Earlier this month, I reviewed the LEGO Mario "starter kit" which contains the main protagonist of the game (Mario). You need the Mario figure (or Luigi or Peach which are each available in different starter kits) to be able to properly play with any of the expansion packs (such as the subject of today's review).
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Mario is known for traversing plenty of interesting terrain - grasslands, clouds, underwater, etc. but perhaps no type of terrain is as iconic for the mustachioed plumber as "lava" from the many different versions of Bowser's castle.
The LEGO 71364: Whomp's Lava Trouble set is the first expansion that I added to my son and I's Mario layout and it was definitely the draw of the red lava (and the awesome looking Whomp on the box) that made me crack this box open first!
The set contains a relatively small 133 pieces for $19.99 which isn't a terrible price, especially when you realize that the set contains a fair number of larger pieces (and all the decorations are either prints or pre-applied stickers as in the case of the bar codes).
The highlight of any of the expansion packs is probably the included brick-built enemies for Mario to stomp. In this set, we get the title character "Whomp" who is famous for trying to flatten Mario like a pancake as well as the small Lava Bubble.
For my money, the Lava Bubble is fine (and certainly fitting for a lava-based set) but the star has to be that amazing Whomp figure. The face is perfect - the posable hands are great, and best of all, you can make Whomp attempt to flatten Mario and when he inevitably fails, Mario can stomp on his back (where the bar code is). Simple perfection.
The set also contains a few other items of note. The obvious one is the fairly large sliding bridge over the lava. The small platform slides back and forth - and your goal is to keep Mario balanced on the studless surface in order to collect more virtual coins as you slide about. There's also a small action mechanism with the green turtle shell, you can twist Mario on one of the gray baseplates in order to knock the Lava Bubble back into the lava and out of your way as you progress through your course. Finally, the Whomp is hiding a "P block" which in this case if you scan the block with Mario you can additional bonus coins while simply walking about.
That's it for Whomp's Lava Trouble. One of the smaller Mario expansion packs, but definitely worth it's price if you ask me!
The Bottom Line (out of 10):
Fun: 10
Play Value: 10
Kid Value: 9
Adult Value: 8
Overall: 9
My hope is to continue to review some of the other LEGO Mario expansion sets as my son and I build/play with them over the upcoming days and weeks. As I do so, I also hope to maintain a ranking of all the sets we build and review. I won't include the Mario Starter Set in the rankings since it's basically required to enjoy any of the sets to their fullest, but I will start the rankings with today's set.
Best LEGO Super Mario Expansions:
1. Whomp's Lava Trouble
Ok, that's a little bit of a lame ranking for the moment but I'll keep adding to the list (and sliding sets up and down as appropriate as I continue to build new expansions)!
The little fireball guy looks like a cool build.
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