One of the things that has surprised me the most about Amiibo now that we’re just about two years into the releases is that Nintendo has mostly refused to make figures of common enemies from their video games.  For a while now, your best bet to get figures of common enemies was limited to World of Nintendo but that is finally changing.  First, we got the underwhelming Bokoblin for Breath of the Wild and now we finally get some iconic Mario enemies!  How do Bowser’s minions translate to Amiibo form?  Let’s take a closer look and find out!

Box – Nintendo may still be recycling the same Super Mario packaging style for quite some time now but I still really enjoy it.  The simple, clean look works well with these Amiibo and it is always a challenge for me to open figures in such nice looking packaging but I suffer through it to bring you all the latest reviews! 🙂

Pose – One of the reasons I combined these two Amiibo into a single review is that they are incredibly similar in many respects including the pose.  Both of these characters are strolling around just like they do in Mario games.  The main difference is that Koopa Troopa has arms to help show his movement a bit more.  While this isn’t the kind of dynamic poses we grew used to seeing in the Super Smash Bros. Amiibo, at least the enemies are doing something typical from the video games they appear in.

Paint – The idea that the Amiibo are solid but unexciting continues with the paint and details.  Both Goomba and Koopa Troopa are designed to be simple enemies that Mario can conquer early and often in Mario games en route to Bowser.  That makes it hard to turn something that is simple and straightforward into a really detailed and interesting figure.  What Nintendo did do is ensure that the paint is executed well on these figures and there are no flaws on either of these figures.  They also made sure that the smallest details, in this case, the eyes look good.  This is especially true with Koopa Troopa whose eyes I would describe as soulful (as funny as that is to say!).

Closing Thoughts – This is one of the shortest reviews of two figures I have written because these figures are fairly straightforward.  Both Amiibo are completely solid with no major flaws but lack something to get you excited like many other releases this fall.  Perhaps the biggest problem is that there are many things with Amiibo that Nintendo does extremely well but few of those traits can be seen with these figures.  These figures are probably best for Mario fans with some money to spend because with so many video games and figures competing for your money during the holiday season, these two are fairly “vanilla” figures that are unlikely to stand out in your collection.