Thomas Jenkins' MOCs with new parts in LEGO® Super Mario™ sets

The January 2025 wave of LEGO® Super Mario™ sets introduced 4 new moulds. Mamma Mia! As we are already way over halfway through the year we thought it was about time to take a look at them. So, without further ado: Let's-a-go!

a variety of lego elements arranged including wheels, banana with face print, koopa shells and a mario cap

Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
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72031 Mario Kart™ – Yoshi Bike

Release date: 1 January 2025
Pieces: 133
Price: US$19.99/ £17.99/ 19.99€/ AU$29.99

72032 Mario Kart™ – Standard Kart

Release date: 1 January 2025
Pieces: 174
Price: US$19.99/ £17.99/ 19.99€/ AU$29.99

72036 Mario Kart™ – Baby Peach & Grand Prix Set

Release date: 1 January 2025
Pieces: 823
Price: US$79.99/ £69.99/ 79.99€/ AU$129.99

72033 Mario Kart™ – Donkey Kong & DK Jumbo

Release date: 1 January 2025
Pieces: 387
Price: US$34.99/ £29.99/ 34.99€/ AU$59.99

Plant, Banana Peel, Long with Face print (5740)

This is the third new banana mould in as many years! 2023 gave us Banana Bunch (3566), followed by Banana Peel (5215) in 2024. This year it's a LEGO version of the iconic Mario Kart banana!

close up views of the banana element with print and the underside

Plant, Banana Peel, Long with Face print (5740)

The element is currently available in 4 of the 6 LEGO Mario Kart sets; 72036 Baby Peach & Grand Prix set, 72033 Donkey Kong & DK Jumbo, 72032 Standard Kart, and 72031 Yoshi Bike.

four different lego banana elements from left to right a single banana, a bunch of bananas, a peeled banana and the banana with face print

The new banana mould is generally similar to last year's banana peel element, albeit significantly longer (to provide a surface to print the face upon) and is made of solid ABS rather than the rubbery material of its predecessor.

three images showing the underside of the banana, a minifigure holding the banana and then the banana on the neck of a minifigure

A 3.18mm bar provides a stalk and hidden within the peels is a deep anti-stud. The anti-stud appears to extend deep into the element but stoppers prevent the things like a minifigure neck from being inserted too far into the element (so no banana-headed custom minifigures, unfortunately).

three different mocs partially shown that used the banana element, a lawnmower, a dragon and grass with a toadstool

I didn't make any MOCs using a banana as there is already a wealth of inspiration for banana-based building ideas to be found on New E. in our Mind That Banana contest gallery and guest contributor Nathan Don's Skærbæk after-party MOCs!

Wheel 24 x 20 (6278) & 30 x 20 (6115)

lots of lego wheels in different colours

The Mario Kart sets also introduced 2 new wheels.

one purple and yellow wheel and one black and yellow wheel

Wheel 24 x 20 (6278)
Wheel 30 x 20 (6115)

All 6 LEGO Mario Kart sets contain at least one of the two types of these 2 new elements. They are available in a variety of colour combinations.

The two wheels share the same central hub mould which is fitted with different tyres; thus the two sizes.

5 different lego wheels to compare 24mm in size and 30mm in size

24mm is a pretty standard size for LEGO wheels: there are many wheels and tyres with this diameter, most notably the wheels used in LEGO® Speed Champions sets.

However, when it came to comparing the larger 30mm wheels, I could only find one other 30mm wheel: Train Wheel RC, Spoked with Technic Axle Hole and Counterweight (85489). A slightly larger diameter of 30.4mm seems to be a more usual size for LEGO wheels.

the 24mm lego wheels in place with wheel arches.

Since the 24mm wheel is common in LEGO sets, the wheels compatible with a variety of mudguard elements eg. wheel arch 4 x 2 1/2 x 2 1/3 (18974) shown above in medium azure, or wheel arch 4 x 2 x 2 1/2 (3387) in red.

image shows that a 1x1 stud can be placed in the hub and a 2x2 round tile attached

Like the LEGO Speed Champions F1 wheels, the hubs on these new "Mario wheels" is offset. The Mario Kart sets use a 2 x 2 round plate and 2 x 2 tile to create a hubcap which ends up flush with the wall of the tyre. I'd describe the connection with the hub cap as an anti-antistud; the hub has a large hole which grabs the outside edge of the antistud.

image shows that the holes in the hub are larger than 3.18mm

Those smaller holes around the large central one seem to be purely decorative; they are just a little wider than a 3.18mm, so a bar fits in very loosely and doesn't connect.

three different conical elements fit into the larger than 3.18mm holes in the wheel hubs; carrot, unicorn horn and the animal tail

But if you really need to fill that hole, elements with a varying diameter (i.e. a cone) will fit – so horns (89522, 34078), carrots (20056), dinosaur tails (40379) all do the job. Nice to know, even if these probably aren't very useful connections!

lego mario cart with a lego trans blue element to give the impression of speed.

One thing that sets the new elements apart is that rather than using the tactile rubber-like material typically used in dual-moulded wheels, the new wheels have a hard plastic tyre which is a lot less grippy – very important for those race winning Drifts!

