When I decided to order the Mario sets for review I knew straight away I wanted the set with Yoshi. The fan favorite was a must have for Mario fans. I also order 3 Character Packs to add some variation to the bad guys on my courses. Can't wait to see which ones I get? Fingers crossed for Bob-omb!

Contents:

Background

So far I've reviewed the Mario Starter Course Set (TL:DR not keen), Whomp's Lava Trouble Expansion Set (more potential), and Fire Mario Power-Up Pack (total waste of time and money). My opinion on the Mario theme is flip-flopping harder than a politician during election season right now. When done right this theme is fun and engaging. When not it's a dull, uninspiring, crap-fest that costs a ton of money.

I don't know if it's my deep seeded nostalgia clinging onto hope for the theme but I'm still not ready to write it off. Today I have 71367-1 - Mario's House and Yoshi & 3 x 71361 - Character Packs. I'm looking forward to what Yoshi has to offer and I can barely contain my excitement over the character packs, the character builds have so far been the only consistent high-light of the theme.

Yoshi debuted in 1990 in my all time favorite Mario game, Super Mario World, for the SNES (Super Nintendo for NA readers). He was an instant hit (think Baby Yoda levels of fandom) and has continued to be a main character in the Mario franchise. What you may not know is that Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of iconic franchises like Mario and Zelda) had plans for a dino-companion for Mario as early as 1985. Due to the limitations in the early home gaming consoles the game designers for the first three Super Mario Bros. were unable to make it happen. But with the new, more powerful, SNES Shigeru Miyamoto's dream became a reality.

The Sets

71367-1 - Mario's House and Yoshi:- Fans can enhance their LEGO® Super Mario™ gameplay and enjoy lots of creative role-play fun with this Mario’s House & Yoshi Expansion Set (71367). This collectible toy playset features a buildable house with an opening door and roof with a Super Star Block underneath. A great gift for kids who have the Adventures with Mario Starter Course (71360), it also has a hammock to rock LEGO® Mario™ (figure not included) to sleep, plus Yoshi and Goomba toy figures to interact with and win coins.

71361 - Character Packs:- Fans can create unique LEGO® Mario™ levels with 10 collectible toy Character Packs (71361). Every pack contains a buildable character and action brick to play with in LEGO® Super Mario™ games – it could be a Paragoomba, Fuzzy, Spiny, Buzzy Beetle, Bullet Bill, Bob-omb, Eep Cheep, Blooper, Urchin or Peepa. Each is designed to be used with the Adventures with Mario Starter Course (71360), which includes the LEGO Mario character, for enhanced gameplay.

The Boxes

• 71367-1 - Mario's House and Yoshi measures 260mm x 190mm x 60mm. Inside are 3 bags numbered 1 to 3, one loose part (4282 Plate 2 x 16) and a booklet.
• 71361 - Character Pack measures 95mm x 145mm. Inside are all the loose parts. There is no further packaging inside. They do come with an instruction leaflet.

The Instructions

No instruction manuals are provided for set 71367-1 - Mario's House & Yoshi Expansion Set, but 71361- Character Packs do have instruction leaflets. You can find all instructions in the LEGO Mario App, or get the more traditional style instructions from the links on Rebrickable.

The pdf of the traditional manual can be downloaded in the following places:

• 71367-1 - Mario's House & Yoshi Expansion Set here.
• 71361-11 - Character Packs here.

Opening the Character Packs

I frantically opened the blind bags to reveal which characters I got and boy was I disappointed. Out of the three I ordered I first opened an Urchin. Not the most desirable one but I didn't really mind. Next I opened a Blooper, which I was actually very happy with. Then the last one was...another Urchin. Oh well, lets find out if there's anything good about owning two urchins!

The Parts

Set 71361-8 - Blooper: contains 20 parts and 2 spares, in 6 colors, and 10 part categories, with a total of 14 unique parts/color combinations.

Main colors are:

• White: 9 unique parts, 14 quantity.
• Yellow: 1 unique parts, 2 quantity.
• Bright Green: 1 unique parts, 1 quantity.

