Review: 40414 Monty Mole & Super Mushroom
Posted by Huw,
Following the article I published about Super Mario on Friday it seems many of you are enjoying the sets and would like us to review the expansion packs.
So, let's start with 40414 Monty Mole & Super Mushroom, which was/is a gift with purchase in brand stores only, which seems like an error of judgement on LEGO's part given the current pandemic.
Anyway, to help with the review I've recruited Jonathan, aka AcademyofDrX, who proved his expertise in the comments of last week's article, to provide information on the gameplay and level design.
Characters
It's interesting that BrickLink considers the characters in the Super Mario sets to be 'minifigs', which never used to be the case for brick-built ones. They've been added to the catalogue there so also appear here, although the majority are not associated with sets just now because the sets have not been inventoried at BrickLink yet.
According to BrickLink, there are two characters in the set: Monty Mole and Stone-Eye, who is not in the picture below. Super Mushroom is not considered a minifig for some reason, so colour me confused...
Construction
In common with all Super Mario sets, instructions are provided digitally within the app. I'd rather have paper ones. I suppose that's progress for you bit does mean that without a compatible device they are just a pile of bricks.
It's actually quite a substantial set for a freebie: over 160 pieces and many of them bricks and slopes.
Stone-Eye, who you can now see below, is tipped by pressing on the lever to his left. When he falls he rests on another lever under Monty Mole's hole, although the force of it falling is insufficient to cause him to rise. To do that you need to press down.
Barcodes
The set comes with four barcodes, on Monty Mole, on the mushroom, on the Pow box and on Stone-Eye. The one on the latter is the only unique one, and is scanned to indicate to the app that you own this set.
Incidentally, 45 barcode tiles have been inventoried in the Super Mario sets and you can view them all here.
Play
Over to Jon...
The play in this set involves a chain reaction using three of the four major components, through two main actions.
First, pressing down on the POW block causes the Stone Eye to tip.
Secondly pushing on its head triggers another lever popping Monty Mole out of the brick-built hill, which allows it to be stomped.
Each of the strategically-placed scan tiles are doing double duty: Mario collects the coins, and also physically moves the LEGO, which enables scanning for more coins in a positive feedback loop. Other sets and characters chain actions together through the digital features--using a Starman to defeat Peepa, for example--but this set's design requires manipulating the physical toy.
Like most expansion packs, the action is self-contained, but it can be expanded or modified with other sets. For example, the Starter Pack also has a base with a lever which can be used to topple Bowser Jr's castle or any other platform. By swapping just a couple of smaller builds, you could make a collapsing mountain out of a molehill.
Original actions with new builds are also possible, like using the Stone Eye to break through loosely assembled walls to open new areas. This set also demonstrates a more exciting way to have Mario defeat his enemies: while the in-app demonstration videos generally show Mario knocking enemies down by striking them directly, levels can be built to use bricks to do that.
LEGO Super Mario level designers should consider these ideas when assembling their own: how can the construction of the level change how Mario interacts with the characters in it?
Thank you, Jon
Points
Points are awarded for the following actions
- 3 for scanning the mushroom
- 10 or 11 for scanning Stone-Eye
- 1 for stomping on Monty Mole.
No points are awarded for scanning Pow and I'm unsure why sometimes you receive 10 most of the time but 11 on other occasions for scanning Stone-Eye. You can stomp on Monty Mole as many times as you like.
The mushroom and Pow don't have much impact on gameplay in this set but according to my good friend Richard over at the Rambling Brick, they do when used with others.
The maximum score I achieved using just this set with the start pipe and flag was 70, by stomping on the poor mole multiple times (1 per second seems to be the maximum you can do so) and using a stop watch to ensure the course was completed in very close to 60 seconds.
Verdict
After my initial scepticism I am warming to Super Mario and had fun experimenting with this set to maximise my score.
It was not much fun just stomping on the downtrodden mole for 50 seconds or so, and perhaps the fact that you can continually do so to accumulate points could be considered a shortcoming of the game.
It's a substantial free gift that adds new and interesting gameplay elements to the starter set. Whether it's worth venturing out to a shopping mall and donning an uncomfortable mask in order to acquire it is another matter...
Let us know your thoughts on this review, and if it's well-received we'll do more.
Thanks for LEGO for providing this set for review. All opinions expressed are my own and Jon's.
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25 comments on this article
Great review, especially with Jon's added take! I reckon you could probably up the score a tad by having Mario shove the mushroom off that 4x4 yellow plate and having him wander around on there to gain some coins that way, but the difference would probably be rather minimal - it'd certainly save the mole's poor bonce though!
