LEGO Mario Kart (72037) Review: Worth Every Golden Coin

Forbes

18-05-2025

When LEGO announced the Mario Kart – Mario & Standard Kart set (72037) on March 10 — 'MAR10 Day' — it seemed like the perfect investment for both gamers and brick fans. Now it's finally here, and if you had reservations about preordering it, you can put them to bed because this kit is sublime.
This Mario Kart-themed set is arguably the best of all the Super Mario series' builds so far, even the delightful 16-bit Mario & Yoshi (71438) kit. Thanks to some impressive ingenuity from Billund's creative team, it doesn't just look the part — it's also among the more satisfying LEGO releases to put together, and it only highlights the possibilities of the company's upcoming Pokémon partnership.
LEGO Mario Kart 72037 is a bit of a whopper, coming in at 1,972 pieces — a reasonable 8.6 cents/7.6p a brick — weighing 5.5lbs (2.5kg) and measuring 9in x 8in x 13in (22cm x 19cm x 32cm) when fully built.
I love LEGO's two-part packaging; it's a dream for collectors who prefer to keep the boxes, and it's so much easier to open them. After slicing the tape strips and lifting the lid on the LEGO Mario Kart 72037 set, you might be treated to a new change from the company for the first time.
Goodbye plastic, hello paper.
Matt Gardner
There are 17 packs in all — nine for the kart and its stand, and eight for Mario — and all of them come in waxy paper bags with serrated openings. Sure, it feels like a drop in the ocean to see a company, which trades almost exclusively in plastic, cutting down on using it in its packaging, but credit where it's due: these pouches are great, and are much easier to open cleanly (at least, after a couple of folds). If anything, their sturdiness compared to their plastic predecessors means you have to double-check to see if any smaller pieces are still lodged inside.
Best of all, there aren't any stickers. Any detailed pieces, of which there are only 12 — the eyes, hat/kart 'M' logos, glove knuckles, hubcaps, and outer exhaust trims — are printed, which should be the standard for any LEGO display kits.
LEGO Mario Kart 72037 is technical to begin with —a bit like building the cores of the LEGO Star Wars helmets. As early as pack two, it gets fiddly, assembling the engine section and the steering pinion. Still, the lack of weird core color blocks as indicators proves it's easier than most detailed, technical sets.
Once you've cleared the first four bags, you're on to finessing the kart. Now, I struggle with certain LEGO sets, specifically symmetrical builds, because the instructions can be immediately repetitive, making you run the same routine in reverse. That's not the case with this kart; it's nicely paced, focusing the build on one side for more extended periods — at least, to the point you don't feel cheated out of the chance to predict ahead and run two processes at once.
Once you've completed pack nine, you have your kart and stand, which is a thing of beauty on its own. The stand is simple and surprisingly functional as it only moves laterally, with an impressively uncomplicated Technic mechanism. It takes a few minutes to get 'that' combination of pitch and angle, but its small, round link column doesn't limit you to a handful of options.
Even without Mario, the kart and stand look great.
Matt Gardner
You might get your hopes up that Mario can stand alone, but he's built to sit. The hip joints focus on his look, meaning there's no articulation below his waist. It's a good decision, at least for this set. While I'm sure plenty of MOC makers will figure out a way to make him stand tall, he's been custom-made to fit this kart perfectly, right to the pedals. LEGO may've missed a trick to scale him to builds that would benefit from flexibility, but you wouldn't want to be locked into a $169 set just to get Mario for other releases.
Sadly, Mario doesn't stand on his own two feet.
Matt Gardner
In packs 10 through 12, you build his surprisingly small body and legs, looking like a more family-friendly Belvedere Torso, then place them into the kart. The arms follow, and their Technic axle connections are particularly fiddly, but they thankfully hold well in any position once they're in.
The most satisfying part of the build is at the very end, when you're creating Mario's head. It's one of those classic moments in a LEGO set when you can complete 90% of a bag and still have no idea why you've assembled what you have, only to slap on the last, larger pieces and create something incredible. The engineering of Mario's hat is marvelous, giving the brim a perfect pitch without sacrificing the aesthetic.
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LEGO Mario Kart 72037 isn't without the odd drawback. The exhausts aren't quite perfect, but it's a lot to ask from the curved pipe connectors. The front wheels are also a little off-kilter; their connections to the main kart body are quite lightweight, meaning they're never quite parallel with one another. The stand exacerbates this, as any pitched position other than level-straight sees them sagging in whatever direction gravity dictates.
Mario's head is close to being guilty of the same issue, but just about maintains the right amount of resistance — impressive, considering how heavy his bonce is. For better and worse, one thing that doesn't have resistance is the stand, which slots into the bottom of the kart. If you pick the piece up by the kart, you'll leave the base behind, and I prefer it — better than it hanging on for a few seconds before dropping to the floor and potentially getting damaged.
Even though no LEGO Super Mario set has had one before, part of me still wishes the 72037 set included a display plate and minifigure. It's the Star Wars LEGO fan in me, I guess, and it certainly doesn't need it to feel like a statement piece, especially with its stand.
What's more, LEGO just released the perfect partner set for this Mario Kart package: the Spiny Shell (40787), also known as the Blue Shell of Death, which is, by all accounts, scaled perfectly to 72037. Annoyingly, LEGO has locked this set behind Insider Rewards, and I only just spent my points on the Micro Command Center (40786) to match my Galaxy Explorer. Roll on the next 4X Points event, unless a decent deal pops up on eBay.
It's such a good set that there's a potential market for LEGO — and, if not, MOC creators — to design other karts for the portly plumber to sit in or on. The Pipe Frame, Mach 8, and B Dasher all seem like natural favorites; given Mario's inflexible legs, there's no chance we'll get a bike, or an ATV like the Wild Wiggler.
I've got a few statement LEGO pieces I particularly love — the Tallneck, UCS Y-Wing, and even The Beatles' Yellow Submarine — but few have turned as many heads as the LEGO Mario Kart. Here's to whatever's up LEGO's sleeve next, but another tie-in to capitalize on Mario Kart World would be a great move for both the company and my ever-more cramped shelves.