NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Glowing Marble Run – 250 Piece Construction Set with 50 Glow in The Dark Glass Marbles & Storage Bag, STEM Gifts for Boys and Girls, Building Project Toy (Amazon Exclusive)

Congratulations! You’ve arrived at the Cadillac of marble runs. After buying some other difficult to assemble and component limited competitors, I’ve decided this kit is tons of fun and way better for kids’ attention span.After opening this set up my daughter and I got to work making towers of exciting marble runs.No need for instructions, most pieces you’ll figure out, and then for the pieces that look weird your wife will read the instructions and explain it to you later! The pieces are simple and connect easily, and you’ll fight your children for the “cool” pieces.There are lots of support pieces and several unique pinwheel, looping, spiraling pieces. Some pieces branch in different directions so you can build multipath runs that go in different directions.Yeah some of the connections maybe get a little unstable (there’s actually descent support bases) but we’re talking about building a marble run towers taller than my 6 year old. If it falls and crashes who cares, just rebuild a new one! They’ll only cry temporarily and you can re-acquire the “cool” pieces your kids wouldn’t share after the crash and barter them back for promises of baths and chores.The marbles are glow in the dark. My wife informed me of this on day 2. So build your tower at dusk and then prepare for the spectacular marble light show extravaganza.In all honesty, this is a great set. Lots of pieces, peak interest in creativity, and I especially appreciate there were no published designs. It forced us to be creative and design our own runs.

My 5 year old loves this thing, he can spend hours and hours playing and not get bored. You can build whatever you want and it works just fine.

When my grandson got it for Xmas he wasn't too excited. It was hard to set up amid all the Xmas wrapping and chaos. Now he has had it for a while, he loves it. It is flimsy and wobbly and takes time to make marble maze steady. It also takes adult supervision to help so frustration levels stay in bounds if it is younger than 6. His little brother who just turned 3 needs help but likes to play as well. Now the oldest has the hang and we build with it everyday. He loves the "actuator" he calls it which makes the marbles glow in the dark. I will buy more to add to it for his birthday.

Fun marble run but a bit difficult to set up for younger kids.

My 3 year old son received this for Christmas and it is by far his favorite gift! This toy keeps him entertained for literal hours (the first few days we played for a couple hours straight). My husband and I enjoy building different marble run set ups with him. I like that this toy challenges my son to think outside the box and critically think. He needed a lot of assistance in the beginning when we were constructing new tower set ups, but over time he has gotten the hang of it and is able to create amazing tower set ups on his own. I definitely recommend this toy!

Pieces fit together very well. Marbles have little confetti inside that glow in the dark after sun exposure. Pretty awesome to shut the lights off and watch the marbles race. Was able to figure out how to use every piece efficiently, which is pretty cool to me. Critical thinking definitely required. Included the photos so my design can be reproduced later. Oh, also of course my 4 year old loves it too lol

The media could not be loaded. Ordered the large set, mostly because the other one wasn't in stock at the time, and now I'm very glad I did. There are always left over pieces because we're still learning how to really build with this. We've built very tall ones and I'm hoping to figure out more ways to build wider and not so tall. There are so many options! Lots of interesting shapes and pieces to use. The glowing marbles are very nice and you can also use regular glass marbles so that's a plus. The video I've included is just one of many we've built. I say "we" meaning me and my 7 yr old granddaughter. The pieces fit together snugly for the most part and the only problem with stability is using on a wood floor and building really high. I've learned to add stabilizing pieces connecting the various legs as we build up and started building on carpet runners that I've acquired. The one problem is the cat! She loves running between the various legs and pawing at the marbles coming down. This is great fun and you can spend hours with it. The net bag it comes with to put the pieces in is handy for transporting back and forth. All in all it's well worth the price, in my opinion. So far I've been impressed with National Geographic's products.

Bought this for my recently turned 9 year old daughter. Tried to buy birthday gifts this year that were more STEM driven, as I find they have much more play time and hold attention better. This hit the mark precisely! It’s a lot of fun for her to get creative and build new runs and even discover ways to create trick shots as well.