LEGO have had a lot of officially licensed themes over the years. Some have been marvellous, including the current tie-up with a multitude of vehicle manufacturers to recreate real-world vehicles (keep these coming LEGO!), whereas some… Micky Mouse? Pirates of the Caribbean? Scooby Doo? Even we’d forgotten about the last two.

The new Nintendo Mario theme is, we fear, going to drop straight into whatever the equivalent of a Bargain Bucket is for LEGO sets. Still, this most tenuous of upcoming partnerships hasn’t stopped TLCB regular SP_LINEUP from building his own Mario-themed model, creating this neat Mario Kart complete with a brick-built Italian plumber on board.

Neither has the absurdity of LEGO’s newly licensed theme stopped fellow Flickrist BenBuildsLego from creating his own Mario-themed MOC either, with his admittedly rather wonderful homage to some of Mario Kart 64’s most infamous tracks, including the perilously difficult ‘Rainbow Road’ which makes us nervous just looking at it.

Click the links in the text above to fire up your engine and to fire that red shell, whilst we await LEGO’s new theme with minimal excitement.