For some strange reason, my oldest son has always seemed to like the villains of shows more than the main characters. The same thing was true in Mario Brothers – his favorite character was Bowser. I’m hoping this is a phase and he isn’t planning on being a super villain, but I will tell you it is harder to find Bowser toys than it is Mario toys!
So, it was a no-brainer that we had to get him the Super Mario Brothers Bowser’s Castle playset for his birthday.
This turned out to be a fantastic toy that my child has really enjoyed. There are some real highs and some not as great characteristics that this toy possesses, but that is what we are here to tell you about!
Here is our Bowser’s Castle Deluxe playset review – which should give you all the information you would ever want to see if this toy should be added to toy collection near you!
Table of Contents
The Important Mario Brothers Bowser’s Castle Playset Information
The Mario Brothers Bowser’s Castle Deluxe Playset comes with a 2.5-inch tall Bowser figure and a 2-level castle! The Bowser figure is actually really nice, it is made from a really strong plastic material and even has those nice sharp spikes on his shell that he is known for. The arms and legs can move, and it looks just like him. My son being a big Bowser fan, absolutely loved this figure.
The castle itself is about 12-inches tall from the bottom floor to the top of the dome. From wall to wall in the back-play area, the castle is about 15-inches wide. It isn’t a bad sized castle, but I was expecting it to be just a little bit bigger.
The castle has 2-levels, plus the top/outside of the castle. The first floor has a cool background, one of those spinning fireball things, and an elevator that goes up to the second floor. The second floor also has a nice background, and a trap door. When you hit the big yellow button, the floor drops, and Mario or Bowser will fall gently to the first floor. The dome at the top of the castle has a cage where you can lock a Mario figure into (I’m assuming it is for Princess Peach – but she doesn’t come with this playset).
The outside of the castle or the front part of the castle actually looks nice. It has black sticker windows you place onto it, big green turrets, a button on the top that you can hit that plays scary Bowser Castle noises, the turrets have a flat space on top you can place characters on, it has a big plastic Bowser head sticking out of the front, plenty of cool yellow spikes, and a big front door that Bowser can fit into. It is a nice representation of Bowser’s castle!
There is some assembly required. The instructions are pretty easy to follow and the pieces snap into place relatively easy. The only exception I had was one of the outside tower pieces did not want to snap into place and it took me about five minutes to square away because I was worried I would snap the plastic. My wife would blame this on user error, so i’m going to assume that everyone else probably isn’t going to struggle putting it together.
The stickers are more annoying to put on. There are like 11 black frame stickers, 11 black background stickers, and 11 actual window stickers that you have to carefully place in the right spots for the castle to look right. There are also little black square stickers and black line stickers that go around the castle turrets. This just takes time and is annoying – but it really isn’t very hard. Just annoying.
It does take 2 AAA batteries to operate the sounds. I thought it came with batteries, but Amazon tells me it doesn’t, so I am going to assume they are correct.
The build isn’t bad, the toy is very durable, it looks really nice, and if your kids are into Mario and are good at using their imagination to play; they are really going to like this toy.
One downside to this toy is it doesn’t come with a lot of other characters. There are numerous other playsets and figure sets that can be added to this toy to give it the full Mario Universe experience, but of course that is going to cost you a few extra bucks.
Especially if your child loves Bowser. We even had to buy our son a Bowser t-shirt.
The Parent’s Annoyance Scale
Of course, you probably also want to know how annoying this toy is going to be to you. And the answer to that question is – not very annoying.
The most annoying part is putting all the darn stickers on this thing and not screwing up. You don’t want to have that one window that just doesn’t look right. And there are like 50 stickers that must be put on this thing. It just takes some time, and that is a little annoying.
The sounds of the toy are actually not very annoying. The volume level is not very loud – which is the biggest reason we get annoyed with talking toys or toys that make sound.
I’m still a little bitter about having to place so many stickers on this thing – so I’m going to give it a 3 out of 10 on the annoyance scale.
The Danger Scale
I’m not going to lie, there really isn’t very much that makes this toy dangerous. I mean, the spikes aren’t actually sharp, and they aren’t in a position to be stepped on. The pieces don’t come off the castle, so you can’t choke on all the pieces. I guess your child could throw the entire castle at you – but if that is happening on a regular basis, we got other issues we need to take a look at. So, I guess i’m going to give this a 1 on the danger scale – there isn’t much to worry about here.
Final Grade & Links of Interest
This was an interesting toy to grade. It doesn’t do anything crazy special, but if your child really loves Mario, or in this case Bowser, they will probably really like this toy. Especially if they are really good at using their imagination during playtime.
In our household, I’m going to give this the highest-level grade – a Gold Star Rating. However, depending on your child’s love of Mario and Imagination playtime, this could be a Silver Star Rated toy.
Overall, this has been a great addition to my child’s toy collection, and I wouldn’t have any issue recommending it for other families!