Review: LEGO Super Mario 71377 King Boo and the Haunted Yard Expansion Set

We continue to tour the expansions planned in the LEGO Super Mario range to accompany the starter pack 71360 Adventures with Mario with the set 71377 King Boo and the Haunted Yard Expansion Set (431 pieces - 49.99 €).

As with each of the announced expansions, this one immerses the player in one of the many worlds of the Super Mario Bros. saga. with its theme and its creatures to beat to progress through the level. It will also be necessary to provide space to install your starter set and any extensions that you have chosen to acquire from the launch of the concept on August 1st. It will also be useful to install the entire game board in a place where you can leave it between two parts, the different modules being difficult to move without disassembling them first.

This extension adds a rather original thematic atmosphere to the game board but it is a little fishy with the playful possibilities offered and LEGO sums up the potential of this € 50 box: "... To reach the hidden Super Star, players must jump on Goombas and a spider web, flip a tree, then jump on the Swoopers who are spinning to topple King Boo ...A whole program on paper, a few seconds during which you just have to type everywhere with the interactive Mario figure in reality.

The construction of the level offers a slightly higher challenge than other boxes in the range with the integration of the mechanism of the King Boo hut which allows the figure in question to be raised via an endless screw to free access to the Super star hidden behind the ghost.

To activate the mechanism, you will have to tap like a deaf person with Mario on the Swoopers and turn the lateral axes. The rest of the game board is no big surprise with a simple spider web to turn over to reveal a barcode to scan and get some coins. Here too, you have to type. This is the concept of the product: we type with Mario, we scan, we get parts, we retype, etc ...

MOCeurs who love to get into Halloween-themed dioramas may find a few pieces in interesting tones reusable here within their designs, but nothing in my opinion justifies spending $ 50 in this box. We will therefore wisely wait for this set to end up in destocking somewhere, I have the feeling that it will end up happening one day.

As for the characters to be recovered to feed a collection, King Boo will have to be tinkered with a little to allow him to stand up as desired by removing the rod that circulates on the worm of the hut or by adding a part behind it as on the photo above.

The four bats provided must be removed from the two pins Technic which connect them to the lateral axes of the mechanism and even if the wings of these Swoopers are not completely faithful to those of the animals seen on the screen, they are small characters that can easily be staged in the middle of the other collectible figurines . You also get two Goombas which will also be easily integrated into a collection. The more we advance in the discovery of the different sets, the more we see that it is the main character who is missed and who will have trouble finding his place in the midst of relatively successful figurines.

As usual in this range, everything is pad printed, there is no sticker on the horizon.

It is neither the most expensive nor, in my opinion, the least interesting of the various extensions that will be marketed around the starter pack. The atmosphere here is much more immersive than in other clubs, even if the fun possibilities are still minimal.

Note that the essential application to be installed on a smartphone or tablet to be able to "play" with these products is now available on the App Store (iOS), on Google Play (Android) and on the Amazon App Store (FireOS), so you can already download it to get a feel for what it actually does. Do not get too carried away by the promises made in the description of the application, especially regarding the "weekly challenges" that will be offered and which in theory should extend the life of the product, we all know here that monitoring the Long-term application will strongly depend on the commercial success of the range.

I remind for all intents and purposes that the interactive Mario figure is not supplied in the box presented here, it is only an extension of the game board which does not contain the starting sticker to be scanned to launch a game. game nor the finish allowing to validate the progress within the time limit.

If you want to read or re-read my test of the concept itself published last June:

I tested for you: LEGO Super Mario

Note: The set presented here, supplied by LEGO, is as usual in play. Deadline fixed at August 2, 2020 next at 23pm.

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.