Solar Wooden Marble Run for Kids 8-12 - Wood 3D Puzzle - Building Blocks Toy & Construction Play Set - Marble Maze Track & Race Game- Educational Science Experiment & STEM Learning Gift for Boys Girls

I purchased this kugelbahn kit to give my 13 year old son and 9 year old niece something to do at a recent family gathering. I couldn't be more happy with the result.They were able to completely assemble it by themselves (okay, Dad was consulted once). It was neat watching them work together to follow the instructions and assemble the pieces. The small wood pieces are somewhat delicate but pop out and snap together just fine when handled with patience.I was admittedly surprised at the quality of the end result. I was skeptical that it would actually work the first time trying it out. I thought for sure the main wheel would get stuck or marbles would fall off the track. Nope! We brought it out in the sun and we had those marbles rolling!In my opinion, the experience of putting it together alone is worth the price. It's sort of like a jigsaw puzzle in that regard.. with the added benefit of having a really cool piece of mechanical art in the end.

This has a lot of tiny small pieces. Takes time and alot of patience to assemble. My grandson who is 12 got discouraged and was unable to complete the assemble process since there are so many different types and sizes of small pieces. Said it was hard to keep track of the pieces

I bought this to do with my son, but he wasn't interested so I assembled it myself. I have experience building 2 different complex marble runs by Rokr, so this was pretty straightforward and the end result is fun and works well.I liked the quality of the wooden parts - I never felt like I was about to break one. The gears were easy to get to mesh, the motor was simple to set up, and I liked that there's an option for either solar or battery. I loved that it was plug and play because I hate messing with bare wires.I did not like that some pieces relied on glue. That's messy, you have to wait for it to dry, and there's the chance that the part will slip out of alignment.And then there were the directions - yes, they were comprehensive and clear enough, but the print and pictures were tiny because the whole thing was a single sheet, 2 sided, and one side was completely taken up with pictures of the completed run and a list of all needed parts and supplies and diagrams of the provided wood pieces. Instead of numbering the parts ON the wood like other companies do, this one chose to provide diagrams with the parts labeled which means you're flipping that paper back and forth a lot.The other problem I had with the directions was the order - there were only 10 steps, but the graphic designer chose to move the steps around to fit them all on one page, so instead of going neatly across or down they go something like 1,2,4,3,6,5....

The media could not be loaded. All know in all the project was pretty unique and amazing we’ve gone through the entire step-by-step process when assembling it.Unfortunately the last step was step 11 required us to stretch or pulling on the wood which is very fragile, that did not work, they both cracked.My son and I were finally able to complete the project after gluing a few pieces together.So the project went well over all with a few bumps...But what would be nice to know is that....maybe to include in the instructions that 'Wetting the Wood piece in STEP 11 helps with stretching it'... You should stretch the wood after wetting it... to almost like a spring.... then you can try and complete the step...NICE Project, great for kids 8 years and up.

I dislike that this kit is labeled a STEM toy for boys first. This particular kit was put together by a tween girl who loves engineering kits and the Tinker Crates from the Kiwi Crate company. She thought tthis one was a nice mix of easy to understand the directions but took a good length of time. You don't want a kit to go too fast or take forever. She didn't get frustrated or bored.We bought more marbles, but they were too big to fit on the track/through the gear holes. So you'd have to look around to find a slightly smaller size if you want more. I'd be careful with them if I had babies or pets that might eat them.

This is a great little STEM kit although I wouldn’t recommended it for a kid unless an adult was helping him put it together. I too had problems with step 11,like it say in many of the other reviews. Luckily, the kit includes two spirals, so if the first one breaks, you have a spare. My first one did break and I took the advice of a shop teacher and put the second one in a microwave with a cup of water for a minute. I then started at the bottom of the spiral and put it together that way. It worked perfectly without any breakage!

I just assembled this marble run with my 8 year old grandson and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the pieces, instructions and final toy. We had a few errors due to our oversight but all easily correctable since the glue hadn't set. He loved it and it was a total success.

My biggest concern with this product is that the solar panel on mine just doesn't even slightly work. Not sure if the one I was sent was defective or what, but I could only get it to work on battery.That being said it is a pretty cool project for a family to do together. And it's fun to have running. But this was bought to be something that would sit in a window that gets a lot of sunlight so that didn't work