Review: 71409 Big Spike's Cloudtop Challenge
Posted by benbacardi,
LEGO keep on producing Super Mario expansion sets to add to what is clearly a popular theme for them—this year they have released 14 distinct sets in the range so far.
71409 Big Spike's Cloudtop Challenge is one of the largest, with 540 parts, and packs a decent punch: three opponents, two of which are new, and some fun takes on the interactivity and game play we've come to expect with these sets.
Summary
71409 Big Spike's Cloudtop Challenge, 540 pieces.
£59.99 / $69.99 / €69.99 | 11.1p/13.0c/13.0c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A dense, fun, set with plenty to keep you entertained.
- Fantastic baddies
- Fun gameplay
- A cohesive build
- The usual high price
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
The Baddies
There are three foes in the set, the first of which makes their debut appearance: a Boomerang Bro In the games, they're a fairly annoying opponent, jumping around the various levels and throwing boomerangs at you. Like other Koopas, they're shelled creatures, wearing blue and white helmets and blue shoes. The LEGO version faithfully recreates this look, using the same face print shared with their close sibling, the Hammer Bro, in this year's set: 71410.
The helmet has a printed white stripe on a curved 1x2 brick, which I could see coming in handy in other sets. A unique tile on his back allows Mario to defeat him in four jumps, earning himself some coins. It's a shame that the character is not slightly more interactive—the boomerang is purely there for decoration.
Piranha Plants have appeared in a handful of other sets in a variety of guises. This one is attached to the middle of a seesaw, with a barcode tile either side (unique, once again, to this set). Mario can scan the exposed tile, jump hard enough on the end of the seesaw to cause the plant to flip over towards him, jumping over it to scan the tile on the other side. To earn the coins, you have to scan the tile three times (jumping the plant twice).
The final baddie is the biggest, the titular Big Spike. An imposing figure, he sits atop a cloud with his arms in the air, a barcode on the top of his head, and a large one at the end of a lever at the base. I particularly like the way the designer has replicated the character's large white lips.
Another form of Koopa, Big Spike wears a shell on his back, but the back of the cloud is otherwise mostly unfinished and looks rather unsightly. Visible in tan is the lower half of a new piece, known as 2x4x5 BRICK, W/ SPRING, NO.1, of which there are two in this set (you can see the other more clearly later in the review).
Big Spike's arms are in the air because he is holding a spiked roller above his head. The design of this is very simple and effective, and it looks fantastic. It rests gently on top of Big Spike's hair, leaning against his arms and preventing access to the barcode.
Pressing the lever with enough force (and scanning the barcode at the same time) compresses the new spring-loaded brick and tilts Big Spike's arms backwards, the loose roller following. The barcode on the tile causes Mario to play a springy jump sound, and as soon as the lever is release, the arms flick forward and Big Spike flings the spiked roller towards you! The intention is to jump quick enough to avoid the roller, and land on Spike's head, whereupon you can scan the tile four times to defeat the creature and earn your coins.
As usual, the interactive parts of these LEGO sets are hard to photograph. In the comparison below, you can see the difference between Big Spike's arms when the lever is depressed (left) or not (right). The difference is small, but enough to send the roller flying at quite a pace.
The Course
With the baddies out of the way, all that's left is the rest of the course that joins them together. The most basic of these are two orange mushroom platforms, one of which makes use of the new spring brick to turn it into a trampoline of sorts. Mario can use this to reach the higher parts of the course.
The new spring brick that I've mentioned a few times consists of a pair of individually moulded parts clipped together and held under tension by a spring inside. Pushing down on the upper part compresses the spring, letting go releases it. It's a rather ugly and somewhat large piece; although I am sure some enterprising individuals will find more uses for it. The two technic holes that pass all the way through provide more attachment points in addition to the eight upwards-facing studs.
