LEGO Super Mario Ditches SMART Play for Real Minifigures
Eight sets debut the theme's first true minifigures on January 1, led by the 850-piece, $99.99 Fire Mario & Bowser's Castle. The wave drops SMART Play's interactive bricks entirely, and Brick Fanatics flagged that the new Luigi figure isn't sized taller than Mario, as fans expected.
LEGO Super Mario built its identity on the SMART Play interactive brick, the whole reason it existed as a separate product category. Swapping that out for a straight minifig scale wave signals a bet that the Nintendo license alone, plus sub-$100 pricing, can carry the theme without any tech gimmick attached.