Review: 71423 Dry Bowser Castle Battle
Posted by Huw,
This is the second review of a Super Mario set that's been written by a new reviewer, in this case Jonathan D:
For this review, I built 71423 Dry Bowser Castle Battle and then allowed my nephews to play with it, so that I could assess it from the perspective of both an AFOL and the target demographic. My nephews are six and nine years old, have LEGO Mario sets and are huge Super Mario fans.
So, it’ll be no surprise to reveal that they had very strong opinions about it!
Summary
71423 Dry Bowser Castle Battle, 1,321 pieces.
£94.99 / $109.99 / €104.99 | 7.2p/8.3c/7.9c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
This huge set has a desirable central character, a lot of play features and an exciting hidden surprise. It is a fun and varied build and can be played and interacted with in multiple ways.
- Dry Bowser
- A fun, varied build
- A hidden room
- Lots of interactive elements
- The Magmaargh
- Some functionality and stability issues
- Would have been nice to include a few more characters
Characters
The Villains
The set comes with four villains. The three smaller ones are a Bone Goomba, a Bone Piranha Plant and a Magmaargh. The Bone Goomba has attractive bright bluish green legs, and the Bone Piranha Plant also has a unique and attractive colour scheme. I particularly like the grey leaves which add texture to the monstrous plant.
The Magmarrgh is not at all appealing like the other two henchmen – looking instead like a melted Muppet or soggy sock puppet.
First appearing in Super Mario Galaxy 2, the Magmaargh is a lava snake that looks very similar to the tiger cave in Disney’s Aladdin, which explains it functionality. Mario is supposed to jump onto the interactive pad and the Magmaargh should spring up to attack him. This, however, did not work for me. I even rebuilt it, and it still didn’t work, which made the entire character redundant to the set. The Magmaarch can be left upright, but when attempting to get Mario to attack it, it just lies on it’s back, looking like roadkill instead of springing to life like a terrifying foe:
I feel that another character could have been included instead of the Magmaargh, and my nine-year-old nephew agreed – he suggested a Dry Bones as a replacement.
Bowser is Mario’s primary antagonist, and in the games, once Mario defeats Bowser by knocking him into a lava river, the villain returns as an undead skeleton – known as Dry Bowser – for a final boss battle.
Dry Bowser is, as expected, a huge and intimidating build. He is very stocky and sturdy, and although he doesn’t have any articulation in his legs, his arms can move around quite freely. This is very helpful for battling Mario!
His size, bulk and facial expressions make him look very intimidating – as he should – and the three-dimensional aspects of the build are really clever and add to his appeal.
Building Dry Bowser was great fun, and my nephews really enjoyed playing with him. They also really liked his tail! They felt strongly that he was one of the best parts of the set, which is understandable as I think that he would be one of the primary reasons Mario fans would want to buy this.
Heroes
Purple Toad is the only hero included in the set – and he looks great! His purple hat is very appealing, and his surprised look adds personality.
I feel that, for the size and price of the set, there should have been a few more characters, even if there were just one or two more Bone Goombas or Bone Piranha Plants. For such a large set it does look quite empty of characters when completed – even when you include Mario and Luigi from the starter sets (which my nephews brought with them).
The completed model
The castle is made up of several different parts which are connected at the end. Building them one after another was extremely fun, especially since there a variety of building methods spread throughout the set.
The first part of the build is the first castle tower on which the Bone Goomba sits. The colours across the entire set are extremely well done, and I think the contrast of the red, orange and green works really well with the grey, bringing to life a set that in some ways is supposed to look drab and lifeless.
The red lava floors look great, and are accurate to the games, the orange lava waterfalls are wonderful features that stand out and the green flourishes really pop.
I particularly like the small details, such as the cream spikes and the candles, which add something extra and tie in very well with the source material. The fact that it is a castle build is also excellent as it reminds me of the old castle sets of the 1990s that I always admired!
The key functionality of this part of the set is the orange launching platform that Mario uses to knock the Dry Goomba off into the lava. Although this works, my nephews felt that the launching platform was a bit too small, which made play more difficult than it should be.
The second part of the build, which is a second castle tower, is like the first but includes a staircase for the interactive Mario, Lugio and Peach minifigures to climb. At the top is where the Bone Piranha Plant sits and can be knocked off.
