Quercetti Transparent Marble Run - 45 Piece Basic Building Set - Classic Construction Toy Perfect for Beginners Ages 4 and Up (Made in Italy)

I did the research and heard the complaints and I think a phd thesis can be made by studying how peoples' (rising) expectations today contrast to the overall (decline in) quality of all manufacturing and then cross compare it with 50 years ago and then end up by telling everyone to get over it. This item is a great deal. It needs some patience and some brains, if you have none, Amazon can not sell you any. It is well made but does reflect the cheapening quality we parents are used to when we replace toys of our youth. I personally recommend getting 2 sets because the kids love it, and we benefit from having more kids playing together than taking turns. It does have a great variety of pieces, some other sets seemed to have 1 or 2 more types of spins and bumps but I like the quality of this one.

This toy is FUN. It kept my 5- and 6-year-olds occupied for two full days after we received it. They played with it for hours on end, and did not even look at any of their other toys!I did have a few issues with this, though:We own a few older models of this toy, and this one did not seem quite as sturdy or stable.A couple of the tracks came bent, and needed to be twisted back in to shape before they could be used. One piece - the large double spiral - is still bent, and nothing we do gets it to lie flat, which means that balls frequently get stuck on it and my kids need to push the balls along a little bit.Also, on the old version, the track pieces snapped together directly. On this one, there are clear connecting pieces that need to be used, which makes the toy a little more difficult to assemble and a little less sturdy.

My three children (ages 2, 6, and 8) all love this marble run. And I enjoy building it with them too. My 2-year-old is too young to be able to build it on his own, but once it's up, he will sit there for a half hour and put the marbles through (he is past the put-everything-in-the-mouth stage so I'm not recommending this for all kids his age). My older two have no problem putting the pieces together and we have not found it to be tipsy--unless it's not built with a good base, which is part of the learning of it. For the price, I think this toy is an excellent value!!

I have an eight year old daughter and an eleven year old son, and they play with this for hours at a time. They received the Quercetti super marble run vortis 213 piece set for Christmas, and they had hours of fun with it. Therefore, my son used some of his own money to add this set to the original vortis 213 piece set. They are very pleased and love it. They will build new configurations every so often. It fits well and is sturdy. Being eleven, my son can creatively configure his own designs. Lots of fun!

I gave this 2 stars instead of 1 because my son is fascinated with it. However, it's made terribly. The parts don't fit together well, they jam and they tip over/break all the time. The tower that supports the chain/elevator fits together poorly and the parts come apart when you apply any force (like to turn the crank). The tubes don't fit onto the base of this part either, so you can't really build up from it. The other moving parts jam all the time too. You have to hold it together with three hands just to make it work without collapsing. Do yourself a favor and go for a more expensive brand.

My 2.5 year old son loves it. At first I was assembled it for him, and he played with it for hours. Then, I left it around and he started making simple runs by himself. It is a little flimsy, so once he done making the run, I press it hard together and attach the feet and the marble catcher. it probably wont last long, but at the price and the enjoyment it gives both of us, it is worth it. Who doesn,t love the sound of marbles rollingQuercetti 45-Piece Transparent Marble Run - Marble Run Construction Toy

I'm glad I bought this on a lightning deal at Christmas because if I'd paid full price I would have been really upset! It's difficult to figure out, comes with no suggestions or recommended building guides and is too advanced for the ages it specifies. The only thing we had to use for a guide was the picture on the box and that was not much help. I bought this for my 4 1/2 year old nephew that has very good building & logic skills. He's amazing at puzzles and lego constructions so this seemed like it would be up his alley. It's probably already made it to the recycling container at his house...

This is a decent marble run with lots of neat pieces to keep the set-up interesting. But the quality of materials is pretty flimsy and the 'marbles' are just super cheap plastic. What was particularly disappointing, however, is that there's only one design. With all those pieces, you'd think the manufacturer would provide instructions on how to build a few different set-ups but they don't. So it's just one. And after the kids have played with it for a while, it should be expected that we could build it a different way following some instructions. So that was a big disappointment. My son is 4 and this game is for ages 5-12. But I doubt it'll retain his interest for that many years due to the limited options.