Mariobilia: The Plumber, the Projectile and the Puppy

We check out the English Photos With Mario cards, too.

Welcome, dear readers, to another Mariobilia segment!

It's been a while since the last update, but that means today's feature is full to bursting point with cool new Nintendo gear to show off!

First under the spotlight today is the anticipated new S.H. Figuarts Mario toy, advertised (perhaps slightly incorrectly) as the first official Super Mario action figure. The standard figure comes with a few scant accessories, but real collectors will want to invest in the additional play sets that released at the same time.

The whole thing starts with a box...

Mario himself looks spot on, and the effort put into articulation on his limbs whilst maintaining the chubby cartoon style of the character is impressive. His legs can bend and twist into any manner of standing, running, and jumping poses. The basic figure has his hands clenched into fists, giving his arms slightly less possibility for expressive poses, but nonetheless they can move around just fine.

The paint work and detail is superb.

Sadly, his head leaves something to be desired. While the casting and paint finish are lovely, the bulkiness of his face leaves very little room for movement and he can only turn his head to slight degrees in any direction. There's also the matter that most figures of this kind come with a few variations of facial expressions to choose between, but Mario only has his cheerful, somewhat oblivious, smile. There does not appear to be any way to remove the face from the head, so unless a future play set comes with an entire new head model to swap to, that's the only expression we'll get.

The transparent stems make them look like they're floating!

By himself, Mario comes with a Question Block, a Super Mushroom, and a Coin. There are currently two play sets that add additional accessories released so far. Play Set A includes a Goomba, another Question Block, two Brick Blocks, another Coin, a green grassy base platform, and a little interlocking panel that you can swap with a piece on Mario's back, allowing you to plug in a transparent bendable arm (so you can position Mario in mid-air jumping poses). There's also some connecting shaft pieces with pegs that slot into the bottom of any of the blocks released in the sets, so its possible to create mid-air platforms of bricks and blocks. The base piece has three peg holes with some plugs that can be swapped around to fill in any unused holes depending on the pose you want to put Mario and his surroundings in.

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Mariobilia: The Plumber, the Projectile and the Puppy