The aforementioned higher parts of the course are a pair of cloud platforms that can be reached either by the trampoline mushroom above, or climbing the vine. The platforms are held up by a large transparent part that has only been used in a handful of other sets, but is mostly invisible here from the front. A brick containing an invincibility star sits hovers above one of the platforms.
Between the two clouds is a floating platform that can move back and forth, designed as a place for the Boomerang Bro to hang out. It has a barcode tile on it with a picture of a pair of opposite-facing arrows, and is "floating" above a pair of orange mushrooms.
Alternately pressing on the mushrooms below flips the platform from left to right, in a very simple but quite effective mechanism. If Mario is standing on the platform at the time, moving from left to right and back again enough times will earn coins. This can be done either by hand, or in two-player mode the other character can jump from one mushroom to the next.
When I was playing this with my children, we did find it difficult to move the platform with enough force to make it register, but not so much that Luigi or Peach immediately toppled off. It's a delicate balance, it seems.
The Completed Set
I was immediately taken by this expansion set when I first saw the box. Big Spike is a striking opponent that lends a sense of presence to the set, and the two elevated cloud platforms and moving component add height to a game that can often seem quite flat.
I particularly enjoy the mechanism that throws the spiked roller, and the seesaw on which the piranha plant sits: both provide a different take on the "knock enemy over, scan tile" design of many other opponents.
When connected all together, the set is compact and dense, which looks great. Some of the larger expansion sets can feel a little disconnected, or made up of smaller items not related to each other, but that is not the case here. With the unique enemies and fun game play, I think this is an expansion set worth the price (even factoring in the usual licensed set tax).
How do you store yours?
Over the past few years I've amassed a fair few of these expansion sets, and my children enjoy playing with them and the app whenever we get them out. However, I've yet to find a decent way to store them. They're fairly "bitty", intentionally, so that you can design your own courses and mix and match the discrete parts from each expansion set as you see fit—but that means storing them in a way that's easy to sift through, choose the parts you want, while keeping all the smaller subassemblies together. At the moment, we have them bagged individually in a large plastic tub, but it's far from ideal. So I thought I'd open the question up to a wider audience: how do you store yours?
71409 Big Spike's Cloudtop Challenge is available at LEGO.com for £59.99 / $69.99 / 69.99€.
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25 comments on this article
It's Pepe the Frog with white lips!
Beside that I don't have a whole lot to say about this one, sorry.
Making me want to play some Super Mario right now...lol
When this set was first unveiled, I held out hope for a Hammer Bro. to go with the Boomerang Bro. and the former ended up appearing as a Character Pack to my delight. But that also means I no longer have any interest in this set. I do like the vines and the clouds, but I guess I could BrickLink them, if they're not going to be too expensive.
As for storing these sets, I distribute them across a few plastic tubs (larger sets) and large BYGGLEK boxes (small to medium sets). I keep the connecting 2xn plates, miscellaneous decorative objects and all characters in their own baggies, and Mario and Luigi themselves are always accessible and never stored away. It's true that these sets can get pretty bulky, unfortunately.
Continually amazed at how good a lot of the likenesses are in this theme. I know many of us would love minifigures for Mario, Luigi etc but I think the designers have been knocking the brick-built characters out of the park.
@Syren_Neostar said:
"Making me want to play some Super Mario right now...lol"
I am right now playing Super Mario World. It's a good feeling.
I didn't even realize that they went with the 3D World-style spiked rollers (and not the classic spike ball) until this review pointed it out.
I'm no MOCer, but this looks like a very strong parts pack!
Storage for Mario sets proves difficult indeed. They are right now all in a giant bucket for my son. And because of the barcode dedicated to a specific item, there is little freebuild opportunity.
As for rebuilding the exact same sets, this would mean using digital instructions which are a lot less practical.
In the end, yes, my son loves Lego Mario but uses mostly the most recent sets he got.
Looks fun, especially the spring pieces! But needs to be cheaper to be attractive. This costs more than one of the starter packs and that is not ok.
