"Here are the first Lego Donkey Kong sets" by Sean Hollister

jaydiaz2013

Apr 28

*Donkey Kong peeks out of his Lego tree house.* | Image: Lego

Donkey Kong has been around as long as Mario himself, but this August will be the first time he's officially appeared in Lego form — on August 1st, the Danish toymaker is adding four Lego Donkey Kong sets to the ever-widening Lego Super Mario lineup.

They aren't filled with ladders, hammers, and fireballs like the original arcade game, mind; these sets are straight out of Donkey Kong Country, with the gorilla's relatives along for the ride.

If you want Donkey Kong with the trademark red DK tie around his neck, that'll set you back $60 for a tree house that comes with grandpa Cranky Kong as well, plus a hammock and some conga drums for Donkey to play.

*Some of these parts appear to be from other sets; see what the set actually comes with in the image atop this story.*

The biggest set is the $110 Diddy Kong's Mine Cart Ride Expansion, which gives you both Donkey's cap-wearing nephew Diddy and the mechanic Funky Kong with his airplane shop, a Mole Miner enemy with a cache of hidden bananas, and six sections of treacherous-looking track for the cart ride.

For $27, Dixie Kong's Jungle Jam puts Diddy's girlfriend onstage with a pair of guitars and Squawks the Parrot on vocals:

And for $11, Rambi the Rhino is pretty much a standalone figure — though when you put a Lego Super Mario fig on his back, you can hear a sound effect when he walks or charges into other bricks, according to Lego. I loved crashing through levels with him in the games.