Set Review ➟ 71377 King Boo and the Haunted Yard
71377 King Boo and the Haunted Yard is one of the medium sized sets from the first wave of LEGO Super Mario series, with a piece count of 431 and a retail price of around 50€/$.
The front of the box shows a faded Mario play character and clearly indicates Mario is not included in the set. This is, after all, an expansion set to expand on the starter course—the only set that includes Mario himself.
The back of the box provides insight into the different play options this expansion set provides, again in conjunction with the start and finish elements from the Starter Set.
The complete set contains a gate with two Goombas, a spider web in front of the main tower and two smaller towers to either side. In front of the left tower, there is also a withered tree.
There are several interesting play elements in the set, but the central element is no doubt the central tower in the back of the cemetery. The tower contains a mechanism that connects the protruding axles on either side to a worm gear at the top of the roof. The red sliding axle at the back of the tower allows you to choose between a freely rotating setup and one where the blue gears provide some friction, making the exercise somewhat more challenging.
You then connect arms to either side of the yellow axles. These hold the Swoops—birdlike creatures you need to stomp on to scan the code and score points, while at the same time making the worm gear spin.
All of this serves to topple King Boo who sits atop the tower. King Bo is built as a large cube on a stick with white rack gears. King Boo’s face is a large 6x6 printed tile. On the bottom of the cube there is also a scannable code to collect the score for defeating King Boo.
There are two ways to accomplish this. You can jump on King Boo repeatedly (seven times) to collect the full score, or you can do it the clever way….
The back of the tower contains a surprise that only becomes accessible after overthrowing King Boo. The star block gives Mario star power to defeat King Boo in a single scan.
There are of course many more play features in the set. After scoring points from the Goomba’s on the gate, there is a large spider web with a mechanism. By jumping on the mechanism, Mario turns it over to reveal a barcode.
The tree in front of the left tower also hides a barcode underneath.
The right tower doesn’t have any special features and appears to be the perfect route to exit the Haunted Yard—that is, if you are not afraid of spiders.
Overall, the set is fairly simple—with the exception of the central tower—and has a great modular feel, meaning you can assemble it in different configurations to create different and changing levels for Mario to play through.
We wish to thank LEGO for providing this set for review. The opinions in this review are not supported or endorsed by LEGO.
33424
