Hands On: Nintendo's My Mario Toy Series Is Cute, But Offers Mixed Value For Your Little Ones

I don’t think anyone was that surprised when Nintendo recently brought its My Mario line of children’s toys to Western markets. Mario’s huge in most corners of the world, and if the big N wants to instil brand awareness and loyalty at a young age, this is the way to do it.

Nintendo UK kindly sent over a selection of the range for us to take a look at, but the one that we’re sure most of you are fired up for is the big set of wooden blocks. This set of 30 wooden effigies of Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, and various Mushroom Kingdom-related paraphernalia will cost you a princely sum of £113.99 in the UK, Frankly? It’s not worth it.

That’s not to say the blocks are cheap or rubbish in any way, far from it. Every block is really quite beautifully made, with a pleasant and reassuringly woody scent to them, and (probably more importantly) well-smoothed and refined edges, so there’s little to no risk of cuts or splinters. They’re honestly lovely to hold in the hand, as well, and just feel like a quality product.

What they don’t feel like is four quid’s worth per piece.

If this were some short-run, hand-made toy set you found in a quaint little shop in an alleyway in a Cotswold town, we’d understand the price entirely. If anything, we’d think it was a bit of a bargain.

But it isn’t, it’s a mass-produced box of blocks designed for children to slap together and make delightful little dioramas with, which they can do with the aid of the box it comes in acting as a platform or a little display (which is an undeniably nice touch).

I personally wonder if the price has anything to do with the fact that the information on the box suggests that they’ve been imported from Japan, and possibly even manufactured there.

As mentioned above, the blocks are quality — I don’t think many people would deny that — and if they are indeed manufactured in and imported from Japan, that goes a long way to explain the price tag. And as many a parent/guardian out there can attest, the cost of beautiful wooden toys from your local boutique baby store knows no bounds. Sure, you can pick up cheap blocks in Lidl for a fraction of the price, but the pricing here isn't as obscene as non-parents might think, given the quality.

All that said, at the end of the day, it’s a box of wooden blocks with Mario characters (beautifully) printed on them, and that’s hard to justify for the price.

You can buy a smaller set that comes with Mario, a Power Mushroom, and a Question Block, but at £20.99, the value is even poorer. Very young children may be satisfied with just three, but what’s a slightly older child going to do with so few blocks unless they already have something else off-brand to supplement them? Still, as a taster that goes into the toybox with everything else, the cheaper set is ultimately more attractive.

The character blocks do work as amiibo as well, but honestly, I’m not sure that adds much in the way of tangible value - certainly not to a baby or toddler. That value-add is meant for the folks, folks.

The other items in the range mostly boil down to soft rattles, a Mario plush, and a comforter, which are far better value for money. This is probably down to being manufactured by a German company (Simba) for the most part, but they do also feel much more ‘standard’ when compared to the wooden block set directly.

Still, if I had to buy something Mario-related for a young child, I’d definitely be reaching for the cheaper products rather than splurging over 100 smackers on the sort of thing that I’d probably want to keep displayed in my office, where little hands and teeth couldn’t ruin them.

Thanks to Nintendo and MSL for sending these over. The My Mario line is available from various retailers, with the Wood Blocks sets exclusive to My Nintendo Store in the UK and Nintendo's own retail stores in San Francisco and New York at the time of writing.

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