Good review! I recently built this set and loved it. I was sort of wondering how a character like Spike, whose whole gameplay mechanic involves lifting and throwing things, could be realized in Lego—but upsizing him to add mechanical functionality works wonders. A part of me wishes Big Spike could be removed from the cloud to be placed in another sort of biome or displayed on his own, but I can't imagine how that could be done while preserving the amazing function. The mushroom platforms and swinging lift in this set are also great, though to be honest I could take or leave the Piranha Plant—they've appeared in so many sets at this point with minimal changes to their build and functionality that they're starting to feel slightly stale.
On the subject of storage, I've got a sort of system to it. I have enemies in the Mario starter set box, allies/power-ups and start/end goals in the Luigi starter set box, and various zippered bags in the Peach starter set box (including blocks, small decorative elements like clouds/trees/flowers, and 2x plates for linking up course sections). I'm using the "Maker set" box for basic ground/platforms, and the recent Big Bad Island set box for larger enemies/bosses. Beyond that, larger functional modules/platforms go into some of the larger boxes, which I try to keep relatively themed to their level type (so lava/castle modules in the Bowser's Castle box, poison swamp modules in the Wiggler's Poison Swamp box, basic grassland-type modules in the Toad's Treasure Hunt box, Luigi's Mansion modules in the Haunt & Seek box, and Peach's Castle modules in the Peach's Castle box). Some of the larger modules do require some breaking down, but it usually doesn't take complete disassembly to fit them in. And there are a few sets that are so large that I mostly just keep them displayed—obviously the NES and Question Mark Block, but also last year's Airship set).
It's not a perfect system, and is still fairly demanding in terms of space. But it does make it easier to find what I need if I want to set up a level or just take out characters to examine or display.
Spike from the front :O
Spike from the side :/
The axle between Spike’s legs :D
Still can’t win my $70, though.
I'm thoroughly impressed that this theme is still successful. To be honest, I still don't quite get the draw. If I wanted to play a game, I'd pull out my console, but I guess that just shows I'm not a part of the target audience. I still hope they will go with some cheap Mario minifigure sets. They could even have a Mario Kart theme for customizability.
@Lyichir: I used the starter set boxes at first, but I'll probably start keeping them and the small to medium expansion sets in their respective boxes, while keeping the larger sets in the containers I'm using as their set boxes are usually too narrow and unwieldy. But I'd still like to keep my Mario sets in close proximity if possible...
I'm not sure why, but I can't get enough of these sets. There's something about them that makes me smile. Collecting them all, which is a rare one-off thing for me, is a joy.
Luckly, these gets discounted A LOT, and I found many of them on marketplace for cheap.
The success of Lego Super Mario is an enigma to me!
Its wild to me that this line is apparently successful enough to keep getting sets. Stores in Australia cant seem to get rid of them, they're either perpetually on clearance (which is otherwise unheard of here) or just not stocked at all
@magmafrost said:
"Its wild to me that this line is apparently successful enough to keep getting sets. Stores in Australia cant seem to get rid of them, they're either perpetually on clearance (which is otherwise unheard of here) or just not stocked at all"
So true, one of the sets was on a 75% discount at one point
We store them in the different Ikea lego storage boxes. When we build the courses we use the top of the boxes. Works rather well. The larger sets get disassembled since my sons love building them.
We store them in the different Ikea lego storage boxes. When we build the courses we use the top of the boxes. Works rather well. The larger sets get disassembled since my sons love building them.
We store them in the different Ikea lego storage boxes. When we build the courses we use the top of the boxes. Works rather well. The larger sets get disassembled since my sons love building them.
Maybe the Lego Group has a contractual obligation to keep producing these Mario sets (?), but I just don't understand the appeal. For me, the novelty wore off after the first wave of releases, and given the high prices, especially nowadays, I can't help thinking that if you really want to play Super Mario, then it's probably better value to invest in an actual Nintendo Switch (or even a cheap second-hand Wii U from eBay) and play the real thing.
