Vertigo

This is a great product! We gave this to my almost 5 year old son for Christmas because he had wanted a marble run. We had bought one a year or two previously that was plastic and the pieces cracked and broke almost immediately, so I was hesitant to spend more money on one - but I'm glad I did. The construction of this is high quality, nice wood. The pieces are smooth and the packaging is useful for carrying around to different areas of the house. The run comes with a great booklet of multiple designs you can build (in addition to designing your own) and plenty of marbles. We have had great fun building the different sets and testing them. There are some inserts and accelerators you use to make the set work properly, and despite the good instructions, we often forget to put one in, so our marbles go out of the holes to early, but it is fun for the kids to test and determine what we need to make it work - and then of course the joy of a full run. Some of the pieces have toggles so each marble will switch directions from the previous, which makes the set more interesting as the marbles don't exit the run at the same place each time. The only challenge I've seen thus far is that because its a marble run with pieces that slot into each other, it can be a bit wobbly, and we have spent a bit of time building and then have someone accidentally bump it and have the whole thing fall down. That is a bummer when you have invested some time, but it happens. I do with perhaps the pieces were made to fit a bit more into each other so the chance of accidental knock-over was less. All in all, a great set and we are currently considering buying another (or an add on) for my son's birthday since he does seem to enjoy it. I do believe this set will hold up with time and use, so well worth the price.

The Vertigo Quadrilla was our first marble railway, but was not been our last. We've quickly built on our set with other sets and additional parts. It's a great first set. The building instruction booklet offers several different towers to build on, some use each piece included in the set (build it correctly or suffer the consequences :) ). All is fun and games, until the tower collapses. However, with every crash gives you a chance to build another new and fun tower. This set gives you enough options to keep building without getting bored. Our 3 year old loves watching things move (AKA balls falling down the stairs, cars going down the ramps, etc). Our 3 year old is mesmerized by the marbles rolling down for hours on end. Our child is exhibiting some sensory challenges and the sound is soothing. The parents are getting as much out of this toy as our child. It's probably the first toy that we've been able to truly enjoy as a family. So much so, I've told the grandparents should keep this at their house for company (they have many visitors--old and young). It's a great rainy day toy. Stepping back, I have to admit to the brilliance of the Hape brand for developing Quadrilla (not paid or given product for this review). The parts are color coated (each colored tower has a different purpose), well built and lock into place. Pretty smart! I'm glad that we went for the Hape brand over the Haba brand for our 3 year old. With that said, we plan to add Haba tricks to the mix later.

The overall composition of the product is excellent. However, the attachment of the last part of the bead pass of one of the three Vertigo parts is too narrow for the bead to pass through. I worked hard to force myself to widen the road by using sandpaper, flat-head drivers, etc.

This was a birthday present for our 5-year old grandson. His 7-year old brother also took great interest in this. After years of putting together Lego models, you would think this might not delight younger boys....wrong! The older one joined in helping to make the models and was intrigued that the blocks would direct the the marbles in different ways. The red 'toggle' block was very interesting as it would change the direction of the path of the marble, alternating with each drop. The younger boy watched us build the models. He would help place the ramps and run test marbles to make sure it was working correctly. When the model was finished, the younger boy would feed the marbles into the structure and run to pick them up as they spit out the end. (I would strongly recommend buying the optional marble trays, or make your own. The marbles will roll all over, especially on hardwood floors). The kit comes in a nice heavy cardboard box with a built in handle. This is a great way to store the parts in between uses. The kit is very well-made. Although it is manufactured in China, the Swiss design is evident. The pieces are smooth and have no rough edges. The spiral mazes are solid and well-designed. You need to have the model on a level surface, since the tracks depend on the red ramps to accelerate the marbles through the maze. The tracks must remain level, and not inclined to work properly. The manual points this out on the first page. The manual is a necessity as you start building the models, and seeing how the parts impact the marble direction. Each model takes about 20 minutes to build, once you are familiar with it. One critique about the manual is that you need to view it in good daylight. The colors of the blue, green, and cyan blocks in the printed manual are very close in color. The same can be said for the yellow and tan blocks. A 'C', 'B'. 'G' printed on or near the block in the manual would help out. I am looking forward to seeing how my grandsons do later down the line with this kit. I think they will try their own designs, which enhances the fun factor of this toy. Yes, it is expensive, but I believe it will be a well-used toy and enjoyed for years. Even the parents were eager to help make the different models.

