National Geographic Magnetic Marble Run - 150-Piece STEM Building Set for Kids & Adults with Magnetic Track & Trick Pieces & Marbles for Building A Marble Maze, STEM Project (Amazon Exclusive)

We LOVE these! My grandkids, two are 7 and one is 5. They think up ways to use these that I don't! They aren't real easy to set up (I use my fridge) and if you move them a smidgen, it throws the whole thing off, but great for the kids thought process.

Of all the gifts my 7 year old grandson received for Christmas, this was the biggest hit! There is just so much fun and opportunity for creativity with this marble run building set! The design options are literally infinite and the process is both fun and it does take some time to get the design to function like you want.As you can see from the attached picture, we put up two metal white boards on the wall behind a door to one of our guest rooms. The paper template you see at the top was just to help him model his first design to get a feel for things. So it's cool that he can begin to work on a design and even if he isn't able to complete it, it's perfectly in place for when he comes back the next time. And it's out of sight and out of mind until he returns! I ended up purchasing two of these, one for his use at his home and one for use and my home. I guess we'll see, but I expect this will be a "game" he'll not lose interest in for several years! I highly recommend!

Such a cool idea! The only problem I've found is after a few ball drops the magnets shift just a tiny bit and sometimes need to be readjusted.

I spent 5 hours playing with this right after it arrived — it’s truly a genius product and incredibly fun. I couldn’t stop building and experimenting the entire first day.I’m giving it 4 stars instead of 5 due to a few design flaws:1.The marble lift only feeds from the left side, which limits flexibility in how you can build your layout.2.The magnets aren’t strong enough — parts tend to shift slightly each time a marble drops, eventually causing your carefully tuned setup to broke.3.The motorized lift runs on a 9V battery, which is less common and more expensive than AA or AAA batteries.That said, this is still a super fun and creative kit. Just be prepared for a little tinkering and adjusting as you go.

Not for very young kids. Takes patience and manual dexterity.

I loved the idea of this, and bought one for my grandkids for Christmas. This is what they wanted to play with after opening everything this morning do we started putting it together and I have been messing with it for about 5 hours now trying various configurations.The magnets stick fairly well on a stainless steel freezer or refrigerator. On an enameled one not so well. We have one of each in a big room off my kitchen and I set it up on both. On the enameled fridge the impact of the marbles dropping from one piece to another was very often enough to slide the magnet just a tiny bit, even with a very small drop. Over time the pieces become misaligned and the marbles stop rolling or just fall off entirely. By a "small drop" I mean there is barely enough room for the marble to clear other pieces that may be above it. In the case of the catapult the marble will dislodge the next piece it lands on no matter what kind of metal the magnet is attached to. I have a big pack of magnets for other hobby projects and found myself using magnets from that set to place under the mounting magnets from this set to prevent them from sliding. See attached picture.Many of the pieces fit poorly to the magnetic mounts. The straight and curved rail pieces tend to pop off the mounts. I ended up using super glue on several pieces that will be frequently used to prevent them from popping apart when using bigger drops or just sliding them around on the fridge for a new layout.The flexible run pieces are fairly stiff, which is good, but it means that over time force is transferred through that flex to the mounts which either pops the flex piece off the mount or moves the magnet. Anything more than a small curve is impossible.The diverter which makes the marble alternate paths is practically useless. Its designed to mount to a rail piece, instead of a magnetic mount. This places it in between two magnetic mounts, and when the marble hits it the straight rail piece is deflected enough that one side of the diverter will not flow. One side is always uphill from it. Placing the diverter on a flex piece is even worse.The counterweighted lever has 3 possible mounting holes to attach it to the magnetic mount. Theoretically you use the different holes to control how fast the lever moves. The center hole works fine as the moving marble and the counterweight marble are nearly balanced. When the moving marble hits there is more than enough of a balance difference to move the lever and when the moving marble leaves the lever it rotates back into place just fine. The two outer holes do not work well. One makes the lever move way too fast so the marble hits the next piece hard enough to bounce (sometimes off the track) and the other wont rotate the device at all.Numerous other things could be done in a better way. First all the pieces should be designed to fit a single style of magnetic mount. There are two styles in this kit, one for rail pieces and one for pieces that rotate. Realistically they should all be the style of the rotating mount and just have holes in the brackets that fit the post. That would eliminate the problem with how the rail pieces mount.The straight rail pieces should be the same length as the screw drive pieces. If you use all the lift pieces it works out. But if you want a shorter lift then are forced to exit the lift to the right, or try to overlap the guide pieces so you can get the exit you want on the left side but that sometimes causes a dead spot in the lift where the marbles can get stuck because the guide is a bit too far from the screw, especially when the mounts move a bit.If you buy this, get a pack of magnets and some superglue as well.

We must have had this on our fridge for months. It was a fun way to be creative and problem solve as a family while cooking dinner. We are a family that tends to congregate in the kitchen haha.

Fantastic idea, but needs to go back to drawing board for some strengthening tips so you get your $$ worth.Very very fun activity. I have it on the side of the fridge and every child that comes in has to inspect and play with it.I've created a number of configurations with all 6 of my grand children now. Each one having a blast. The poor reviews pretty much nailed all the issues I also had with the set.. but it's certainly worth more than a 1 rating. I wouldn't go above a 3 due to the expense of it vs the quality.Value? well it's not really for little fingers and frankly the pieces break, twist, or come apart very easy. They don't really snap in as nicely as you would hope so that adds to the difficulty of getting a working structure. Plus the magnet wasn't really strong enough to keep the pieces in place after 1 or 2 marble runs.Our set was missing pieces, one piece missing was vital to the battery operated Shute. We worked around that missing piece. but that was a bummer.I would have to say we got a ton of fun but 70 dollars is a lot to pay for something that's pretty much ruined after a few months, (and not because of rough play either). It's really fragile so it should be considered for older kids.