LEGO's Donkey Kong Arcade Cabinet Leaked, Joystick and All

Forty-five years after the original Donkey Kong cabinet ate its first quarter, LEGO and Nintendo are apparently turning it into a 1,367-piece display set. Leaked images surfaced on the Legoleak subreddit showing box art and product shots of a miniature arcade cabinet that recreates the iconic 1981 game in brick form, right down to the crooked girders, ladders, and a gorilla mid-barrel-throw.

The set reportedly carries a $200 price tag and targets an August 2026 release. Nintendo and LEGO originally teased a Donkey Kong collaboration back in May through the Nintendo Today app, but offered nothing beyond a logo animation. Now the full picture has leaked, as tends to happen with LEGO products a few weeks before official reveals.

What makes this one interesting is the level of mechanical detail. According to the leaked box art, as reported by Nintendo Everything, the set features a movable joystick that appears to control Mario's position on the screen, plus a separate lever mechanism for DK's barrels. There's speculation that the screen itself might use a hand-cranked moving display similar to the LEGO NES set from a few years back, though nothing confirms that yet. If it does, this stops being a static display piece and becomes something you actually interact with, which at $200 would make it a far more compelling buy.

A Cabinet Full of Details

The brick-built screen depicts the famous 25m stage from the original game. Mario stands ready to dodge an incoming barrel, hammers are scattered across the girders, fireballs roam the platforms, and Pauline waits at the top. The box art shows DK, Mario, and Pauline surrounding the border in classic arcade poster style, with an 18+ age recommendation confirming this is aimed squarely at adult collectors rather than kids building a playset.

At $200, this sits in a sweet spot for LEGO's gaming line. It's $100 cheaper than both the Great Deku Tree Zelda set and the recently revealed Iconic Trainer Moments Poké Ball set, which are currently the most expensive video game LEGO products available. For a display piece with working mechanical features and this much nostalgic pull, that price feels reasonable. I'd argue the original Donkey Kong cabinet is a more universally recognizable piece of gaming history than either of those sets, so the lower entry point should help it move.

This leak lands during a genuine Donkey Kong renaissance. The character had a prominent role in 2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie, starred in Donkey Kong Bananza on Nintendo Switch 2, and rumors persist about a standalone DK film from Nintendo and Illumination. LEGO has been steadily expanding its Nintendo partnership beyond Mario into Zelda, Animal Crossing, and now Pokémon, but Donkey Kong has been limited to smaller sets within the Super Mario line featuring DK, Diddy Kong, and Dixie Kong. A premium collector set built around the original arcade game is a different tier entirely.

I love that LEGO keeps picking specific, iconic objects from gaming history rather than generic character sets. The NES console, the Deku Tree, and now an arcade cabinet; these are things that mean something to people who grew up with these games. A formal announcement from Nintendo and LEGO should follow soon, and if the August window holds, collectors won't be waiting long to clear shelf space.