Lego is planning to announce a $200 Nintendo set that recreates the 1981 Donkey Kong arcade machine.
As pictured on the Legoleak subreddit, the Donkey Kong arcade Lego set will come with 1,367 pieces and is reportedly planned for release in August.
The set recreates the look of the original Donkey Kong game, complete with ‘Jumpman’ (later renamed Mario) and Pauline. The set’s controls suggest it will have some sort of interactive functionality.
If it does arrive next month, the Lego set will coincide almost exactly with the 45th anniversary of Donkey Kong, which first started appearing in arcades in July, 1981.
Donkey Kong was the breakout video game for both Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo itself. The game pioneered platformer gameplay, before the term had been coined. It was the highest grossing game of 1981 in Japan, and in the US the following year.
The DK character is seeing a renaissance of late, starring in the Super Mario Bros. Movie (with his own film on the way), receiving a theme park world at Universal Studios locations, and seeing a major redesign leading to his first original game in more than a decade, Donkey Kong Bananza.
In recent months, Lego released a set based on the ‘Final Battle’ against Ganon in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, as well as the first of its Pokémon sets, including a $650 statue displaying Charizard, Blastoise and Venusaur.