I got me preorder in late so didn't get this as a gift with purchase, but I did manage to get the parts to build it off of Bricklink and they should be getting here soon.
Chaining together functions like this can be a blast, really reminds me of the crazy stunts builders pull in Mario Maker
Thanks for bringing Jonathan/AcademyofDrX on board! Like I said before, we need the right people reviewing and the right people reading these reviews. If Brickset can make both happen, then I'm fine with Brickset being the place to be. I was just worried that the site would be a poor fit for these reviews, and I'm really hoping to see less negativity in the comments here. Curiosity from the uninitiated, yes, but please try to take these sets seriously. If you have no interest in them, there's plenty of other content for you.
In Singapore, where I live (once again, Brickset thinks I'm in the US), this set is a GWP with the NES instead — the GWP with the Starter Course is 30385 Super Mushroom Surprise. For whatever reason, LEGO seems to be banking on people here getting the NES and Starter Course together.
Brick-built characters being categorized as "minifigs" by BrickLink is nothing new — there are many examples, but two recent ones I can think of are Unikitty! and The LEGO Movie 2. See, for instance, 41455 (https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=41455-1) and 70828 (https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=70828-1).
I'd be more inclined to refer to the characters as members of a group. There's never been just one Goomba or Koopa Troopa or Super Mushroom, and most enemies and obstacles are wholly interchangeable with other members or copies of their species. Characters like Yoshi and specific Toads are individual enough to be referred to as such, but generic Yoshis and Toads aren't.
Good review! Like you, I'm fond of the chain reactions and other physical play features that replicate features of the game. A tricky aspect of the design of Lego Mario is that apart from Mario, there are no electronic components that can make enemies or other stage objects behave "automatically"—thus, every in-game physical reaction must be caused by player-initiated action with the Mario figure. In this set, that's achieved by turning Monty Mole's classic action of popping up from underground into the objective, and the tilting behavior of Stone-Eye into the means to achieve that.
Other sets use similarly creative solutions. For instance, the Thwomp Drop set only drops the titular Thwomp when Mario rides the skull platform past it, triggering a lever to release it, and when the drop finally happens the Thwomp (which can't really "hurt" Lego Mario the way it could in a game) hits a trigger to catapult a Lava Bubble into Mario, with the intent of knocking him from the skull platform and forcing him to forfeit the hard-earned coins he got from riding it. The Bowser's Castle set requires Mario to first lift the two arms of the giant Bowser statue to shift Bowser forward onto unstable platforms that Mario can shift by rotating a separate platform left and right, forcing Bowser to topple forward so that he can be scanned. And the King Boo set features gearing that forces Mario to first alternatingly stomp the Swoops to either side of King Boo to dislodge him from his perch so that the tile positioned underneath him can be scanned. Compared to the rather simple sequence of stomps required in this small set, those sorts of "boss enemies" generally require more complex sequences of actions to be scanned, adding to the challenge as well as the potential rewards.
It's all remarkably clever, and I can definitely see potential for other such features in the future. One idea I've had is a Snow Pokey that for variety's sake can be bowled over by a snowball that Mario can roll down a slope (perhaps using a piece like the roller coaster track to guide it), instead of being knocked apart one segment at a time by a hammer action like the Desert Pokey from the current sets.
If you get it just right you can get Monty Mole to pop out when you tip Stone eye all in one fell swoop!
Oh, so they can make an exclusive set for their new theme in the US but for the rest of the sets we have to wait? makes no sense at all.
I live in Florida and am only one hour from the Disney Store at Disney Springs but can't go for fear of COVID since we are a hotspot. I wish Lego would have provided this for online customers. Oh well. I am awaiting the Mario packs. I just ordered them so they should be here in a few weeks. Thanks for the great review.
This set seems filled with personality.
@Lyichir said:
"One idea I've had is a Snow Pokey that for variety's sake can be bowled over by a snowball that Mario can roll down a slope (perhaps using a piece like the roller coaster track to guide it), instead of being knocked apart one segment at a time by a hammer action like the Desert Pokey from the current sets."
This is a great concept! If you do manage to build it, please share the pictures. I'm a little disappointed that it's not practical to get multiple copies of characters like Pokey, so an MOC snow Pokey would have to borrow the tile from the standard one to be used for coins, and details like faces require more creative solutions unless you disassemble the original.
