One thing I often see while hunting for World of Nintendo figures are boxes of plush near the plastic figures.  I often take a look to see what is there just out of curiosity but have yet to buy one.  When I saw my favorite Mario power-up represented in plush form, I couldn’t pass it up!  While I’m still new to reviewing plush, I am really happy to share my thoughts on this little guy.  So without further ado, let’s jump into the review!

Design – One of the things that I noticed immediately is how well-designed this plush is.  The face looks very close to Mario’s video game likeness outside of his pupils being slightly uneven. The Tanooki suit is also well represented in soft form!  The rest of the textures including the ears and the tail all help make this a cute and surprisingly accurate version of Mario.  One other thing that Jakks Pacific deserves credit for is how they hid a lot of the biggest seams in Mario.  This makes it less noticeable that he is plush than others I have seen.  In fact, this plush was so cute, I just couldn’t resist buying it even though I already have one World of Nintendo Tanooki Mario figure already!

Pose – If we’re evaluating this as a normal figure, you could say the pose is a bit unnatural for Mario and doesn’t really match any part of the video games, however, because it is a plush and not designed to have “action” or be realistic, we can give it a pass for that.  Mario looks cute and like he needs a hug which is absolutely a quality you would expect in plush.  My only criticism is that this plush is hard to keep sitting upright because he has curved legs and tail.  He could easily be propped up next to another plush but it is a potential downside if you’re just buying this plush and plan on displaying it alone.

Size Comparison – One thing that is really impressive about Tanooki Mario is the price for what you get.  I bought him at Target for $9 and he is nearly as big as the San-ei Kirby I reviewed recently!  Not only that, but Tanooki Mario is considerably larger than the standard 4″ inch World of Nintendo figure.  Overall, I think Tanooki Mario is an excellent value, especially considering how well made he is.

Closing Thoughts – I’m impressed by the quality of this plush and while I’ve seen some cute plush from World of Nintendo and passed on them, I’m really glad I didn’t on Tanooki Mario.  It is one of the few characters I love and to see Mario in such a cute form is totally worth it the price of admission!  If you own any World of Nintendo plush, what are your thoughts on them?  Let us know in the comments below!