Recently Nintendo announced that its newest Lego creation, known as 'The Mighty Bowser,' will carry a price tag of $270. With controls and buttons on his sides that let Bowser shoot fireballs from his mouth and move his head, neck, and limbs, this behemoth of a set contains 2,807 individual pieces. "For this model, we wanted to create the ultimate Bowser build, and that means we had to make it big," said Lego Super Mario Senior Designer Carl Merriam. "We took some inspiration from a few different forms of puppetry and added loose joints to the leg and tail, so when you pick him up it actually looks like he's jumping." At 32cm/12.5" tall and 41cm/16" wide, Lego Bowser is indeed a pretty big boy.
Merriam goes on to say most of the pieces used to make 'The Mighty Bowser' are not ones used to make characters, citing most of the pieces were originally made for cars, trucks, and other types of vehicles.
The Lego Super Mario Starter Course was released in August of 2020, contains 231 pieces, and comes with seven different action bricks that cause the Mario figure that comes with it to react to them. The Lego version of Mario has a color sensor and multiple LCD screens that display over 100 different reactions. It's basically a base interactive model of a game course as you can have Mario and other characters - which are sold separately - jump on Goombas and face -off against Bowser Jr.
In 2021 Lego released the Adventures with Luigi Starter Course - which is made up of 280 pieces - as well as an expansion that centers around Bowser's famous airship - which includes 1,152 pieces.
It's worth noting that the plastic and remote-controlled Bowser's price is only a fraction of the Lego Millenium Falcon set - which costs $800 and contains over 7500 pieces. According to the company's 2020 annual report, licensing and royalties are what drive up the costs of bigger sets, which mostly involve various pop culture and mainstream properties. In 2020 Lego spent close to $500 million on licensing and royalties alone. The initial reading of the 'Mighty Bowser' $270 price can make a person gasp, but when you look at the annual report and see the breakdown, it's pretty much par for the course with Nintendo.
Lego spends over $138 million researching and developing new sets each year, releasing close to 900 different types per year. The famous brick maker - and source of every parent's foot pain - is also spending millions to move away from single-use plastics and make their bricks out of recycled plastics and other sustainable objects like sugar cane instead - this includes single-use plastic packaging by 2025. Despite spending so much on research and development and licensing and royalties, Lego saw its revenue increase to $43.7 billion from its $38.5 billion in revenue in 2019. Bowser may be the most expensive Lego in the Nintendo section of the company's online store, but compared to other sets it's a pretty good deal.
A lot of its price is attributed to licensing and more but you're still getting a set that contains close to 3,000 pieces and is not something that just sits stationary on your shelf - although it can - after you're done. Lego nowadays isn't just viewed as a children's toys, but giant model kits. That is how the 'Mighty Bowser' set has to be viewed. Not just something that you buy for the child or children in your life, but something people who spent their youths and adult years playing Mario games. You're paying for the thousands of pieces, you're paying for the name, but you're also paying for something of a collector's item.
Retro gamers spend hundreds if not more collecting retro games and consoles as a hobby, and there are people who are willing to do the same with Lego. Is Nintendo's 'Mighty Bowser' Lego set worth spending $270 on? If you're a fan of the character and of the brand who is willing to pay then the answer is 'yes.' Lego sets are something that can be handed down to future generations, resold, or donated. Playing with Lego will always be an experience that helps us craft our imaginations through the process of construction, though that process doesn't come cheap.