@Huw With regards to being able to stomp repeatedly on the same enemy to collect coins, I can’t see how you would get around that. You could easily get multiples of the same enemy from different sets or the character packs, and if you lined several of them up in the course you built, there would be no legitimate reason not to award a coin for each one. Besides, especially as part of a larger course, you won’t necessarily have time to sit and stomp on the same enemy over and over again. There’s still a certain amount of “honor system” involved, but I’d take that over restricting creativity in course design.
You’re picking up an extra coin because one of Mario’s features is that he licks up coins as you “walk” him by rocking him side to side. So the internal logic is just picking up your movement as you’ve “walked” far enough to get a coin.
I must say, they did an excellent job with the Stone-eye's design. The color is slightly off (should be more of a yellowish-green), but otherwise is perfectly accurate.
You can get non-app instructions from the Lego instructions download page! No need for the app.
For those bemoaning this being available in stores, it was also available back when the pre-order went live months ago. At the time you could get three gifts with purchase. Doesn't help you now, but LEGO gave everyone in the USA a chance.
"Whether it's worth venturing out to a shopping mall and donning an uncomfortable mask in order to acquire it is another matter..."
The simplest and most correct answer to this question would be to buy a comfortable mask, which everyone should do regardless of their intentions of getting this set.
@SpaceCadet said:
" @Huw With regards to being able to stomp repeatedly on the same enemy to collect coins, I can’t see how you would get around that. You could easily get multiples of the same enemy from different sets or the character packs, and if you lined several of them up in the course you built, there would be no legitimate reason not to award a coin for each one. "
Different enemies respond differently to multiple stampings:
The single point creatures (e.g. Monty mole, goombas, amongst others) can be scanned approximately 1/second. They all have the same barcode [the water-based characters also feature a shared barcode, but also make a splashing sound when scanned]
Bosses, such as Bowser jr, bowser, King Boo, can be scanned to earn full coins points once, and then one coin per scan thereafter.
Bonuses (time, super mushroom, star power, coins) can only be claimed once per game from a specific tile, and then again from the '?' block.
BUT it's not really just about scoring the highest number of coins overall. It's more about setting a standard for gameplay (local rules) and competing against yourself, or your family for a better total.
These are all colorful and neat... I like the concept, but as an adult the sets aren't substantial enough for me to just build to look at.
And given my 5 year old's attention span, they're too expensive to get for him since he won't play with them consistently.
Regarding the 10 vs. 11 coins for stomping on/scanning Stone-Eye, is it possible that the difference is if you stomp on/scan the POW block first? As in, you hit the POW block and then Stone-Eye within a set amount of time after that for 11 coins as opposed to 10 if you don't make the transition in the allotted time?
I ordered the starter course from the webshop of the Budapest LEGO Store last week, and they are giving this away with online orders as well. Just a tip to anybody in Hungary.
I went to a lego store and they wouldn’t sell me one, even if i bought a more expensive set than the starter set (which i already have). Not amused.
"It's interesting that BrickLink considers the characters in the Super Mario sets to be 'minifigs', which never used to be the case for brick-built ones."
Uhm what about the nexo knight brick-built figures ?
https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=70357-1&viewItemType=M
Brickster - Very Large and Brickster - Large, Round Bricks are brick-built , and listed as minifigs, and that's a 2017 set.
So now we have Monty Mole, but what about Monty Python?
@pharmjod said:
"For those bemoaning this being available in stores, it was also available back when the pre-order went live months ago. At the time you could get three gifts with purchase. Doesn't help you now, but LEGO gave everyone in the USA a chance."
That is true, but the preorder sold out long before the news of its existence got out. I first learned of it here on brickset within 24 hours of the news being posted, but it was too late. There was no email sent out to VIP members or I would have tried to purchase it at midnight. As it is, asking people to venture out at a time when you should only be going out for essential services is truly unacceptable. Even if they did it to get people to go into their struggling retail stores, what they did is unethical on both a personal and national level. At this point I will simply wait for Target to have a Lego sale around Black Friday and get the starter pack. As for not getting this set, no big deal, I’m actually not familiar with these characters.
@TeriXeri said:
""It's interesting that BrickLink considers the characters in the Super Mario sets to be 'minifigs', which never used to be the case for brick-built ones."
Uhm what about the nexo knight brick-built figures ?
https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=70357-1&viewItemType=M
Brickster - Very Large and Brickster - Large, Round Bricks are brick-built , and listed as minifigs, and that's a 2017 set."
Even before that, Unikitty in the 2014 Lego Movie sets was considered a minifigure. I'm not sure when exactly Bricklink FIRST started listing brick-built figures as minifigs, but it was over five years ago at least.