It’s been a number of years since LEGO formalized its inventive partnership with Nintendo – a partnership that has resulted in a number of of LEGO’s most impressed, accessible units. Back in 2020, LEGO delineated a transparent division between their baby viewers and their grownup viewers. On one hand, the youngsters obtained Super Mario playsets – digital/bodily hybrids that allowed children to construct their very own Super Mario programs. On the opposite hand, the adults obtained iconic replicas – huge units that triggered waves of Gen-X nostalgia
But within the years since, LEGO has intentionally blurred the road between their baby and grownup audiences. The new LEGO units for youths are a bit extra complicated and concerned; the brand new grownup LEGO units are a bit extra cartoonish and eccentric. It’s befitting that Nintendo, which payments itself as a family-friendly firm, options LEGO units with such cross-generational enchantment.
LEGO/Nintendo is slowly increasing its sub-themes, from solely Super Mario to Sonic the Hedgehog and Animal Crossing. And now, LEGO Zelda is right here too. Below we have highlighted a few of the highest LEGO Nintendo units out there in 2025.
Adventures with Interactive LEGO Mario
The LEGO Super Mario playsets permit you to construct your individual Mario programs. You use an LED Mario figurine to scan barcodes on enemies and obstacles, which creates audio suggestions like music and traditional Mario sounds. The cash you acquire are tallied in an app, which syncs to Mario and paperwork your progress.
This is the newest starter set that comes with the Mario LED determine; all the opposite enlargement units won’t “work” with out it. It additionally comes with different necessities: a beginning pipe, a Yoshi determine, a flagpole, and a a Bowser, Jr. determine that rides inside a Junior Clown Car.
Mario Kart – Standard Kart
The Mario Kart units are all suitable with the Interactive Mario LED determine that comes within the Adventures starter set. This traditional Kart construct, which features a Glider, a Toad pit crew member, and a launching mechanism for Green and Red Shells, is a wonderful place to start out designing race programs. If you are a fan of the Mario Kart video games, this can be a nice set to place collectively. And at simply $19.99, it is among the best price range LEGO units you may discover.
The Bowser Express Train
Weird, colourful, and lovably narcissistic, the Bowser Express Train incorporates a huge Bowser head on the entrance of its engine. It comes with six baddies: a Hammer Bro, a Boom Boom, two Goombas, and two Para-Biddybuds. All aboard!
Piranha Plant
We constructed this set for its launch, and it managed to over ship on its promise. The LEGO Piranha Plant has character and adorability to spare, and its worth belies its high quality. It’s uncommon to really feel such as you’re ever getting a deal once you purchase a LEGO set. But this Piranha in a pipe in all fairness priced and price each penny. Highly advisable.
Sonic the Hedgehog – Green Hill Zone
It’s not Nintendo, strictly talking? But we’re permitting it due to our love for Sonic video games. Once bitter rivals, Sonic and Mario are actually shut collaborators, and Sega is a mainstay on Nintendo’s on-line service. We coated this Sonic the Hedgehog set on the time of its launch, and it is a beautiful little diorama of Green Hill Zone 1, full with a loop and a smirking, cocky Sonic minifigure. It’s good for an grownup newbie builder, who would possibly need to take a look at the waters on a brand new interest earlier than going all-in. There are extra Sonic LEGO units to select from as nicely, so you could have choices in case you’re trying to construct a enjoyable Sonic toy in 2025.
Nook’s Cranny & Rosie’s House
This yr, Nintendo diversifies its LEGO choices by introducing Animal Crossing units. Launched in March 2024, this specific construct – the largest one out there at launch – consists of each Tom Nook’s store and Rosie the Cat’s cottage.Just a few extra units like these, and Animal Crossing followers will be capable to customise their very personal village, similar to they do within the sport.
Fly With Dodo Airlines
Another iconic location from the Animal Crossing franchise, Dodo Airlines lets you journey overseas and go to different gamers’ islands. This set features a seaplane, a dock/jetty, and minifigures for Wilbur and Tangy so you possibly can create roleplay situations.
Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi
One of the very best, most nostalgic LEGO units in latest reminiscence, this depiction of Mario & Yoshi strikes with the flip of the crank. And it is not simply Yoshi’s ft – it is his head and arm, in addition to Mario’s cape. A separate mechanism triggers Yoshi to open his mouth and stick out his tongue. It’s additionally almost 16 inches tall, so the intense, 16-bit colours actually pop.
Great Deku Tree
We photographed and wrote about this set when it launched. A 2-in-1 construct, this set allows you to select between the Ocarina of Time iteration or the Breath of the Wild iteration. You additionally get three variations of Link, one Princess Zelda, and equipment that embody the Master Sword and a Hylian Shield. While it’s positively enjoyable to place collectively, it’s general one of many dearer LEGO units you may discover.
The Mighty Bowser
The Mighty Bowser is the best Nintendo set that LEGO has designed so far, and among the best LEGO units out there, interval. It’s an enormous, cartoonish, disarmingly lovely construct of Mario’s final unhealthy man. It’s very imposing in individual – greater than you assume – and a spring loaded mechanic permits him to “breathe hearth.”
How Many LEGO Nintendo Sets Are There?
As of January 2025, there are 34 LEGO Super Mario sets, 18 LEGO Sonic the Hedgehog sets, ten LEGO Animal Crossing sets, and 1 LEGO The Legend of Zelda set out there for buy on the official LEGO retailer.
What’s Does the Future of LEGO Nintendo Look Like?
The Mighty Bowser is technically an enlargement playset, however it’s marketed as a standalone set. It demonstrates what appears to be a brand new LEGO Nintendo method for 2024 and past: a design ethos that doesn’t strictly delineate a youngsters’s set from an grownup set.
The early, child-oriented LEGO Super Mario playsets have been very piecemeal and ethereal – remoted, singular parts and easy, flat plates that linked the weather collectively. The builds have been too rudimentary, even for youngsters’s builds – they felt like LEGO units designed for youngsters who don’t love LEGO.
Today, the LEGO Super Mario units are extra substantial and detail-laden, although they nonetheless have the barcodes that designate them as enlargement playsets. The greatest of those units – like The Mighty Bowser – make the cellular gameplay a secondary concern to the way it appears to be like on show, and the way enjoyable and interesting it’s to construct. And that’s the place the emphasis ought to all the time be. Because whether or not it is for youths or adults, the enjoyment comes from the construct itself; the ultimate product is the outgrowth of that.
There’s an amazing LEGO documentary on Netflix; it is a part of a working collection known as “The Toys That Made Us,” and I’d suggest it to anybody. My greatest takeaway from the movie is that LEGO has tried, many occasions, to flee or broaden its enchantment by creating different toys or by reinventing the bricks someway – by overlaying them with augmented actuality, or repurposing them in some odd, area of interest vogue. But it by no means seems nicely or lasts, and LEGO retains returning to the factor that folks love most.
Those preliminary Mario playsets have been a step too far and emphasised play over construct. And now that LEGO is creating units which might be extra in keeping with their design and firm strengths, the long run appears to be like shiny.
Also, make sure to try our lists of the very best Star Wars LEGO units and greatest Harry Potter LEGO units. And in case you’re extra into superheroes, you possibly can check out the very best Marvel LEGO units as nicely.
Kevin Wong is a contributing freelancer for IGN, specializing in LEGO. He’s additionally been revealed in Complex, Engadget, Gamespot, Kotaku, and extra. Follow him on Twitter at @kevinjameswong.