‘Master your Adventure Maker Set’ - what an impressive name! In order to use any of the Super Mario sets to their full potential you need the 71360 Adventures with Mario starter set, but this is sort of an additional starter set to space out other expansions you might have purchased and to give a bit of room for your character packs to be displayed or line up an attack against any passing plumbers.
That is not all: it comes with some new play features, a special ‘customisation machine’, a 30 second pipe and some new characters. We will look at them a bit later but first on to the parts.
So far the Super Mario sets have brought us a wealth of interesting
parts, some more useful than others. This set continues that trend.
Alongside several recolours there are two brand new parts included.
New Parts in Master Your Adventure Maker Set
- 1x Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 2 Inverted in Dark Stone Grey/ Dark Bluish Gray (6336390 | 73825)
- 2x Plate, 8X3X2/3, Circle, W/ Reduced Knobs in bright green (6340682 | 73832)
The new narrow bracket is a pleasant surprise. As with the other brackets in this growing family, the half-plate width of the vertical elevation is really useful for SNOT work, which the set uses to great effect as we will discuss below. I hope the release of this part means a downward equivalent is coming soon.
The new base part is likely to prove less versatile for MOC purposes but it is a useful addition for Mario sets as it allows creation of bases of variable sizes rather than having to stick to the fixed sizes used before.
Recoloured pieces in LEGO® Super Mario 71380
- 1x Warp tube Bright Yellow/ Yellow (6315114 | 66787)
- 3x Brick 1 x 1 in Bright Green (6343279 | 3005)
- 3x Plate 1 x 2 in Bright Green (6343326 | 3023)
- 1x Feet, 2 x 2 x 2/3 with 4 Studs on Top in Bright Red/ Red (6330891| 66858)*
- 2x Bar 1L with Clip [Cut Edges and One Side Hole] in White (6339183 | 41005)
- 1x Brick Wedge Sloped 4 x 4 with Diamond Spikes with Dark Azure (Spiny Shell) in White (6341867 67931)
- 1x Brick Wedge Sloped 4 x 4 with Pin Holes and White Underside Pattern (Para-Koopa Shell) in Red (6330900 | 73715)*
- 1x Plate 6 x 8 in Bright Green (6340684 | 3036)
- 2x Plate Round Corners 4 x 4 x 2/3 Circle with Reduced Knobs in Flame Yellowish Orange/ Bright Light Orange (6308882 | 66792)
* These appear in at least one other 2021 LEGO Super Mario set.
While a new colour of 1x2 plate and 1x1 brick is always welcome, it is the white bar with clip that gets the top spot in my list of personal interest, as it is going to prove very useful for my style of building and continues a gradual increase in the colour palette of this ever-useful part.
Other interesting LEGO elements
A few other parts of interest that are rarer than a power-up mushroom:
- 1x Equipment Winder Key [Toy] in Dark Orange (6316320 | 98375) - Appears in 2 other sets, first appearance 2020
- 1x Plate Special 2 x 2 Gear with 6 Teeth in Black (6306064 | 35442)
- Appeared once before in black in 76160 Mobile Bat Base
- 3x Tile Round 3 x 3 in Medium Stone Grey/ Light Bluish Gray (6306721 | 67095) - Only previous appearance is in 2020's 75288 AT-AT
- 2x Tile 1 x 1 with Groove in Bright Green (6172375 | 3070b)
- Appears in 5 sets total, first appearance 2017
- 1x Tile 2 x 6 in Dark Bluish Gray (6321746 | 69729) - Only previous appearance; 71374 Nintendo Entertainment System in 2020
There is also a wealth of printed parts and, as we have seen in previous Super Mario sets, a variety of pre-applied sticker barcodes.
