Kit Figsto]

I could see this either being a complete flop and then LEGO cuts their losses after 1-3 waves of the interactive sets and transitions to brick-built stuff (mostly because there's absolutely no way that this partnership is a one-of), or surprising everyone and being a massive hit.  Obviously they won't publish the financials but there's zero chance that this deal was minor since Nintendo is probably the biggest property they've ever partnered with other than Disney and maybe SW (pre-Disney), so I feel like future sets are almost assuredly going to happen.

[BigGuy4U]

1 hour ago, Kit Figsto said:

I could see this either being a complete flop and then LEGO cuts their losses after 1-3 waves of the interactive sets and transitions to brick-built stuff (mostly because there's absolutely no way that this partnership is a one-of), or surprising everyone and being a massive hit.  Obviously they won't publish the financials but there's zero chance that this deal was minor since Nintendo is probably the biggest property they've ever partnered with other than Disney and maybe SW (pre-Disney), so I feel like future sets are almost assuredly going to happen.

I personally wouldn't be surprised if we eventually see a transition to standard sets with minifigs regardless of whether or not the interactive sets flop, like how Minecraft started out as just dioramas. It's too big of a gold mine for them to pass up, in my opinion.

[Harkonen]

I don't get why they can't do both these interactive sets and normal sets. Star Wars, DC, Marvel, etc. all do normal sets and collector sets such as brick built statues, brick built heads and now these mosaics. We even have Microfigthers for Star Wars and those new mechs for Marvel. 

Edited May 27, 2020 by Harkonen

[gedren_y]

The Power-Up Packs are now listed on the US site as coming soon. The description uses the term "interactive outfit".

[icm]

This is a worthwhile read about the development of this theme.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-05-25-why-it-took-five-years-to-build-lego-super-mario

[GregoryBrick]

13 hours ago, icm said:

This is a worthwhile read about the development of this theme.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-05-25-why-it-took-five-years-to-build-lego-super-mario

It sure is, and it makes it obvious what the playability is - you have a Mario action figure and a world you can build and put him into and interact with physically, "making it fun to simply move Mario around". It's no different than if you could offer kids a Luke Skywalker action figure, but he made noises and spoke and his lightsaber lit up, all in various ways specific to the playsets you could buy and the way you moved him around and interacted with other figures. The fact that the Luke figure could just knock over the Darth Vader action figure, since there's nothing physically or electronically stopping it, is relevant only if you don't understand what 'playing with toys' is. It's the whole point of a 'game' - people can make up rules and then make themselves follow them if they want, for fun ("what's the point of archery, just walk up to the target and put the arrow right in there with your hands").

[Vorkosigan]

16 hours ago, GregoryBrick said:

It sure is, and it makes it obvious what the playability is - you have a Mario action figure and a world you can build and put him into and interact with physically, "making it fun to simply move Mario around". It's no different than if you could offer kids a Luke Skywalker action figure, but he made noises and spoke and his lightsaber lit up, all in various ways specific to the playsets you could buy and the way you moved him around and interacted with other figures. The fact that the Luke figure could just knock over the Darth Vader action figure, since there's nothing physically or electronically stopping it, is relevant only if you don't understand what 'playing with toys' is. It's the whole point of a 'game' - people can make up rules and then make themselves follow them if they want, for fun ("what's the point of archery, just walk up to the target and put the arrow right in there with your hands").

I think there is a little more formality than what you're saying though. They talk about the slide between the fireball flowers, and how there is a final score from each round of play. So the sets at least start with a set of rules and scoring, it is not just imagination plus lights and sounds. What I still want to know is how interaction with other enemies work, is there dieing? Or just getting less coins.

I also thought it was interesting that Nintendo is involved in manufacturing the electronics. A Switch integration with Powered Up would be interesting 

[Lego David]

Man, this thing is so cursed...