Main categories are:

• Plates Special: 2 unique parts, 3 quantity.
• Plants and Animals: 2 unique parts, 2 quantity.
• Plates: 2 unique parts, 2 quantity.

Set 71361-9 - Urchin: contains 27 parts and 4 spares, in 10 colors, and 10 part categories, with a total of 15 unique parts/color combinations.

Main colors are:

• Medium Lavender: 5 unique parts, 8 quantity.
• Blue: 2 unique parts, 2 quantity.
• Bright Light Orange: 2 unique parts, 4 quantity.

Main categories are:

• Plants & Animals: 2 unique parts, 4 quantity.
• Plates Round and Dishes: 2 unique parts, 2 quantity.
• Plates Special: 2 unique parts, 2 quantity.

Set 71367-1 - Mario's House & Yoshi Expansion Set: contains 205 parts and 10 spares, in 18 colors, and 20 part categories, with a total of 114 unique parts/color combinations.

Main colors are:

• Lime: 18 unique parts, 32 quantity.
• Reddish Brown: 17 unique parts, 29 quantity.
• Bright Light Orange: 13 unique parts, 27 quantity.

Main categories are:

• Plates: 17 unique parts, 30 quantity.
• Bricks Curved: 13 unique parts, 25 quantity.
• Plates Special: 11 unique parts, 16 quantity.

71361 - Character Packs Parts Breakdown

Because of the small number of interesting (or any!) parts in this set I'll summarise it first. 

Blooper

Just 1 new print and 1 new stickered part.

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Slope Curved 2 x 2 x 2/3 with Blooper Eyes Print

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Tile 2 x 2 with Groove with Blooper and Barcode Print (Sticker)

Urchin

Parts in New Colors:

22388
Slope 45° 1 x 1 x 2/3 Quadruple Convex - Bright Light Orange

15573
Plate Special 1 x 2 with 1 Stud with Groove and Inside Stud Holder (Jumper) - Medium Lavender

The Medium Lavendar Jumper Plate (15573) is interesting because this part has essentially been around since 1978 (admittedly in slightly different mold variants), I love it when we get these old parts in new colors and this is actually it's thrid new color this year! Medium Lavendar is a relatively new color when comparing it to LEGO's grander color palette, being introduced in 2012 (the Friends debut year).

New Prints and Stickered Parts:

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Tile 1 x 2 with Groove and Brown Eyes (Urchin) Print

3068bpr9963
Tile 2 x 2 with Groove with Urchin and Barcode Print (Sticker)

Rare Parts (appearing in 3 or less sets):

35442
Plate Special 2 x 2 Gear with 6 Teeth - Medium Azure

71367-1 - Mario's House and Yoshi Parts Breakdown

Parts in New Colors

14716
Brick 1 x 1 x 3 - Bright Light Orange

60583b
Brick Special 1 x 1 x 3 with 2 Clips Vertical [Hollow Stud, Open O Clips] - Bright Light Orange

99781
Bracket 1 x 2 - 1 x 2 - Lime

15571
Slope 45° 2 x 1 Triple with Inside Stud Holder - Lime

37352
Brick Curved 1 x 2 x 1 No Studs - Lime

New Prints

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Brick 2 x 2 with Star with Eyes Print

3068bpr0430
Tile 2 x 2 with Groove and Goomba Face with Open Mouth Print

3004pr0056
Brick 1 x 2 with Blue Eyes (Yoshi) Print

37352pr0003
Brick Curved 1 x 2 x 1 No Studs with Dark Green Lines (Yoshi Nostrils) Print

26603pr0041
Tile 2 x 3 with Red Arrow on Wooden Background Print

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Tile Round 2 x 4 with 'MARIO' Print

New Stickered Parts

As a reminder here's what I wrote about these new stickered parts in my MArio Start Set review:

The barcodes are too precise for LEGO's printing process to successfully do, and for the same reason they didn't want to let us consumers put them on ourselves. So LEGO decided to pre-apply the stickers for the barcodes.

3068bpr0036
Tile 2 x 2 with Groove with Star and Barcode Print (Sticker)

3068bpr9978
Tile 2 x 2 with Groove and Goomba and Barcode Print (Sticker) - This is the same part as the Goomba in 4 other sets.