Out of this wealth we will just list out the ones that are exclusive to this set, first the printed parts:
- Bright Green Brick 1 x 1 with Blue Star Print (6334693 | 3005pr0027)
- Bright Green Brick 1 x 3 with Eyes with Blue Iris' Print (6334670 | 3622pr0059)
- Tan Tile Round 2 x 4 with Smiling Mouth with Fangs (Iggy Koopa) Print (6334669 | 66857pr0006)
- Yellow Tile 2 x 3 with Tan Stripes in Oval Print (Koopa Stomach) (6334668 | 26603pr0047)
- Yellow Tile 2 x 2 with Groove and Stopwatch with '30' Print (6342130 | 3068bpr0499)
- Orange Brick 1 x 2 with Clock with Red Hand on Gear Background Print (6342123 | 3004pr0072)
- Dark Azure Brick 1 x 2 with '?' on Gear Background and Blue Spots Print (6334671 | 3004pr0065)
- Medium Azure Brick 1 x 2 with '?' on Gear Background and Dark Azure Spots Print (6334672 | 3004pr0069)
And then the exclusive LEGO Super Mario barcode stickers:
- Dark Orange Tile Round Corners 4 x 4 x 2/3 with Two Arrows and Barcode Print (Sticker) (6344016 | 68869pr0104)
- Dark Blue Tile 2 x 2 with Groove and Bob-Omb and Barcode Print (Sticker) (6342141 | 3068bpr9902)
- Medium Azure Tile 2 x 2 with Groove and Gear, Arrows and Barcode Print (Sticker) (6338144 | 3068bpr9906)
- Dark Azure Tile 2 x 2 with Groove and Iggy Koopa and Barcode Print (Sticker) (6338147 | 3068bpr9903)
- Dark Azure Tile 2 x 2 with Groove and Gear, Arrows and Barcode Print (Sticker) (6338143 | 3068bpr9908)
- Yellow Tile 2 x 2 with Groove and Warp Pipe, 'Start 30', and Barcode Print (Sticker) (6342142 | 3068bpr9907)
- Red Tile 2 x 2 with Groove and Para-Koopa and Barcode Print (Sticker) (6338148 | 3068bpr9905)
- Orange Tile 2 x 2 with Groove and Gear, Arrows and Barcode Print (Sticker) (6338145 | 3068bpr9904)
There are a lot of the Mario bases in this set. If you want to stock up on these round-edged thick plates, 71380 could be the set for you. As always, New Elementary has your bases covered.
To finish our discussion of the parts selection, it is worth highlighting that you get a lot of good old-fashioned plates including all these 2-module wide parts in basic colours.
Building Super Mario Master Your Adventure
What have the set designers done with all these parts? First they have created some new characters for Mario to overcome.
From left to right you have: Larry Koopa with his trademark hair spike, a Bob-omb, another Goomba to add to the army of them seen across the range and a Koopa Paratrooper.
The delightfully named Larry uses the new bracket mentioned above as part of the head construction - it allows the hair spike to be integrated seamlessly into the 3-module wide head.
The build also includes a tower for Larry to glare down from, a variety of boxes and crates and things for Mario to jump on and a slidey platform for him to fall off of, demonstrated here by Larry.
The main new feature of the set is the customisation machine, which sounds very impressive. With the computerised Mario unit and app you can customise the effect of some of the barcoded blocks but the action of the machine itself is delightfully analogue.
I don’t think it is supposed to double as a catapult.
Conclusion
At the time I built this set the instructions were not yet available. A lot has been said elsewhere about the lack of paper instructions in LEGO Super Mario sets and I must say that I feel traditional instructions are something important and integral to all LEGO sets. I am sure the LEGO Group has done plenty of research before taking the decision, but I can imagine a child opening the box excited to build a new set only to find that they need a phone or a tablet. You may think this isn’t a big deal, but consider that a lot of children have their screen time limited by their guardian and it all becomes a bit of a fuss over nothing.
And think of us poor reviewers who do not have a list of parts on the last page of the instructions to help us tell you about all the interesting new parts! (That does sound like a good excuse for anything I might have missed in this review though.) I am happy to report that the instructions have since become available on the Mario app.
