National Geographic Marble Run with Motorized Elevator - 150-Piece Marble Maze Kit with Motorized Spiral Lift, 30 Marbles, Storage Bag & More, Perpetual Motion Machine, Marble Game, Kids Physics Toys

I ordered this for my 4, 6, and 8 year old grandchildren for Christmas. Each age child has different skill sets for building marble runs but they all spent the better part of Christmas Day playing with this great toy. They especially love building a constant motion marble run using the battery powered screw lift which is so clever. There's one little quirk about the screw lift; you have to press all the clear tubing pieces together really well to make sure the screw will pop the marble out of the top of the tube. Once you figure that out there are hours of fun for children and adults helping children play with this great toy. Very highly recommend getting one with the screw lift. Very easy to assemble and play with right out of the box.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:National Geographic is a great company so I figured the product should be well thought out. Ease of assembly:My three year old has very little trouble building her marble runs. It's super easy to build and enjoy. Variety of pieces:Lots of pieces although I wish there were more additional sets to add on. Design:It's the best marble run we've had so far.

Kids love the marble “ladder” that continues the marbles moving through the course. Great STEM activity for all ages!

We'll start with that -most- pieces are quite strong, made of a bit of a thicker plastic. They're larger than some other marble runs (we have two other sets), and they aren't compatible.Bonus points: DOES fit 'normal' size marbles (we bought the tiny of varying sizes, and it fits the regular).Negative points: Hard for littler kids to do themselves, as the pieces just won't stay together and the more you mess with it (even with proper stabilization and pushing them hard together) it pops apart very easily and can get EXTREMELY frustrating when you've got a good build going and the pieces further back are just popping apart and falling to pieces. As multiple kids try to play it just crumbles, even when solidly built.The parts to the elevator are EXTREMELY sensitive. Kids were putting them together and the little tabs snapped right off, so now the entire elevator is gone (as without the little gray spinners, it's useless).Overall, it seems worth the purchase as it is fun to play with, the design of them overall is nice, and there is a nice variety of pieces with different curves, spinners, etc, but this set is INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING! If possible, I'd recommend other more sturdy sets, as this one seems more set for small builds and not extended, but it will give you a little bit of fun before you get too frustrated and walk away, because it crumbles too easily lol.

Bought this for the little... ended up hogging it. The motorized lift adds nonstop fun, and the pieces are sturdy and easy to snap together. It’s educational, but also wild fun to watch marbles go on their rollercoaster adventures. Science + satisfaction = 5 stars.

Christmas gift for a 6 1/2 year old and 4 1/2 year old. Big hit. They take it out often. It's pretty dang cool and so many different ways to build stuff. The younger one is learning from watching her older cousin. Highly recommend.

My granddaughter aged11 and I aged 73 played with the marble for a couple of hours. There are no real directions except for the elevator which lifts the marbles up to the top. You decide how to get them down. This is not a game for most children under the age of 10. Younger children could play with a parent or older child. I thought it was sturdy and easy to connect the pieces. I'm looking forward to playing with it again.

After taking my grandson to visit Aunts and Uncles he got to play with his cousins marble run that they have had over the years. They had a couple of sets so there was endless fun. So I bought a set for when the grandkids come over to visit. This kit had an battery powered lift which was cool but not a piece for dropping the marbles into your design, you had to enter them one at a time. Also the catch trays were very small and a bit of a struggle to get out the marbles. One of the pieces were warped so was un-useable. I will look for a add on kit that will contain pieces that would make it more enjoyable.