There is a bar code here to allow Mario to collect coins when defeating the Bone Piranha Plant, as the villain does not have a bar code on its body.
Once again, it looks great, and it was fun to build, but my nine-year-old nephew suggested that there should be something underneath both of the castle towers instead of empty space – and I agree with him. Mario and none of the other characters (apart from the Bone Goomba) can fit in these spaces, so they do feel like wasted space.
Now you might be wondering why a skeleton is so muscular, and the reason for that is because Dry Bowser has his own gym! This gym is a really simple but extremely impactful element that adds something different and a touch of humour.
Both Mario and Bowser can work out to prepare for their battle – by hitting the punching bag and lifting the weights.
Although the characters can’t ‘hold’ the weights, they cleverly tip backwards to give the illusion of an arm curl. There are interactive tiles here so that we can see Mario breaking a sweat before his big boss battle!
The main platform is the bulk of the set and is striking.
I personally love the small touches such as the chains and the fire pieces at the front. My nephews particularly enjoyed the fact that the mouth of the castle could open and close. It is supposed to be ‘knocked’ open when moving Bowser on the platform in the middle – which allows him to spin around and engage in a battle with Mario.
The crane, which includes the cage that Purple Toad is locked in, has two bar codes and is supposed to be used to save Toad and also destroy Dry Bowser. Mario can jump on the top of it and swing it around to knock Dry Bowser through the open mouth of the castle back into the lava.
Although the crane looks good, it is very wobbly, and as soon as my nephews began to play with it, it detached from the castle. The cage was also easily broken (although it could be easily fixed), so I feel that this part of the set should have been made sturdier to allow more effective interactive play.
One of the highlights of the set is the secret basement underneath Dry Bowser’s platform.
As you can see, this contains plans of Princess Peach’s castle and maps to reach it, presumably as part of Bowser’s scheme to kidnap her.
The mini-airship is fun and cute.
I particularly love the Peach stained-glass window (which is a reference to 71408 Princess Peach's Castle).
There is also a treasure box that can be unlocked with the key from the mouth of the castle, and inside is a very pretty gem.
When my nephews discovered this secret basement, they were extremely excited. They loved the small details and the idea that Bowser has been secretly plotting and planning to kidnap the Princess. This added an additional story element that was very appealing to them and, in their eyes, really elevated the set.
However, continuing to open and close the basement, take out the planning table and also have Dry Bowser spinning around on top of it did cause the baseplates of this section of basement to fall apart.
My nephews weren’t being overly rough with the set, so I feel that the design here just isn’t as strong for play as it is for appearance, something that needs to be considered by the designers as the set is primarily meant to be played with by children.
Once all the individual elements have been built, they are all fixed together to create an impactful castle.
I don’t think the photos really do the set justice. It is a very big build and has a lot of dimensions to it, going backwards quite a lot to allow play and exploration of the castle.
Play
The sheer scale of the set really impressed my nephews and allowed them both to play with it simultaneously with their Mario and Luigi figures.
The Mario app suggests a set route that Mario must take the ‘beat’ Dry Bowser. He must go up the stairs to defeat the Dry Piranha Plant, fight Bowser, head over to the crane to free Toad, then use the crane to destroy Dry Bowser by knocking him into the lava. Mario would then be able to use the key and open the treasure chest and the basement.
My nephews were not interested in doing this. They just wanted to play with the characters and admire what was inside the hidden basement. They both wanted to play with Dry Bowser, and so took it in turns to let him get pumped up in his gym before attacking Mario and Luigi. They weren’t particularly bothered with the interactive QR code elements of the set – they just loved playing with all the different parts of it.
Conclusion
I loved building the set, and my nephews were really impressed with it. They thought it was amazing.
Although there are some problems with the functionality and stability of the set, Dry Bowser is so appealing to my nephews that they said they would choose it over 71369 Bowser's Castle Boss Battle.
I asked my nephews and their parents if they thought that the price was reasonable. They all agreed that it was, mainly because of the size, Dry Bowser, and the different elements to it. I agree that the set is not overpriced, as it is a substantial, fun build and looks great once assembled.
I would highly recommend this set to any Mario fan – as would my nephews!
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20 comments on this article
Excellent review - not my thing, but it looks great - love the big chain links, interesting parts and lots of play options.
