LEGO Super Mario: is the Donkey Kong Arcade (72051) any good? Our video review

The 1981 classic is now made of bricks. With the Donkey Kong Arcade (72051), LEGO continues its series of arcade machines after the pinball machine and the Pac-Man cabinet, and this time it takes on the game that started Mario's career. The cabinet has just been made official, and we presented it with all its specifications: 1,367 pieces, an 18+ set, on pre-order for release on 1 August 2026. We have looked at it in detail in our video review below, while we wait to get our hands on it.

Vidéo

The sign, in the style of an arcade marquee

This is the first thing you notice. The letters DONKEY KONG are built from red bricks and topped with the gold star, and the whole screen is framed with white bricks that imitate the light bulbs on 1980s arcade marquees. On each side, two illustrated medallions show Donkey Kong and Lady, the damsel in distress of the time, who would become Pauline many years later.

The screen: the game's first level, in bricks

The screen on this cabinet does not display anything, because it is all made of bricks. It reproduces the game's first level, with its sloping pink girders, its turquoise ladders, a pixel-art Donkey Kong at the top and Lady calling for help with HELP! written out in full. At the bottom is Jumpman, the character who would later be called Mario. At the time, he was not yet a plumber but a carpenter. The red hammer, the game's famous weapon, is also included. The scene is recognisable at first glance.

The mechanism, the real star of the set

This cabinet is not just for display: you can play with it. A lever releases the barrels one by one at the top of the screen, as if Donkey Kong were throwing them, and each one rolls down the girders level by level, just like in the game. The set contains 21 of them, and an internal system moves them round in a continuous loop. On the player's side, the joystick moves Jumpman and the large yellow button makes him jump: the classic scene of dodging a barrel at the right moment can be played again and again.

There is one limitation: Jumpman cannot move freely around the whole screen. He moves within his area, he jumps, and that is all. This is a mechanical toy, not a real game of Donkey Kong. When you turn the cabinet around, you can see all the ramps that send the barrels back round, and this part of the build is worth buying the set for on its own.

The cabinet, and the inevitable comparison with Pac-Man

The cabinet itself is desk-sized: 39 centimetres high, 27 wide and only 15 deep. The red control panel, the black joystick and the light blue base with white stripes reproduce the look of the original machine very well.

This is where the comparison divides opinion. The Pac-Man cabinet released in 2023 was a real arcade cabinet: fully enclosed, with decorated side panels and even a coin slot that lights up. The Donkey Kong cabinet takes a different approach: an open structure, with no side panels, and a mechanism that is fully visible when you turn it around. This is deliberate, and it is the cost of the mechanism, but the two approaches are quite different.

The other two LEGO arcade machines, so you can compare for yourself:

Our verdict

This set is made for people who grew up in arcades and for Nintendo fans: a piece of nostalgia that you can actually play with, and the barrel mechanism alone makes it worth a look. However, if you were expecting a complete, enclosed cabinet like Pac-Man, this one only goes halfway, and for a 1,367-piece set, you are clearly paying for the mechanism and the licence.

The cabinet is on pre-order from the official LEGO shop for release on 1 August 2026. Availability at partner shops will be shown on the product page above as soon as it is known, along with the price comparison.

All LEGO Super Mario sets