Oh god. Oh no. Oh, Christ.

That was my reaction when I saw Lego’s latest video game themed set: kit #71438, “Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi”. Nintendo and Lego have been hand-in-hand for years now. A collaboration that began with kid-friendly, app-enhanced Mario sets but has quickly expanded. We have grown-up nostalgia bait like the NES and ? Block, Animal Crossing sets, and after rejecting multiple fan pitches featuring the series, Lego Zelda arrives in a little over a month.

My point is, the concept of a set like this isn’t exactly new. This gorgeous brick-built representation of Mario riding atop his trusty dinosaur pal fits right into that ‘nostalgia bait’ category above, a set aimed squarely at people hurtling towards middle age with a longing for their childhood and enough disposable income that £115 for some plastic bricks seems ‘fair enough’. It’s aimed at me, basically. So none of this is exactly new. And yet…

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