Back to the customisation machine; when putting it together it took me a while to work out how the internal mechanism works. Obviously you push the red button and a block rises up for Mario to scan but there were no parts available to create any sort of see-saw action.
Eventually I realized that the 2x6 tile does not have to attach to anything, as it is free to pivot inside the bigger construct. The end result works really well.
Taken all together this is not a bad little set. The price seems reasonable given the number of printed and large parts you get, and it is an decent parts selection. The characters are fun and the build is interesting, if a little basic. It is a nice addition to the ever-expanding LEGO Super Mario range and would be useful to connect and better display the features and characters from other sets. If you're buying this set? Consider using our affiliate links: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. New Elementary may get a commission.
Massive thanks go to our 'Vibrant Coral' patrons: Megan Lum, Markus Rollbühler, Jorgito Mozo, Mevits Bricks, Font Review Journal, Baixo LMmodels, Andy Price, Anthony Wright, Chris Cook, London AFOLs, Gerald Lasser, Big B Bricks, Dave Schefcik, David and Breda Fennell, Huw Millington, Neil Crosby, Antonio Serra, Beyond the Brick, Sue Ann Barber & Trevor Clark, and Kevin Gascoigne. Vale Iain Adams, a great supporter of New Elementary.
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Good review! I got this one for Christmas and it's great for if you're into the game, as well as offering a bunch of great parts.
ReplyDeleteThe new "half base" has loads of potential for larger, more interesting "modules" for this theme. It's already used to great effect in the Wiggler's Poison Swamp expansion, where it is used to adapt a vast lake of poison (formed with 8x16 tiles, among other parts) to connect easily and attractively to other parts. But I imagine that if we were to get a large set like Peach's Castle, it would also help to facilitate that.
The new bracket's usefulness speaks for itself.
This is the first set to include one of the "Koopalings", high-ranking minions of Bowser who often act as the bosses for individual worlds in the 2D platforming games. I'm eager to see some of the others show up. Larry here is one of the more "conventional" ones in terms of appearance (as reflected here by his build being only slightly adapted from last year's Bowser Jr.), but the other six have a wide range of appearances from the bulky Roy and Morton to the tall and lanky Iggy to the tiny Lemmy. If they do appear, each of them will be likely to have the spiny shell piece in a new color: black, dark pink, lime, dark purple, orange, and blue. I hope that one or more of them comes in an "airship" set, reflecting their main mode of transport in games like Super Mario Bros. 3!
Speaking of Larry here, I almost made the mistake when building this of mistaking the 1x1 brick with a blue star pattern for one of the other bright green 1x1 bricks! It's a subtle little detail but is authentic to his in-game appearance.
The yellow pipe is another good recolor. I'm curious whether any more will be released in the future. If they continue to function as start pipes with different rules, perhaps we could get a blue pipe with a more lax timer (90 seconds or two minutes, perhaps) and a red pipe with an extra-tight timer (15 seconds). Then again, for the other two colors they could just as easily opt for completely different rulesets, such as a level with "clear conditions" that require scanning a certain object or series of objects before the "goal" can be scanned successfully.
The white bars with clip are a fantastic recolor but I'm not too satisfied with their use in this set. Here they're used to change the angle of the wings for the Koopa Paratroopa, but they stick off the shell awfully far and are frustratingly loose. I sort of wish the "winged shell" piece used for that figure and the Parabeetle from the blind-bags had had hollow studs in place of the bar attachment they opted for, so that "vertical" wings like on this figure could be attached more tightly and securely with 1x1 tiles with clip.
The plethora of bases and 2x plates in this set make it a great option for people who have picked up several of the other expansions. The starter set alone can be good for the first few, but once you have a lot it can be tricky to have enough "neutral" base parts for connecting the sets together coherently.
Thanks, some interesting thoughts. You nearly wrote as much as me :)
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