Lego celebrate Mario Day with an amazing new Mario Kart set

As far as Nintendo is concerned it’s a quiet Mario Day this year but Lego has a new set out that may even give a hint as to Mario Kart 9’s release date.

Like every big franchise worth it’s salt there is a Mario Day, just as there is a Pokémon Day, Star Wars Day, Alien Day, Mass Effect Day and no doubt many others we are blissfully unaware of.

Today is Mario Day because it’s MAR 10, which started off as more of a grassroots celebration before Nintendo made it official. They don’t usually do much on the day though, and normally just leave it for other companies to announce new merch.

This year’s festivities are particularly muted, no doubt because of the imminent release of the Nintendo Switch 2 – with no more information expected until April 2. Nevertheless, Mario Day has provided one new Mario-related product to look forward to, in the form of this incredible new Lego Mario Kart set.

Lego has been making Super Mario themed sets for almost five years now, but the majority are aimed primarily at kids, encouraging them to build their own Mario courses and interacting with them via a range of Bluetooth-imbued minifigures.

They’re very good but as well as those Lego has also produced more complex sets aimed at adult fans, including a brick-built NES console, an animated Super Mario World homage, a Piranha Plant (one of the cheaper sets), and a giant articulated Bowser.

There’s usually two or three of these released every year and this new one is… well, you can see exactly what it is, because it’s a remarkably clever recreation of Mario sitting in his rather mundanely named standard kart.

Unliked the Bluetooth minifigure Mario Kart sets aimed at kids, this one is made up of 1,972 pieces and stands 22cm tall. The Mario figure has a poseable head and arms and sits atop a brick-built stand.

Everyone knows Lego isn’t cheap but the £139.99 price tag on this one seems slightly less than you might expect, given how good it looks.

The set is already available for pre-order but won’t be released until May 15. Lego is often announced months before it comes out, especially with big adult-orientated sets like this, but it seems perfectly reasonable to wonder how close that’s going to be to the Nintendo Switch 2 launch.

A new Mario Kart is the only game so far announced for the new console and rumours suggest it will be released somewhere around June – but no source has suggested a specific date yet, so it could easily be May or July too.

It’s certainly hard to put the set’s theme down to a coincidence, which suggests that Lego probably has a good idea of Nintendo’s plans – so it’ll be interesting to see if they have another topical set for adults later in the year.

They’ve already hinted at a brick-built Game Boy, so if there are more sets they won’t necessarily be Mario-related. Especially as Lego has already produced family friendly Animal Crossing sets and a Legend Of Zelda model aimed at adults.

For now, there’s very little else of interest going on during Mario Day. Lego has a general promotion for all their sets, which gives you double Insider Points if you buy them before the end of tomorrow, and Nintendo itself also has a minor sale on at the moment.

The time-limited sale focuses on Mario related games, with the excellent Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Luigi’s Mansion 3, amongst others, down to £33.29.

There’s also a new Super Mario Bros. alarm theme for the Alarmo clock (which you no longer need to be a Nintendo Switch Online member to buy) and a musical Mario montage on Nintendo Music (which does need a subscription).

Given the proximity of the April Nintendo Direct it was probably wrong to expect anything more, but hopefully that will be worth the wait.

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