LEGO Friends’ new mall has the perfect Mario Kart piece
LEGO Friends’ new 42604 Heartlake City Shopping Mall has a perfect piece for a Mario Kart build, or maybe it’s the first sign of something.
Official images of 42604 Heartlake City Shopping Mall have revealed one of many new bricks coming in 2024. The banana peel piece is featured next to a bin – hopefully, due to some unfortunate aiming from a mini-doll.
However, this perfectly posed banana peel element might remind you of a familiar item from an even more familiar Nintendo kart-racing game. While the LEGO Group’s foray into the world of Super Mario has only covered the main franchise, Donkey Kong and Luigi’s Mansion so far, it seems that the ideal foundation for a small part of Mario Kart is coming soon.
The peel element is a brand new piece for the LEGO Group, but it’s just the latest evolution of LEGO bananas in the past year. Its shape is nearly perfect for the Mario Kart item, but its overall shape is unfortunately a bit short. Thankfully, this is a LEGO brick and it has a built-in connection.
Add a printed yellow cone to the short bar connection at the top of the peel piece and you have the a close approximation of a LEGO Mario Kart banana peel. As demonstrated in the (attempted) example below, it’s not too far from the in-game item.
However, LEGO Super Mario is confirmed to continue as normal at the start of 2024 and there’s no sign of any Mario Kart theme or sub-theme at the time of writing. The most recent wider exploration of the Super Mario universe within the theme has been a range of Donkey Kong sets – where this banana peel piece will be similarly appropriate.
Ultimately, one new piece doesn’t make a theme and it’s unlikely and unconfirmed that this banana peel element means anything more than mini-dolls at the mall have bad aim. However, those looking to make a custom Mario Kart model at least have another excuse to get building in 2024.
42604 Heartlake City Shopping Mall is launching on January 1, 2024, for £104.99 / $119.99 / €119.99 and is one of many sets to be revealed at the annual China International Import Expo.
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- LEGO has been a part of my life ever since I was young. It all started when my brother passed down 7657 AT-ST to me. It’s guided me through my early years, through school and eventually through my degree in journalism. I still have all my collection proudly on display, including my many NINJAGO sets, my favourite of all the LEGO Group’s themes. Outside of Brick Fanatics I am an avid gamer and enjoy a good game of Dungeons & Dragons.
…I thought it was the escalator lol, my mind just went to Coconut Mall.