Review: 71408 Princess Peach's Castle
Posted by benbacardi,
71408 Princess Peach's Castle is the largest of the Peach-themed additions to the Super Mario line this year, and is in fact the largest of all the game's sets so far at 1,216 parts. It includes a variety of characters, both new to the range and returning, and commands some impressive space when laid out ready to play. Let's take a look at what's inside!
Summary
71408 Peach's Castle, 1,216 pieces.
£114.99 / $129.99 / €129.99 | 9.5p/10.7c/10.7c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A large but cohesive set with a number of fun interactive features that add to the LEGO Super Mario game.
- Impressive size
- Great builds of Ludwig and Bowser
- Fun dynamic mechanism to the castle.
- The most expensive expansion set yet
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Characters
Defending the castle from the outside is Ludwig von Koopa, a rather stylish chap with fabulous blue hair. Apparently, he's Bowser's second-in-command, and hasn't appeared in any set in the theme yet. He wields a blue magic wand, and the face printing is accurate to the source material, from the blue eyebrows down to his single large tooth.
The distinctive hairstyle is made using a variety of simple SNOT techniques, and Ludwig's unique blue barcode tile sits in the middle of his shell, which has also not been produced in this colour before. Ludwig takes six bounces on his back before he'll yield coins.
He guards the outside of the castle, floating on a cloud above the trees. The cloud is not very securely attached to the base, so he is a little precarious, and it's easy to knock him off—intentionally or otherwise!
Next up is Toadette. She first appeared back in 71368 Toad's Treasure Hunt, and is unchanged from then. I like the simple way in which her pigtails are constructed.
Toadette stands on the bridge spanning the moat surrounding the castle. It's a rather unusual construction, with the bridge partially folded up hiding the barcode tile beneath, and Toadette sitting at an angle.
Stamping on the front half of the bridge flattens it out, revealing the barcode tile used to interact with Toadette. It's the standard "friend" tile, where you can say hello, gather a few coins, drop off a gift, etc.
Finally, we have Bowser, Mario and Peach's main antagonist across the entire Super Mario franchise. Returning for the first time since 71369 Bowser's Castle Boss Battle, the flagship set of the range in 2020, he is also unchanged in design. Large red eyebrows, enormous black and yellow arms and fists, and a fearsome snarl.
Only his arms are posable (aside from his little tail), but I think he looks fantastic. The barcode tile on his back is surrounded by spikes, and will take no fewer than ten scans to defeat.
The Castle
Princess Peach's castle itself consists of a few parts: the main doors, flanked by a pair of walls containing small towers, and the castle proper with the throne room and the main tower.
The castle's front doors have some simple detailing, including gold cupcakes for handles, and are hinged and easily pushed open, allowing enough space for our oversized protagonist to pass through. The curved white pieces forming part of the door frame seem to be a new mould.
Either side of the doors, a short wall section is attached, incorporating a small round tower. The base of the tower tapers to the ground by cleverly using an existing cone part, new here in white, attached upside down. The roof of the tower is also a new part, and looks fantastic. Hopefully we'll see this make an appearance elsewhere in colours other than red. It's topped with a brand new 1x2 jumper plate, rounded to match the curve of the top of the roof (half of a 2x2 circle).
Externally, the two wall sections are identical mirror images of each other. Internally, however, they differ. The right-hand section is the most interactive, featuring a large painting hanging on the wall! Long-time fans of Super Mario will recognise this as the first warp painting in Super Mario 64, through which Mario can travel to access Bob-omb Battlefield, one of the mini worlds within the game.
Peach can knock the painting off the wall, scan a tile on its rear and travel to the world herself! Above the painting sits a bob-omb, which she can then knock off and defeat with the tile on its side, before warping back to her castle through the painting once more. As a fan of Super Mario 64, the first 3D Mario game, I was quite happy to see this surprise inclusion.
The other wing of the castle contains a more mundane but very useful item! A small grandfather clock stands at the base of the tower, but above it is a teal brick with a clock icon, which adds an extra 30 seconds to the level timer when scanned. This is very welcome in a set this size, especially when combined with additional expansion sets, as the original time limit can make it very difficult to complete your extended levels. It is only available elsewhere in 71389 Lakitu Sky World.
Inside the castle there are a handful of smaller builds. A 4x4 tile decorated with the sun pattern sits just behind the doors, once again accurate to the one seen in Super Mario 64 when Mario first enters the Mushroom Castle. A small round table holds some fruit (including one Peach can scan), and there's a suspiciously large cake.
Jumping on the level attached to the cake knocks of the lid, and if pressed with enough force, will expel a goomba that was hiding inside! The underside of the cake lid has a tile Peach can scan to get a slice of cake, which she can either eat herself or take as a gift to Toadette.
Finally, the castle is completed with the main throne room tower. The "doors" to the throne room are closed, with a chain hanging across them. The decor is clearly not that of Peach's choice—purples and black instead of white and red—so what has happened here?
Bowser has, that's what! He can be placed in front of the doors, his little tail resting on the chain (there's a reason for this), and glaring menacingly at Peach as she enters the room. Scanning the tile in front of Bowser starts playing the boss music from the game.
Defeating Bowser is easy—but let's face it, what isn't in these LEGO Mario sets? The poor bad guys can't fight back. All Peach needs to do is jump on one of the black levers on either the left or the right, and the chain will be pulled tight, toppling Bowser off his pedestal to land on his back. Ten barcode scans later, and the boss fight is over.
Standing above the tile on the ground, Peach can then be pushed forwards to slide the floor forwards, spinning the room around. Bowser's purple and black dungeon disappears, to be replaced by Peach's throne. The mechanism is simple, clever, and very effective.