This set has very nice wooden pieces. The blocks are color-coded according to what kind of paths it allows the marbles to follow. This creates an interesting puzzle aspect to the toy, figuring out which blocks are appropriate for what desired construction. The box includes a bag to store the small plastic pieces and the marbles, which was a plus. So, the caveats: The first thing I noticed when building a model is that each track has two holes on each end, which I thought strange: Why would you have one hole in front of another, since the marble will immediately fall down the first hole? The answer is: there are plastic inserts that you insert into the first hole. My guess is that this was an engineering choice to 1. allow more flexibility in designs (i.e. you can set up vertical paths for the marbles to fall through the tracks) and 2. allows more structural rigidity (e.g. one kind of plastic insert is a little ramp that guides the marble down from the opening in a block onto the track). For an adult or older child, this is fine (and probably well-motivated, in terms of the fine motor-skills and patience required). However, I grew up using a simpler Blocks and Marbles set (probably TEDCO brand?) with far fewer kinds of pieces (just a few lengths of track, each with one hole, and only one kind of block with a hole in it), and so I was expecting a similar simplicity here for my child. But the second thing my child and I discovered was quite a bit more worrisome: The horizontal tracks, as far as I can tell, are entirely unsloped. They rely on the inertia of each marble falling through the block to push it along the track to the next hole. I am pretty sure that the TEDCO Blocks and Marble set I grew up with had a slight slope on each horizontal track, so that the marble would always tend to roll from the end without a hole to the end with a hole. (The slope there is significant enough that I was able to make constructions that would send a marble off in the wrong direction on the track, and the slope would cause the marble to slow gradually and eventually reverse course and roll back towards the hole.) These factors have made it difficult for my child to just playfully put the pieces together and see what happens with the marbles: You need to plan ahead a bit in order to figure out what pieces need to go in which places. I do plan to keep this Hape set because it is well constructed and has interesting pieces. But I also have put an order in for the TEDCO set, just to see if it lives up to my expectation of how much simpler this could be.

I chose this version of wooden Marble run because it has interlocking pieces and we thought it would be more user friendly for younger children and lessen frustration. It is appealing to look at, has great directions and can be enjoyed in many ways. My 2 and 4 year old are not yet able to make a successful run all by themselves but they don't seem to mind. It takes adult help but they LOVE building runs with my help. The directions are really good and they give many examples to build. After having it for a month, I am just getting the hang of making runs creatively without any directions. The color coded pieces make it very easy to distinguish between pieces. We have been housebound for a month due to air quality from wildfire and we have played with it everyday. We are still nowhere near tired of it and I know it will be fun for years to come. The pieces are fairly complex, I wonder if, for example, the Haba marble runs would be a bit simpler for younger ages but they probably would get knocked down more easily. I am 100% satisfied w this so I didn't mind the cost.

My 4.5-year-old twins are having a lot of fun with this. They need my help with setting up the different structures, but I think within a year they'll be able to do follow the instructions themselves. In the mean time, once we've set it up together, they can play independently. I love how clear the instructions are, and that they use no words, just pictures. You have to be very observant to follow them, to rotate the pieces just the right way to make it work. Good challenges for little learners and plenty of things for them to think about and have fun with. Very clever design, and I love that it's all wood (just a few small plastic pieces). It's a good-looking toy that you won't mind having in your living room, unlike so much of the tacky plastic stuff that's around these days. I agree with others who have said that it tips over very easily. It's best to have it on a hardwood or tile floor. Thick carpeting wouldn't work well. A table or some kind of platform would also be a good idea. All around, excellent toy that I think we'll enjoy for many years.

This marble run is so well made. It is bright and fun, but also simple and timeless. The pieces are pretty basic, no bells and whistles, but there is enough variety to make it really fun to watch the marbles go. My 5-year-old loves it, and his younger sisters do to. I have to keep eyes on the clock, because we get lost playing and end up spending an hour at a time with one set-up. Two challenges: it can be easily knocked over as the building blocks only have small notches to keep the pieces standing, but we don’t find this to hinder the fun. Also, we had to buy a big, plastic bin to store all the pieces. This is easily one of the favorite toys we own.