First appearing in 1981’s ‘Donkey Kong’, Mario the dumpy Italian plumber has had quite a life; rescuing princesses, collecting gold, featuring in over 200 video games, and in doing so becoming the single most successful video game franchise of all time.

His highpoint (in our opinion) came in 1992 on the SNES, when he took a break from rescuing princesses in castles to start his own racing series. ‘Mario Kart’ is very probably the greatest racing game ever made, pitting a variety of unlikely characters together in a gloriously whimsical race for glory.

This brilliant depiction of Mario’s finest hour comes from polywen of Flickr, who has created a marvellous cuboid ‘Brickheadz’ style Mario, his go-kart, and a green shell in Lego form. Click the link above to join the race for 150cc Cup!