Set Review ➟ 71368 Toad’s Treasure Hunt
Today we are having a look at the second largest (and second most expensive) LEGO Super Mario expansion set. We’ll see what the set contains, how it adds to the possibilities of creating multiple Mario levels and whether the set provides value for money.
Content
The 71368 Toad’s Treasure Hunt expansion set contains 464 elements and takes you on a trip through mushroom land, where Mario can interact with friends like Toad and Toadette and score points defeating a Goomba or scanning the code on Cheep Cheep the flying fish. Instructions for the set are provided through the app.
There are are several mechanical elements, each with their own scannable codes, as well as 3 treasure boxes hidden throughout the set. All of these are clearly indicated on the back of the box:
As with all the expansion sets, you need the Mario Starter Course to be able to use them with your LEGO Super Mario.
Let’s have a closer look at these different elements. First up is Toad, who lives in the largest of the mushroom houses. These are nicely represented, each one with a different colour for the cap. Toad’s is red and nicely detailed on the front. The back is not particularly interesting, but we won’t be needing that for ur game so that’s fine.
Toadette lives in the smallest mushroom, with the medium lavender cap.
Since neither of them need to be "defeated", they don’t have a scannable code on any part of their body. Rather, there is a tile you can place next to them, so Mario can come and say hello.
The third mushroom house is yellow and has a little mechanism for Mario to stomp on and bring out the surprise box.
This is surprise box number 1 (if you follow the building instructions). Surprise box number two is hidden inside a safe (or is it a Xerox machine :D )
To get to surprise box number three Mario will need to climb a tree and defeat a Goomba. After that there is a lever that will reveal the box. Scanning the boxes in the right order allows you to score more points. The third box can be placed in such a way that you cannot see the number and boxes 1 and 2 are also well hidden. This opens up new play options: you can shuffle the boxes and place them blind (or ask someone to do it for you) and then try to scan them in the right order in your run.
So far we have seen two mechanism, but the set has a couple more. There are two orange platforms to get Mario across water. One of them is a rotating platform, similar to the one you will find in the Starter Course. There are several rotating platforms in the different expansion packs, but each one is slightly different. In this case there is stack of two round bricks (one with dome top) that serves as a handle to help you rotate the platform. It is located right next to the rotation point so you’ll have to be careful to operate it very smoothly or Mario will fall off.
The second mechanism slides Mario across the water. Changing direction on any of these orange platforms will allow you to score more points, as long as Mario doesn’t fall off!
That brings us to the third bridge-like element in this set (Mario sure has to cross his fair share of water in this set). The bridge with Cheep Cheep the flying fish.
There are two Cheep Cheeps and they turn freely around the central part of the bridge. The trick is to scan the code and push just hard enough to make the mechanism turn 180 degrees so you can scan again to score more points.
Time to put it all together:
Maybe you prefer a "map" view?
Of course this is only one of the many ways these elements can be put together and your imagination is the limit. If you don’t feel very imaginative, you can always consult the accompanying app for ideas of how to put the elements together in different ways to create appealing levels.
Value for money
The 71368 Toad’s Treasure Hunt expansion set costs about the same as three small expansion sets, but on the whole, the number of characters, mechanisms and scannable labels is also in proportion. The set adds quite a bit of real estate to your levels and is a great pack if you love Toad and Toadette. If you prefer to have a mix of very different challenges you may decide to go for a combination of smaller packs instead.
We wish to thank LEGO for providing this set for review. The opinions in this review are not supported or endorsed by LEGO.
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