The Lego Super Mario Course Building sets have certainly been interesting, haven't they? At the time of writing, I've gotten almost every set put out at general retail for the Lego theme (not counting the ones released on January 1st). Within a year and a half, there have been almost 100 Lego Super Mario sets (when counting the character polybags as individual sets), the bulk of them have been for the course builder, and the majority of them have not been good sets on their own. That's not a bad thing, of course, as the sets are intended more for play, with the more sets purchased, the more variety you can make in your courses. That is the point of the gimmick, after all. However, what if a set didn't have to rely on the gimmick? Is that even possible?
Surprisingly, yes. Even though it's built around the play functions for the course builder sets, Bowser's Airship, the flagship (pun not intended) Lego Mario set of 2021, does find a happy compromise between the Course Builder requirements and an engaging, compelling set on its own. While you will still need either the Mario or Luigi starter packs to unlock the instructions, you could ignore all the other sets in the theme afterwards as you don't need them for this set (unless you want to include it in the course builder). The design of the build itself is really well done, capturing the look of the iconic vessel perfectly, to the point where this could potentially work as a minifig scaled Airship (if they ever do cave into the vocal minority's demands and make Mario Minifigs). I love the intricate details around the back of the ship, how the two Bowser heads were built, and how seamlessly the gimmicks intergrade into the set without any significant compromises is all absolutely brilliant. It gives the Airship a unique presence, something that I felt was missing from the 2020 flagship set, Bowser's Castle.
There's very little to hate when bringing in the Course Builder elements if you're a Mario fan. A new starting point is given to you in the form of a black cannon which seems to be inspired by the cannons from the New Super Mario Bros games. When inserted in the cannon, you can hear an aiming sound effect play as you hinge the cannon up and down to aim it. Taking Mario or Luigi out of the cannon to start the level will have the first play a cannon blast sound effect and unique voice clip depending on the brother ("Here We Go!" for Mario and "Wahoo! for Luigi), like how they would be launched in the NSMB games. Once those finish, for the remaining 88 seconds (the cannon gives you 90 seconds on the clock), you hear the Airship theme from coming out of the Mario Brothers speakers. It's hard to tell what version of the theme due to the mixed quality of the file used; however, it is unmistakably the Airship theme. Using a hidden action tile on the ship, Mario or Luigi will play the World 5 theme from Super Mario Bros 3 when piloting the Airship (a "steering wheel" will also be exposed when either brother is put inside to complete the look). While random, it's hard not to smile at it as it's a lovely feature that doesn't compromise the build in any way.
Further Action Tiles include one for a Goomba wearing a Pirate Hat, one for a new to this set, Rocky Wrench that uses the hole to pilot the Airship to hide in and poke out of thanks to the inclusion of a POW Block (another action tile object). Finally, in terms of minions, you have Kamek and his broom, both of which the brothers can interact with, either by getting coins from a defeated Kamek or by riding his broom to collect more coins. While some Mario characters translate better to Lego than others, given the aesthetic they go for, I still love all of these guys, with Kamek probably being my favourite in the set.
Alongside being a gorgeous display piece, the Airship itself can act as a three-phase boss fight in the Course Builder system. Two hidden tiles, one under one of the propellers and one on the Bowser head at the ship's back, act as the Airship's main health points. However, by opening the ship up, you can expose a mechanism to "fight" the robotic Bowser hand you see in games like New Super Mario Bros U (sadly, you'll need to build your own overly long arm for it). However, the mechanism is quite clunky when using the arm's mechanism for exposing the Action tile when it is still attached to the Airship. Realizing this, the designers included a way to take the two propeller mast towers and give you enough parts to create a mini level using them without needing to fumble around with the Airship in the time limit. It's a great compromise to help keep the set looking as good as it does when compressed up and as the Airship.
Unfortunately, this kind of style probably won't be carried over into future sets. With a lot of iconic areas of Super Mario revolving around locations and geographical/ architectural design, it'll be harder to bring those elements into the course builder style in a way that can keep them looking good on their own. That being said, this does give hope for designs like The Odyssey and Starship Mario (as tempting as it is to say the Comet Observatory, that would probably be on a similar scale to the Mario 64 Question Mark Block's world builds). This set isn't just some bits of the ground around a contraption; this looks like Bowser's Airship. Anyone who sees this will know that this is Bowser's Airship, and the playability that it comes with makes the build even better. Without a doubt, this is one of, if not the best, course Builder set in the Lego Mario theme, and one I recommend getting to anyone who's a fan of Mario.
As a final note, it should be said that this review was a collaboration project with Toy Reel, a YouTube channel and Facebook page dedicated to toy collecting in all it's forms, focusing on the Australian toy collecting scene. You can find their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/ToyReel/ please check them out, they're a great group of people with a passion for toys. Until next time, "Bye Bye".
