>>10150240NTA but as someone who likes Mario most of these sets are just ugly to me. I'm not even a "waaah I just want regular minifigure sets" kind of guy, I just think that sacrificing visual appeal for the electronic Mario features was a poor choice. Play features are great, especially the ones with fun and interesting mechanisms, but there has to be a good balance. Picrel is the only Mario set I've bought (aside from the mystery characters) because it's the only one that looks like an actual set to me. And even though I like it a lot it's still hindered by the video game level function: The coolest feature of the set by far is being able to open it up and see the inside, but instead of having a cool interior (like maybe some cots for your goomba crew, cannonball storage, etc.), the majority of the space is taken up by the big Bowser hand mechanism. It's a really good example of sacrificing interesting design elements to cram in another play function.
I totally disagree with that anon though about the brick-built figures; I think they're the best part and love the character packs. Ironically I think every figure is perfect aside from the Mario one. If there was a Mario in the style of the brick figures instead of the weird square one we got I'd be a lot more interested.