Finally, Peach can claim her rightful place on the throne of Mushroom Castle, to rule over the Mushroom Kingdom as she was born to do! A tile in the base of the throne plays victorious music, and yields some final coins. It doesn't end the game, however. You still need to scan the end tile by Bowser's flag.
I particularly like the printed stained-glass window that sits above the throne room at the top of the main castle tower.
Conclusion
Clearly the flagship set for the theme this year, 71408 Princess Peach's Castle is an impressively large set when laid out in its entirety ready to play. Although composed of a number of smaller disparate builds, like the majority of the Mario expansion sets, they're all tied together well into one cohesive castle.
Compared to last year's 71391 Bowser's Airship, which is only a couple of hundred pieces smaller, it feels like it adds significantly more value to the way the courses are designed for the app-based game. There's a large number of tiles to scan, obstacles to overcome, and interactivity.
As always, the sets command a high price both due to their tie-in with the app and Nintendo's brand, but if you're already all-in on the game then Peach's castle brings more of the fun you're used to and a boss battle to boot.
71408 Princess Peach's Castle is available from LEGO.com for £114.99 / $129.99 / 129.99€.
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20 comments on this article
"The curved white pieces forming part of the door frame seem to be a new mould."
Looks like 76795 from last year 10295 amongst others?
A lot of the set focus seems to be upon a Princess not in the review?
@Rimefang said:
"A lot of the set focus seems to be upon a Princess not in the review?"
She's not in the set, either. She's been reviewed elsewhere.
The stained glass window is wonderful. I want to see someone use this set as the base for a minifig-scale castle. The curved pieces at the gate are the wheel arches from 10295.
"It is only available elsewhere in 71389 Lakitu Sky World.". Not true. Also appeared on the Piranha Plant Power Slide 71365
The warp painting from Mario 64 is a great little detail. Maybe at some point we'll get a King Bob-omb and other bosses in future expansion packs.
One critique I have is I wish it came with a couple more smaller baddies for the price. But Ludwig is a great addition.
Thanks for the review!
@GusG said:
""It is only available elsewhere in 71389 Lakitu Sky World.". Not true. Also appeared on the Piranha Plant Power Slide 71365"
That one (together with the one in 71369) appears to have a different bar code for some reason, despite having the same effect (+30 seconds). Probably to work with 2-player co-op, or to stack with those earlier ones? I haven't had a chance to test mine yet (I have both 71389 and 71369).
@AndyB1 said:
""The curved white pieces forming part of the door frame seem to be a new mould."
Looks like 76795 from last year 10295 amongst others?"
Strangely, it has a different design ID: https://brickset.com/parts/design-3374
@Huw said:
" @Rimefang said:
"A lot of the set focus seems to be upon a Princess not in the review?"
She's not in the set, either. She's been reviewed elsewhere."
So... the Princess is in another playset?
What if you only have Luigi? Then he will have to do all the ruling.
@Be_hapi said:
"What if you only have Luigi? Then he will have to do all the ruling."
I gladly welcome our new Italian overlord.
@iwybs said:
"The stained glass window is wonderful. I want to see someone use this set as the base for a minifig-scale castle. The curved pieces at the gate are the wheel arches from 10295."
Saw the set in person for the first time, and the stained glass window elevates the set into purchase territory for us. So many ways Lego could have cut corners with it (print on a white panel, or even a sticker ugh) and they didn't. Seeing it back-lit is beautifully.
It is absolutely crying out to be put into a more premium castle. Not sure how useful parts from this set or the other Princess Peach set would be in building at that scale.
(checks comments for reference to "the princess is in another castle)
Good work @Ridgeheart, you have done us all a great service.
Like the build but not for me and that's okay
Is the grandfather clock another reference to Mario 64--in the Tick Tock Clock level?
I love that grandfather clock. Looks like a simpler version of the one in 10270.
@Your_Future_President said:
"Is the grandfather clock another reference to Mario 64--in the Tick Tock Clock level?"
That was my guess too!
The purple alternate "evil" version of the castle is very similar to the transformation of 8781, although seems unfitting for Bowser. When Bowser's taken over in the series his approach has been to add a bunch of lava, and not otherwise redecorate. Regardless, Bowser's colors are green and yellow, not purple and black.
However, Peach's castle actually HAS been taken over and redecorated with a purple color scheme in the games twice (in Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time & Bowser's Inside Story) though not by Bowser. This could be a small nod by the designer to either of those occasions, but with Bowser as the villain because
1. The games are niche compared to others in the series, and Bowser isn't
2. The old RPG Mario games were made for an older target audience than most Mario games, the LEGO theme included
3. The "Mario and Luigi" RPGs were made under license by another studio which went bankrupt, Nintendo didn't ever fully own the series, and it's unknown who has the rights now.
But I still like to think it's a reference, like how 71367 Mario's House is the design from Paper Mario. Though that was more obvious, as Paper Mario is still alive as a series and doesn't have it's rights in limbo.
I really like to buy it, but having the same Bowser holds me off. Maybe they had to make a cat-Bowser for this set (links with the other cat suit sets), although this is mainly Mario64 style. Or maybe a Dry Bowser just to make it more interesting for the peoples that already have a Bowser.
@Brickodillo said:
"I really like to buy it, but having the same Bowser holds me off. Maybe they had to make a cat-Bowser for this set (links with the other cat suit sets), although this is mainly Mario64 style. Or maybe a Dry Bowser just to make it more interesting for the peoples that already have a Bowser. "
I would've loved a new Bowser variant too, though I understand why they'd want to have "classic" Bowser available in another set now that the Bowser's Castle set from the first year is retired.