Review – LEGO Super Mario Luigi Starter Course 71387

When it comes to the many 1st August releases LEGO Luigi, and the other LEGO Super Mario sets, may not be top of your list, a certain LEGO Star Wars UCS Republic Gunship (75309) springs to mind!

However, me and my Son have been waiting patiently for LEGO Luigi to make his debut and finally be reunited with his brother Mario.

Thankfully the 1st landed on a day I had off for starters, past ones have usually been during the week. So we set out just a little earlier than planned as there was bound to be a queue, which there was, but I was certain they’d have some Luigis’ left.

LEGO Store Southampton Mario & Luigi display

My Son was so thrilled to see the LEGO Super Mario window display and once inside the store the mountain of LEGO Luigis’. He grabbed a box and held it tight following me around the store whilst I grabbed LEGO Marvel Bro Thor and LEGO Marvel Hydra Stomper Mech for myself!

Once home and after a spot of lunch we both sat down to free Luigi from his cardboard home, taking photos along the way.

Here is our review of the LEGO Luigi Starter Course (71387) set…

The box art and contents:

Box art – front & back

The design layout and shape of the box is in-keeping with the previous LEGO Super Mario one and in my opinion looks great. It puts the main emphasis on LEGO Luigi and has him quite large and in pride of place, he is after all the main reason you buy this particular set.

Down the sloped side we see what LEGO Luigi is capable of; Music & Sound, Colour & Brick recognition, and Bluetooth connectivity, pretty standard but amazing features!

Again there are play features on the back along with a list of the characters included; Bone Goomba, Boom Boom, and a Pink Yoshi. I must say my Son was more interested in the Pink Yoshi meeting the Green one (from the last wave) than Mario and Luigi being reunited!

Please excuse the open box in the photos, I had a very impatient helper for this review.

The contents

Open the box and tip out the contents and you’ll find 7 bags, a flimsy ‘quick start’ guide, and a small white box.

Bag one and the small white box is Luigi himself, opening the box and sliding out his leg-less torso is somewhat morbid, especially if Mario is there waiting to greet his Brother!

‘Oh no, Luigi’

The rest of the bags, 2 to 7, make up the starter course, adding parts as we go, such as two cog pieces each with their own sound/activity activator, three diffent heights of platform for you to jump on, and of course the main ‘seesaw’ build.

Seesaw build

Platforms

Gears/cogs

I really like how the seesaw build works, the two platforms on either side stay upright at all times no matter their position, and the two sand green elements that make up the central support are new and exclusive to this set! For all you MOC designers out there the official name and number for that piece is: LEGO Sand Green Support 2 x 2 x 13 with 5 Pegholes (91176)

LEGO Sand Green Support 2 x 2 x 13 with 5 Pegholes (91176)

Other parts to take note of, but sadly aren’t exclusive to this set, are the gears/cogs, we get two large brown ones and a smaller grey one. I love parts like this as they can be used in so many cool and interesting ways, within this particular build they can be used to great effect and in unique ways.

LEGO Medium Dark Flesh Gear Wheel 6 x 6 (35446)

Onto the included characters now and let’s start off with the Baddies, Bone Goomba and Boom Boom. It’s one of the highlights of the set for me as a classic NES Super Mario Bros fan, taking on each of the bad guys and defeating them.

Boom Boom & Bone Goomba

The Bone Goomba is probably the least recognisable to me personal and it most likely in relatively newer versions, that being said irs still a joy to topped it over and jump up & down on to gain those precious coins.

Boom Boom is like a lower level boss and requires a little more punishing, you’ll need to jump on him eight times to finally defeat this baddie. Remember to keep count though as one many results in Mario (or Luigi) being dazed!

Pink Yoshi

As I mentioned earlier Pink Yoshi was the character my Son was most interested in and wanted to build it himself. Following the digital instructions was very simple & straightforward but some of the bricks and parts weren’t loading in correctly with some becoming silhouettes, making it hard to tell them apart.

Pink Yoshi works in a very cool way and basically ‘takes over‘ Mario (or Luigi), from then on stomping on a bad guy activates the sound of Yoshi eating and swallowing them, followed by a coin of course. To exit Yoshi mode just jump of a different activator tile.

The design in general of Yoshi is spot on and you can instantly tell who it is. However I do feel that finishing off the top of the head with a tile is always needed, it just looks unfinished.

Luigi:

Luigi

Luigi is why you pickup the set and the main reason it costs what it costs, £49.99.

The technology involved is incredible and does such an awesome job, connecting Mario & Luigi to your smart device via bluetooth and keeping that connection to the LEGO Super Mario App (whilst it is open) is essential to use the features built into the app successfully.

LEGO have updated the app considerably since its first version a Year ago, and no has space to connect the two characters, on the same screen too. You can also control their volumes and settings individually which is a nice touch.

If you don’t fancy running the app you can connect them together using their built-in Bluetooth, once paired a scarf/neckerchief icon appears, which is very handy and let’s you know that they have paired. 

Super Mario Bros

The real fun begins when you have paired them, it enables ‘two player‘ mode and let me tell you it is as fun as it looks on the trailer!

Create a course, big or small, by combining the parts you have from both Starter Courses and any other Expansion sets you may have and away you go.

Either Mario or Luigi needs to start a ‘level‘ by being placed in a drain-pipe, like normal, and they both become synced allowing you both to traverse the course gaining coins and defeating baddies along the way, finally heading to the flag and finishing the ‘level‘, remember that both characters need to finish into order to get the goodies and not a time-out!

‘let’sa go!’

Once you’ve completed a successful course run the app takes over and calculates the total of coins you have both earned and how. Showing you which baddies you defeated, goodies from the ? blocks, and time taken. This again adds another level to the fun and is great for younger fans to see just how it works!

App screenshots

Luigi is also a tad taller than his brother Mario, as you can see from the image below. It’s not much but it does show that LEGO made a new mould for Luigi as his head and legs are just a little longer.

Bigger little brother

They can both interact in very cool ways and this is best detailed via the app itself in the form of short demonstration videos.

Some of their tricks involve greeting each other, high-fiving, back flipping, bad bag tag teaming, and even being concerned when the other falls over or gets hurt!

LEGO Super Mario Luigi Starter Course 71387

Conclusion:

LEGO Super Mario Luigi Starter Course (71387) is a must buy for any Mario fan, it adds so much to an already very impressive LEGO theme.

The build is straightforward and enjoyable, especially the seesaw, the way it has been designed and functions is genius. The playability is obviously up there as the best there is, it’s a playable set so has to be inviting.

The LEGO Luigi device is incredible and works a treat straight out of the box, well you’ll need to add batteries first of course. From building to connectivity it’s simple and anyone can do it, just follow the instructions on the app.

Finally, the best part of this set and getting LEGO Luigi is reuniting the iconic Brothers, it brought back so many childhood memories for me from playing the classic games, especially in two player mode. Having that cheeky, camaraderie, brotherly love, feel is great. It also opens the whole franchise up to a new generation as my Son can now experience the joy the Super Mario Bros have to offer!

Thank you so much for reading our review, we really do hope you enjoyed it as much as we did writing it!

Please leave us a comment and let us know your thoughts on LEGO Luigi, the builds, and even share your course creations with us via Instagram by tagging us (@thebrickpost).