I already have toooo many SM sets. But, that Dry Bowser would be soooo cool for my Halloween layout. It's giving me creepy Pennywise vibes.
I love the review with the core audience, it brings life and perspective !
The mini castle and airship in the basement almost sell this set all on their own.
"They weren’t particularly bothered with the interactive QR code elements of the set – they just loved playing with all the different parts of it."
I feel like that's what me and every old man here has been yelling at the clouds about since they announced these sets.
Great review, but I feel this set lacks a lot of what made the original Bowser’s Castle set great. Instead of focusing on play features that are used to defeat Bowser, it focuses on play features that can be used when playing with Bowser. I don’t know, maybe that’s alright, it’s definitely a change of pace from the typical Mario set.
What’s interesting is that this is the first Mario set I’ve seen to contain details (Bowser’s plans for kidnapping Peach). While this sort of stuff has appeared in the 18+ sets (level 1-2 hidden in the NES), it’s interesting that it’s now appearing in the play sets. Not that I’m going to be buying a third castle for my kids (we have the original one as well as Peach’s), but this is definitely something that my kids would appreciate. In a way it feels like Lego is moving away from the digital play and more towards traditional Lego play with this set.
What a parts bonanza!
Though I do respect that looks like a great set.
Toad does not wear a hat it is his head.
So here’s some interesting speculation I’ve run across. We know that Bowser occasionally turns into Dry Bowser, but there are games where they exist side by side. Barring the sort of time travel that enables baby versions of the Mario characters to appear alongside their adult selves, this requires the existence of another Koopa like Bowser. Such a Koopa has actually appeared before: the so-called “Blue Bowser” in Super Mario: The Lost Levels.
This Koopa has at times been identified as Bowser’s brother. It would thus make sense that he could become the permanent Dry Bowser. As a side note, it’s also been theorized that Blue Bowser may be the biological father of the Koopalings after they were retconned out of being Bowser’s children.
Really digging the blueprint with the small princess castle and mini airship. I hope that that little scene will be a polybag sometime.
I love the bone piranha plant, dry bowser is cool. And although Magmargh his functions doesn’t work, i still like his esthetics. I always thought his name was Blargh though.
So, Jonathan, you feel that this set puts the "Aargh" in "Magmaargh?" And if there isn't a special reaction programmed into the Peach figure for the basement (something along the lines of, "So this is where he makes his plans!"), there should be.
Peach... You're so cool
And with my star we're gonna rule!
Never really have understood how one is supposed to play with the SM sets, so I enjoyed hearing what fans of the theme had to say about it. Almost makes me wish I had grandchildren or something so I could play with these sets with them. But the last thing I (or especially my wallet) needs is another theme full of large detailed sets that demands to be collected!
No longer surprised by how well this theme seems to be doing with its target audience!
Oh, and a great review, Jonathan D! Hope to hear more from you and your nephews soon!
Wait…isn’t Dry Bowser supposed to have a waistcape?! Did they think we wouldn’t notice!? This is supposed to be a premium set!! Hard pass
LegoHatesFans
Lovely review. I share the value of building with nephews and nieces, it is a powerful emotion (and a powerful move in becoming Best Uncle). Well done, keep it up.
I also enjoy the in-depth look at this set. It seems to have more to offer than I would have imagined at face-value. I can only think of one thing that kind of threw me - "cream spikes", it took me longer than I'd care to admit that you were talking about tan/brick yellow. Please, friend. We already have more names for that colour than we truly need.
Reviews of lego sets that include children perspective are so much better! Thanks for including your nephews in the process.
The Peach stained-glass window inst a reference to the other set. It's part of the Castle since Super Mario 64
The "D:" after Jonathan threw me for a loop. I first thought it was an emoticon and Huw was displeased in some way by the reviewer, before I realized it was D the initial with a colon.
I think you are overly critical of the Magmarrgh's as even if you think it looks ugly, that is what they look like. I think he looks pretty great and adds some nice variety compared to all the bony villains.
He's the only villain in this set that I've actually encountered in a Mario game ( well Dry Bowser in Mario kart but that's a different sort of game), so he's about nostalgic as the Galaxy games he originates from were my first proper foray into Mario ( well I had played a few others but galaxy I loved and got every level and then galaxy 2 was even better)
A shame his function is shoddy.
How has not a single person here pointed out the (printed!) Grass Land map in the secret basement. That is delightful