Interview of the Designers of the Super Mario 64 ?Block set.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity of interviewing the LEGO Designers of the LEGO Super Mario 64 ?Block set. I was there together with some more fan media and this are some of the most interesting questions we got answers to. Thank you all for your input and ideas a few weeks ago!

Enjoy!

• Why did you chose to use the ?Block instead of blocks from Super Mario 64?

The idea was to design a set that was a ?Block with a Super Mario world inside of it kind of like a surprise and not actually a representation of a Super Mario 64 block. The ?Block is way more iconic to the franchise. At one point when we decided to place Super Mario 64 inside of the block we did consider if we should change the block to the exclamation mark one, but the point of the ?Block is that it always contains a surprise inside so when you have it displayed at home no one will guess what’s inside, and also considering the amount of play features, hidden Easter eggs and more, the ?Block felt more fitting as a surprise concept.

• Where did the inspiration for the model came from?

We came up with different ideas for sets, and when we pitched them to Nintendo they picked a few for us to try making. Initially the concept of the ?Block wasn’t final, we only knew we wanted to do the ?Block with some sort of Super Mario world diorama inside. We also pitched the idea as “this year will be the 25th anniversary of Super Mario 64, so wouldn’t it be nice to actually have something Super Mario 64 inside of the block as a surprise?” to which Nintendo agreed and then later became the idea that we can see in the set.

• How was the relationship with Nintendo during development?

Nintendo loves LEGO and their own IP so they would always get really excited whenever we showed them the little details referencing the levels and details of the actual game.

• Why was Bowser and Bowser Arena not shown on the box?

When we where working on the ?Block the NES had just came out, and lots of people were enjoying the fact that there was the surprise mini Super Mario level inside the console, so Pablo was really pushing to have parts of the build also hidden from the box and marketing materials to give the same experience to fans.

• Have you considered alternative options to the Bowser Arena?

Yes, we looked at everything Super Mario 64 related, but ultimately there was only so much space to use.

• Designing the function involved a lot of trial and error to make sure everything fit nicely inside but what about robot testing? I know this is usually done with sets that have functions so, was the ?Block robot tested in any way, and how many times before it was good enough for production?

We actually did quite extensive robot testing to test the fold and unfolding of the game courses but there was a lot of attention to the function of the castle going up with the rubber bands. We actually used a climate chamber (which is different from the usual heat test chamber to test models sturdiness) to simulate different humidities and temperatures to figure out if the rubber bands would hold, which they did. Pablo and Darren tried all different kinds of links, beam and rubber bands to optimise the force of the function, and on top of that all of the hedges of the build needed to be rounded so that nothing would catch, no hard hedges where pieces or the functions might get stuck. Making everything fit nicely inside was also challenging and only when we ended up the design of the main function and took the walls away did we notice that there was actually space inside to fit extra details that ended up being the spaces for bowser and the bowser battle arena.

• Have you considered expansion packs or different arenas so that it would be possible to change or customise the ?Block with different game areas?

I’m not sure you know this Tiago, the LEGO system is actually a modular system! All the bricks that you put together you can actually take apart and then build whatever you want! (Actual answer I got :P)

• Why no Mario Minifigures and will we ever see them?

To answer the second part of the question, as you are very well aware Tiago, we do not discuss future releases whatever they may or may not be. (I tried guys!) From the very beginning the spirit has always been to create something new for Mario and LEGO. So that’s where the LEGO Super Mario came from, and this also allowed us to make tons of brick built characters in all kinds of different scales, from the regular brick built figures, to the micro-scale Mario with the moustache print on a 1×1 plate so in a way, not doing Super Mario minifigures allowed us to do a lot more that otherwise could not have been done

• Have you considered having more of the scannable interactive tiles in the set in the same way we have them in other Super Mario sets?

It was the same with the NES set where the experience only actually needed one tile, so in order to keep it as clean as possible and if you don’t have the Super Mario figure point of view after designing the play experience we felt only one tile was needed. The placement is kinda fun though as it is in Peach’s Castle, the place where the adventure starts for Mario in Super Mario 64 and, for your hunt for the power stars with the LEGO Super Mario figure.

• Will it be possible to play with LEGO Mario and LEGO Luigi at the same time, hunting for the power stars?

We thought about it but ultimately we could not figure out any play experience that would require two players, however both Luigi, and Mario will work for the hunt of the power stars when you scan the code in Peach’s Castle.

• This set together with the NES console from last year are highly specialised LEGO sets, way different from the LEGO Super Mario play sets. How did that come about?

The thought was, what would an adult product for Super Mario fans would look like, what would a fan on our age group would want in a LEGO Super Mario set. We then compiled some ideas and sent them to Nintendo while our partnership was already underway with the LEGO Super Mario play sets. Nintendo was very open about it and so we used these anniversary’s to make the sets. Last year with the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros and the NES, and this year with the anniversary of Super Mario 64.

• What are your favourite Easter eggs on the set?

Before placing the power star, you actually have to place 8 1×1 round plates in red, meant to represent the red coins of Super Mario 64 Mr I being the eye element of Mixels with a bit more colour on it was a good one The warp pipe making use of the telescope element was a perfect element choice for the job

• Was the set having 2064 pieces an intentional goal?

It wasn’t from the beginning but at one point in the design process the piece count was very close to the number, so after that we tried to keep it until the end. Although, the set only has 2063 pieces, as the 2064th piece is actually the brick separator element, which is not used in the main build.