Hape Award Winning Quadrilla Wooden Marble Run Construction - The Xcellerator, 135 Pieces

My 5-year old son has autism and loves marbles and marble runs. He plays with this for hours and constructs all sorts of configurations, including making his own by stuffing play-doh in certain holes/parts to make even more sophisticated runs! (If your child does the same - or you want to try it with them! - just a note to say that once the play-doh dries it comes out easily.) It has also been a great tool that has inspired him to make marble runs using other non-traditional found materials, and has fostered his curiosity and creativity. We have uneven floors due to our house being over a hundred years old so I'm not a very good judge of whether or not this is wobbly on regular floors. We set this up on a large play table that initially came with trains. The table has a lip/edge around it that prevent the marbles from dropping onto the floor when they come out, and it's been really helpful. I suggest configuring or buying something similar so you aren't chasing after marbles all day - totally worth the time and money if your child is as obsessed and gets as much enjoyment out of this as mine. He needed some guidance for a bit when we first brought this home as far as how to set it up, but eventually learned how to do it himself in whatever way he wants. The individual parts of this set are made of sturdy wood, especially the colored pieces, which are essentially blocks, so I am not worried about anything breaking due to just regular use.

Very unstable and easily falls over

I was really looking forward watching my grandkids play with this. It seems to connect loosely and therefore my grandkids knock it over easily. Also sometimes the little lever in the blocks that determine which way the marble will roll doesn’t move and the marble just sits in the block and you have to put your finger in the hole and push the marble out. Not all the blocks are that way just a few.

The kids loved playing with it. I am giving it four stars for two reasons: 1) there were 2 pieces missing from the kit, and 2) while the parts were of high quality, putting it together is a little unstable, and so we spent quite a bit of time assembling, and only got to run one set of marbles through it before someone accidentally brushed it and the whole thing fell apart and we had to start over again. Overall, a lot of fun was had by all, and it taught some important skills such as patience, perseverance, the ability to follow instructions and some lessons in math, engineering, gravity.

Most marbles do not roll down. Our sprial piece was warped coming out of an undamaged box. If we didn't use that piece many marbles jumped off the track. I've liked and used many haba products before but I wouldn't recommend this one. I read the comments mentioning a need for a level floor - ours is perfectly level cement floor (we double checked) it was the pieces that were not level. It's a cool product that doesn't work. It's the first item I will be returning to amazon. :(

This was a Christmas gift for my 7 year old son who absolutely loves it. We bought one last year that was made by another company and constructed of plastic. It was too flimsy, fell over easily, and didn't have extensions. This Quadrilla marble maze made by Hape is fantastic. Sturdy wooden pieces with various openings, functions, and tracks have provided hours of marble fun. Fairly sturdy although it can be knocked over but doesn't fall apart just because of a bump. It came with a book with various maze set ups with easy step by step instructions that my son was able to do with just a little help. Great way to get the mind thinking in engineering cause and effect ways. Love this and will be purchasing the additional tracks and add-ons. We bought the Xcellerator and Round About to start. My four year old grandson loved it also. He stood in front of it for hours and kept feeding it marbles as fast as we could get them back to him. We had to take turns being the marble gatherer. Will definitely be investing in the marble return tray as well.

Great quality pieces that are easy to put together in a plethora of ways! The instructions (actually just a color-coded picture guide of many model samples) look a little daunting at first, but following them is a great lesson for teaching patience while achieving something worth waiting for. My four boys (ages 3-9) all enjoy playing with it, but I think I enjoyed it the most. I didn't even get upset when one of my boys fell into the original run that I made and I had to start all over again. The pieces fell like a little kid crashing down a tower made with regular wood building blocks. I was then able to try a different design which was even more fun than the last one.

It took me awhile to finally decide to spend so much money on a toy, I'm glad I did. This is so well constructed that it will last through a few generations, plus it's a classic fun toy. I bought this for Christmas 2014 for my then three year old and 10 year old. The three year and I LOVE it! I wish for the price it would have included a marble tray but we just used a few flat jewelry box lids and it works perfect. We have a lot of fun setting up the different plans shown in the book, I'm not creative enough to do my own. I was lucky enough to find another complete set at a consignment store for much cheaper so now we build even bigger runs! I can honestly say this is one of the most played with toys in the house!