The Australian Sand Sculpting Championships 2026 has today unveiled a 65-tonne Super Mario sand sculpture in Frankston, Victoria. The reveal comes ahead of this year’s sculpting showcase, which is themed ‘The Enchanted Realm.’
The sculpture is described as one of the centrepiece attractions of this year’s event and took over six days to produce. At 7.5 metres long and 3.5 metres high, the sculpture was reportedly crafted from 65 tonnes of sand. That’s roughly 10 male African elephants, or around 685,000 Super Mario 64 cartridges.
The sculpture was produced in collaboration with Universal, ahead of the release of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie arrives in cinemas on April 1, and introduces Brie Larson as Rosalina, Donald Glover as Yoshi, and Benny Safdie as Bowser Jr., alongside the returning Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, and Jack Black as Bowser. Star Fox hero Fox McCloud will also be making an appearance, as we discovered earlier today when Nintendo shared a new poster for the film featuring the character.
Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.