@8lackmagic said:
"Maybe the Lego Group has a contractual obligation to keep producing these Mario sets (?), but I just don't understand the appeal. For me, the novelty wore off after the first wave of releases, and given the high prices, especially nowadays, I can't help thinking that if you really want to play Super Mario, then it's probably better value to invest in an actual Nintendo Switch (or even a cheap second-hand Wii U from eBay) and play the real thing."
These sets are fantastic if you love the Mario figures and gimmicks.
The thing is, you have to love the gimmick and be willing to pay for it. I personally only got the Mario starter kit and that one set with the Yoshi house. I didn't get any more because of the space and money.
However, I think these are definitely more appealing to kids. Their style of play is generally more suited to building things and taking them apart not too long after. They aren't as concerned with keeping one set together for very long.
@8lackmagic said:
"Maybe the Lego Group has a contractual obligation to keep producing these Mario sets (?), but I just don't understand the appeal. For me, the novelty wore off after the first wave of releases, and given the high prices, especially nowadays, I can't help thinking that if you really want to play Super Mario, then it's probably better value to invest in an actual Nintendo Switch (or even a cheap second-hand Wii U from eBay) and play the real thing."
These sets are fantastic if you love the Mario figures and gimmicks.
The thing is, you have to love the gimmick and be willing to pay for it. I personally only got the Mario starter kit and that one set with the Yoshi house. I didn't get any more because of the space and money.
However, I think these are definitely more appealing to kids. Their style of play is generally more suited to building things and taking them apart not too long after. They aren't as concerned with keeping one set together for very long.
My son stores all his Mario sets in bins organized by biome. Works well to get it out and put it back fairly quickly.
@8lackmagic said:
"Maybe the Lego Group has a contractual obligation to keep producing these Mario sets (?), but I just don't understand the appeal. For me, the novelty wore off after the first wave of releases, and given the high prices, especially nowadays, I can't help thinking that if you really want to play Super Mario, then it's probably better value to invest in an actual Nintendo Switch (or even a cheap second-hand Wii U from eBay) and play the real thing."
I see a lot of people claiming they'd rather play the actual video game over this, but for me I think a key part of these sets' appeal is their physicality. Despite the reliance on an electronic figure for score-keeping and sound effects, these sets are absolutely packed with satisfying brick-built mechanical play features to replicate game mechanics and encourage physical play.
There's also the matter that kids who already DO have a game system and Mario games might still want to extend their enjoyment of those in a physical way. I remember when I was a kid, playing Super Mario 64 was fun but sometimes after I'd powered the system down, I'd then try to recreate the levels I'd played out of Lego, just because I loved Mario and loved Lego and wanted to try to combine the two. I don't think it's controversial on a Lego fansite for me to insist that Lego play has its own distinct appeal separate from digital play, and that kids who are passionate about both are often drawn to combine those interests.
This is the hill that I will defend for as long as it is around.
The Mario sets are good. Just maybe not the way AFOLs wanted.
For me a big part of the appeal is the functional Mechanisms. For the most part, the sets in the Mario range have very good play features that work consistently and provide a satisfying result.
Even the 'small' sets provide a feature or two that is fun, and well engineered. 71396 lets you have the propeller down when flying, but still able to sit on the table. 71399 has a brilliant mechanism for opening the doors that could easily be adapted to other builds. 71362 is so fun to open the gate on. And there are so many more. (Don't even get me started on the genius of the NES and ? block mechanisms, I haven't built Bowser yet.)
They remind me of the dynamite function from 6755.
By contrast, none of the latest Jurassic world releases have any decent play features other than the dinosaurs themselves. 76949 has one disappointing feature where you can tilt the front window. It gets stuck half the time, and the minifigure doesn't even fall out properly when it does work. It was very unsatisfying for such a big set.
Even if you don't like the style of the Mario sets, or would prefer Minifigure versions, there is no denying that the designers of the Mario sets are very good functional builders and engineers.