MOCs inspired by the new wheels

I find that the traditional LEGO rubber tyres aren't particularly useful to use in MOCs (unless used as tyres!) but these new elements might be a little easier to incorporate into models thanks to the material they are made from. Since they are a similar material to most other bricks, they can potentially blend in seamlessly compared to the rubber tyres which have a clear visual and textural difference.

a red, yellow and black lego train moc with the new mario wheel used as the smoke stack

I used the 24x20 wheel (6278) in the smokestack of this cutesy train. I think the bubbly shape of the wheel works well in this cartoonish build. The Casey Jr. engine from Dumbo provided the base idea, along with 43212 Disney Celebration Train which informed the colour scheme.

a sand green and black lego train moc with a smiling chubby cheek face print

This printed 3x3 round tile (6483012) really caught my eye – it's the part that originally inspired me to make the black locomotive but unfortunately the print didn't quite work; I was thinking along the lines of character inspired by Thomas the Tank Engine. I've achieved that here, but noticeably, it doesn't use any of the new wheels.

Projectile, Koopa Troopa Shell with Lever (5446)

This part is available in two colours:

image shows red and green shell elements with protruding lever

Projectile, Koopa Troopa Shell with Lever with Bright Green Top Pattern in White (6524448 | 5446)
Projectile, Koopa Troopa Shell with Lever with Red Top Pattern in White (6524449 | 5446)

At least one of each shell is included in all 6 LEGO Mario Kart sets.

two green shell shaped elements, a smaller one with a lever protruding and a larger on with 2x2 plate attachment at the top

At a glance, the elements appear to be smaller versions of the various Koopa Trooper shells that have been used throughout the LEGO Mario sets; the existing 4 x 4 footprint downsized to a mere 2 x 2.

three views of the smaller koopa troopa shell showing the underside with tube, the 2x2 footprint and the 45 degree angles on the sides

Unlike the larger shells, there are no studs to be found on these elements.

The underside functions like the bottom of a 2x2 brick but the white lip around the element protrudes out a further half-plate. Fortunately, neither the lip nor the tab interfere with the element's ability to attach to a baseplate.

three koopa troopa shell elements.one is in position in the shooter gun, one is partially inserted into the base of a hollow 1x2 brick and the final shows the level is too large to insert into a 1x1 brick base.

Something I overlooked when I raised my hand to take a look at these sets for New E. was the tab that protrudes from the element, a feature that makes the element quite difficult to incorporate into MOCs.

The tab is designed to interface with Launcher, Weapon Gun / Blaster / Shooter Square (69767). Up until this point, the stud shooter has only been used to shoot 1x1 round tiles or plates, so the mini Koopa shell is the first part to be created specifically to work with this element.

As you can see in the image above, the tab is too large to insert into the bottom of a 1x1 or 1x2 brick, so we'll have to think of other ways to disguise this portion of the element if we wish to use it in MOCs.

Animation of a Lego Koopa Shell projectile being fired.

For a rather bulky projectile, the shells shoot surprisingly well!

a koopa troopa shell on a plate with cheese slopes showing the 45 degree angle of the sides of the shell

I found that the angled sides on the shell match a cheese slope – perhaps not particularly useful, but I appreciate the element designers attention to detail (and respect for The LEGO® System!)

MOCs with the Koopa Trooper shell

Of the four new moulds to appear in the Mario Kart sets, the mini Koopa shells were the most interesting for me to explore. With that annoying tab jutting out the side, I expected these elements to be the most difficult to work with but they actually yielded the most MOCs!

Shell tank

My first thought with the element was, rather than hide the tab, use it to my advantage:

two little tank mocs, one is red and the other green. the smaller koopa shell forms the turret with the lever protrusion as the gun

Paired with the larger shell, and just a handful of extra parts, the tab became the gun barrel on a tiny tank.

B2, is that you?

The 2 shell sizes worked well together in a model, so I played with the idea a little further.

a red and white droid that uses the smaller koopa troopa shells as the feet and the larger koopa troopa shell as the head

The design of this droid is based heavily on the character B2EMO that appears in the Star Wars TV show Andor. The character has a very blocky octagonal design that reminded me of the Koopa shell elements. I used 45° slopes in the droid's body to match the 8-sided shape of the shell.

I initially tried to hide the tabs within the octagonal stack that makes up the body but with their awkward size and shape, nothing really looked quite right. Fortunately, it all worked out in the end: I left them visible and they blended rather nicely into droid's bodywork.

a break down of the red and white droid that is partially built to show its construction

There's nothing too complicated about this model: the breakdown above should be enough for you to reverse engineer your own.

Having the base come together with the 3 x 3 'X' plate (15397) in the centre and attaching the shells at 45° was a revelation – and quite satisfying! While attaching the shells to the base, I found that replacing the ingots for tiles knocked things out of System; they taper ever so slightly towards the base.

Big droid

I'll be honest, when it came to working with these elements I was initially pretty stumped. I turned to New E. parts wizard Tom Loftus for a bit of direction and his advice was 'anything looks good on a mech'.

a green, grey and white droid standing on two lower limbs with a barcode tile as the main face area

A mech it was then! Again, I stuck with the idea of using the large Koopa shells to complement the shape of my seed element. The barcode 'face' is a homage to one of Tom Loftus' brilliant New E. builds with Mario parts.

a close up view of the upper limb of the green and white droid showing the smaller koopa troppa shells in position as the bulk of the upper arm and forearm

With the tabs seemingly impossible to hide at this point (although I did try and fail yet again), I used them to suggest some mechanical details on this mech's arms. Using Plate Angled 2 x 2 with Step and Hole in Center (79846) as the base of the arm seemed like cheating but was ultimately the best solution to fit the awkward shells into the design.

Set 72031 on LEGO.com

Set 72033 on LEGO.com

Set 72035 on LEGO.com

Set 72036 on LEGO.com

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07 July 2025