dOvOb Marble Run Construction Building Blocks STEM Toys - Railway Set - Marble Games for 3~10 Years Old Boys & Girls Kids As Gifts

I feel it my amazon enthusiast duty to write this reveiw because the mindware marble tun 103 piece set has over 100 reveiws and none for this better value set.This set is 126 pieces, and only $5 more than the 103 piece set.I just bought this last week and it arrived in exactly 5 bussiness days w/ standard shipping. Shipping box was pretty beat up (easily blamed on holiday overload) but they packaged it very well w/ those air bags (not the fun bubble wrap but large bags) a few of the bags sacerficed themselves...leaving the marble run in perfect condition.This is literary the marble run and add on set... meaning....It came in 2 seperate boxes:1) large box the marble run 103 pieces set w 20 marbles.2) small box "add on set" 19 pieces w/ 2 extra marbles.If you go on the mindware website or here on amazon the "add on set" will cost roughly $10-$20, plus shipping.. so you should really just get this and spend the extra $5 now rather than pay double for it later AND be forced to wait for more cool pieces..And the add on comes with red "maze" piece (my favorite as a child)I bought this for my 5yr old niece's xmas gift. She hasnt recieved it yet but i had one as a child and it was one of my favorite toys. My brother and i would play with it together for hours, and even our older siblings would join in (i was 6 brother 9.. siblings 13-17) and wecall actually got along /played nicely with the marble run.The pieces arent as thick as my childhood one but they seem sturdy enough..REAL MARBLES - yes it uses regular old marbles not cruddy plastic ones so you can replace them easily and they wontcget stuck as much.The clear pieces are neat. Lots of gears.The thing about marble runs is... you always want more of the "special˝ pieces. So do your kids a favor and just get this set as the starter set :)Im probably going to play with the marble run more than my niece... im so excited!

 This is a children's educational building toy designed to create Rube-Goldberg-style mechanisms through which marbles will roll and fall into a collection area at the end. In terms of the educational aspect, it has the potential to teach aspects of physics and gravity as well as allow a child to express their creativity in design. Through continued use and increased understanding of the role of each piece, kids should be able to build more complex designs that follow through on actions they would like to see played out.The manual that comes with the toy helps get your child acquainted with how each part works by providing 4 sample constructions of varying difficulty levels. I liked how the more complex designs were essentially simpler designs that were put together to make a larger one. I think that makes it less overwhelming to start building and will allow for variation on the simpler designs at the start of using the toy. It's a good step-by-step process that will reduce frustration.The pieces themselves fit together securely and easily. Even pressure needs to be exerted on the top and bottom pieces for proper alignment to form a stable base, but even when the construction is imperfect, I found that my sample design had good stability and survived gentle nudges and didn't tip over (see video). Obviously, the taller the design, the more potentially unstable the design might be because the center of gravity becomes higher, but I found it to be fine using the included designs. If your child's design seems unstable, look at how evenly seated the pieces are. It will be uneven if the pieces are put together unevenly.The aesthetics of the toy are very good. They are bright and colorful and there is a mix of pieces that are for appearances, slowing down or adding kinetic appeal, creating momentum, and creating height or connections. Part of the educational aspect of this is that kids will learn how all of these elements come together to engineer fun and interesting structures. Little windmill pieces rotate, little slides carry down the marbles and towers built it all up. The plastic is thick and stable, though some of the larger pieces may crack if they are stepped on as they have longer, thinner areas (the ramps in particular) that could snap in two if enough pressure is put on the center.In terms of value, this is not a cheap toy (about $55 at the time of this review), but you get a lot for what you spend in terms of learning potential and sheer volume of pieces. Everything comes in a big plastic bin with a clamp so you can keep them all corralled, though the marbles don't come in a resealable box/pouch and I'd recommend putting them in a small zippered bag instead of allowing so many of them to roll around loose in the storage bin. Other than that extremely minor point, I could not identify any weaknesses with this product. It has color, flexibility, good quality pieces/assembly, the plastic has no odd odors, and many, many hours of play are possible.Note: I received a free sample of this product for my assessment.

I like the set. We had fun with it even re-configuring it into another shape was fun. I bought this set b/c of the carrying box (which is a great idea) and b/c it had a split... I find the splits are the funnest parts to use b/c you can race your marbles in different paths. This set has a cool dish-like spinning part (3 total) that made this set unique compared to other brands. Also the topper parts and the decorative joiners are a nice unique addition to this brand, they're just as strong as the other pieces. But harder to pull apart.Word of caution, it's a smaller set compared to the Marbleworks sets you can buy by discovery kids brand. I bought 3 different brands hoping to connect to this set for more variety and they are very different in size. The marble even looked like it would fit, but this marble is too big for other sets. The Marbulous / Edushape brand needs more options for track pieces. More splits, jumps, starting race part, a converging part etc. be a nice expansion set but they don't have them as of the time I'm writing this review.

The boy we gave this to enjoyed it.

Much smaller than all the other marblous products

Perfect

Kids love it

Very cheap plastic. Dissapointed in this purchase for sure!

Miniature! Make sure you read dimensions!

Poor advertising and bad description. Contrary to the answer provided regarding the use of normal marbles, this set does not use normal marbles

Much better than the last one we purchased.

Was expecting standard marble size. These marbles were pea sized. Should have read reviews otherwise I never would have purchased.

The kids like it. Unfortunately, it is not really stable so every time​ they try to move it, it falls apart.