I have a funny feeling this LEGO set is on the brink of being officially revealed, because this is the second time this retro set has been leaked. The first time was an image shared via X leakers, and now Target has messed up and had the box out in the open for customers to see.
The images were shared by Reddit user /taswellow, who found this box at Target sitting on a cart that was likely going to be stocked on the shelf. Though it never made it to the shelf as it has yet to be announced the customer did get a good look, and the back reveals more playability than I originally thought, making it look like quite a challenging yet rewarding set to build, one I am very much looking forward to.
The back shows that it will include 14 barrels that can be loaded into the arcade machine. Pulling the barrel lever on the controls will reveal a barrel that falls down the level, just like the original game.
The joystick will move Mario left to right, and the larger button on the right will make him jump. This seems incredibly well designed to make this playable in a way that almost matches the original arcade game. I am very intrigued by this as the internals must be incredibly intricate to pull something like this off, unless Mario can only move a few millimetres, which would make more sense.
It will feature 1,367 pieces, and according to rumours, it will cost around $199 for the entire set with an upcoming release date of August, which is a quick turnaround, but probably why large retailers already have them in stock.
I, for one, am looking forward to this, as I've mentioned in the past, the LEGO PAC-MAN set (which is soon being retired by the way) was one of my favourite LEGO sets of all time, due simply to the sheer challenge and scale of the internals. It was cumbersome to build, and often repetitive due to the tiny dot pieces, but once it was all done, it was incredibly rewarding, which is likely going to be the case with this one too. I gotta pick this one up once it makes its way to the UK.
I will mention that I don't think this is AI-generated. None of my spidey-senses is tingling with this one, and the front of the box matches up with the previous leak, but as usual, do take this kinda stuff with a pinch of salt.