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Tile 2 x 2 with Groove and Speech Bubble and Barcode Print (Sticker)

New Parts

67329
Brick Special 1 x 2 x 1 2/3 with Eight Studs on 3 Sides - Black

66792
Plate Round Corners 4 x 4 x 2/3 Circle with Reduced Knobs - Bright Green

67329
Plate Round Corners 6 x 6 x 2/3 Circle with Reduced Knobs - Bright Green

66790
Plate Round Corners 8 x 8 x 2/3 Circle with Reduced Knobs - Bright Green

66788
Arm, Long, with Technic Pin - Lime

66858
Feet, 2 x 2 x 2/3 with 4 Studs on Top - Orange

66858
Feet, 2 x 2 x 2/3 with 4 Studs on Top - Reddish Brown

68061
Hammock with Yellow Stripes

Rare Parts (appearing in 3 or less sets)

15254
Brick Arch 1 x 6 x 2 - Thin Top without Reinforced Underside [New Version] - Bright Light Orange

6541
Technic Brick 1 x 1 with Hole - Lime

The Build

71361 - Character Packs

These are nice little builds, it's what I've come to expect from building characters in the Mario theme. We even get a nice little display base which comes with more decorative elements than you get in the larger expansion sets. It's really quite impressive how well they've replicated the look of these characters with a small number of parts.

71367-1 - Mario's House and Yoshi

Bag 1: Starting on a high point. Yoshi is a fun build and looks great. I'm disappointed with how little his interaction with Mario is. The Barcode Tile triggers a generic "Hello" from Mario. Yoshi seems mostly for display purposes only.

Bag 2: Here we build the focal point of the set. Mario's house is not particularly interesting. At first I was annoyed by the gap in the roof but it turned out that's so you can bash open the roof and get the Star Block. I do like the cloud detail from the chimney.

Mario actually fits inside the house, it's very snug and it's clear the house was specifically designed to fit him. However, don't hold out hope that you'll get him through the door.

Bag 3: We end the set building a Goomba, a mailbox and sign for decoration, and the tree with hammock. For some reason the Goomba has different colored internal blocks to the one found in the Starter Course Set. The hammock has very little movement, I'm not really sure why it's so subtle, my kids found it annoying as they didn't even realise they were rocking it at all. Other issues with the build is the back of the tree. Again, I don't know why, but so little attention was given to the back. And my last issue is what exactly is the hammock and house for? In the 'game', other than the Star Block and Goomba, this set has nothing that gives you points and the hammock just makes Mario sleep which wastes time. I don't get it.

Conclusion

I am very happy with the character packs, I just wish I got a thrid different one (don't get me started on my hatred of blind bags!). The models look great and fit seemlessly into existing Marios sets you may have. And the fact that they're only $5 is so impressive to me. That's the same price as recent Collectible Minifigures which shows just how inflated they are.

Unfortunately I can't be as positive about set 71367-1 - Mario's House and Yoshi. Other than the character builds (looking at you Yoshi) this set is dull to build, adds nothing to the gameplay, and offers no additional challenges. I don't get the hammock, it just doesn't work as a concept during play. You can get Mario to sleep but why do you want to when you only have 60 seconds? If you tell me that it's supposed to add play outside of the theme's core concept than my complaint is why is it such a mediocre build then. This whole set barely qualifies as more than a 4+ set, so if it's not supposed to be for gameplay it also hugely fails at being a non-gameplay set. 

On to Yoshi. How could such an important character be so neglected like this? The barcode tile has nothing relating it to Yoshi meaning Yoshi is relegated to being nothing more than decoration. Yes he looks awesome, and yes he's the most interesting part of the build, but he deserves way better than this. Of all my criticisms of this theme so far, this is by far the most egregious error. Under no circumstances do I recommend you buy this set, it offers you nothing, if you really want Yoshi I recommend you keep an eye out for just his figure on Bricklink.

I have one more set to review for the Mario theme. One more chance for LEGO to convince me that this was the right path to take. Keep an eye out for my final conclusion on LEGO Mario in coming weeks.

Build on,

Jared

P.S. Sorry for scalping the Goombas!