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This marble run is amazingly fun for both my 3 year old and myself! We fell in love with it right out of the box. I was looking for a marble run that would be durable and interesting at the same time. A lot of the plastic marble runs I researched didn't seem to be very durable or stay together too well. Plus you get the plastic pinging sound, not the more relished wood sound. I also checked out the Blocks and Marbles set which is made of wood and while it seemed durable, it didn't have any neat musical features like this one and the marbles were rather small. The Quadrilla set was the happy medium between all of them: durability and cool features!My 3 year old has always loved mazes and puzzles and while I thought he might be a little young for it, it turned out to be a hit. It's a little too advanced for him to build anything complex, but he did end up building a one-tier structure by himself that worked.Here are some of the pros and cons:Pros:- Durable wood- Quality made- Normal sized marbles are used (If you're familiar with the Channel Craft Toy Tin Marbles Game marbles, they're the same size)- Blocks have different features (straight down, switch, left/right, under)- Haven't had a marble get stuck yet- Lots of different designs limited only by your imagination- The rails are flat but the marbles make it across with a boost from the red pieces with no problem.- Musical tones are fun to play with and each makes a different note (A, B, C, D, E, G)Cons:- It is easy to knock down if you bump it, but in its defense the pieces don't sit flush against each other either. Each of the blocks has a lip that sits down into the one below it. That helps to give it more stability.This set makes a great addition to the other Quadrilla marble sets. You can also use it by itself, but there are a lot more possibilities if you mix it up with the Basic set or something a little more involved like the Twist set. This is also the only set that includes trays for catching the marbles at the bottom. It would be great if they sold them as a separate accessory, but at least for now this is the only set that has them. The notes play when a marble strikes one of the xylophone chimes on its way through the marble run. You can mix and match them to make different notes play or buy a couple sets to make a musical score.Here are the pieces are included in this set:2 red blocks, 1 orange block, 2 blue blocks, 1 natural block, 6 cut out yellow blocks, 6 red spacer parts (for the yellow blocks), 15 purple blocks, 7 natural bottom blocks, 5 hole covers, 4 rectangular accelerators, 4 half rectangular accelerators, 4 circular accelerators, 5 standard accelerators, 1 red xylophone key (G), 1 orange xylophone key (A), 1 yellow xylophone key (B), 1 green xylophone key (C), 1 blue xylophone key (D), 1 teal xylophone key (E), 20 marblesI can't say it enough... love, love, love this marble run! This is a quality marble run set that you and your family will get many fun years out of.

Incredible! Great addition to our basic set.The only model that comes with marble trays (finally!). Hours of fun! The xylophone style "blocks" are marvelous and you could get really creative. Thinking about buying a second one (even a third) to create songs short versions.Quadrilla marble run sets are probably my favorite toys from all of my son's inventory.And he's spoiled! Promotes creativity and construction skills. Old fashioned toy that fascinates and that could last for future generations.Hard to find.Pricey but worth it.

Hape makes a solid, beautiful product! This marble run is so much fun for the whole family to play with. It was purchased for my three year old son who really likes to build things and is quite skilled for his age. However, everyone who comes to our house (grandparents, cousins, my adult friends, my sons friends) all enjoy building cool marble runs! The instruction book gives good picture instructions for building various runs, but the real fun comes in building a creation of your own. We actually have 3 sets that we combine to make epic marble runs! Best. Toy. Ever.

Awesome and fun activity for adults and kids alike. You can follow the instructions or you can adventure and test out your own. Quality in the construction as they are sturdy.

I love this marble run but have to say that I wish the pieces that are pretending to be wood were actually wood. My four year old and I spend an obscene amount of time building it.

This was a gift for my 6 year old for Christmas but my 3.5 year old loves playing with it as well. It comes with an instruction book to follow examples to build. My son is really into Legos and following the instructions to build so he likes building the marble runs as well. The xylophone pieces are a nice addition but it is a little noisy and it needs to be set up on a stable surface. We are using a train table. After having it a few days my son expressed that he wished it had a spiral. We ordered an add on piece, the Hape Whirlwind, and it can be incorporated as well. A lot of people say that this set isn't much fun alone and where I can see that one of the larger sets would be a lot of fun, this set is just fine for less money especially with the way kids move from one toy to the next. I do like how the pieces rest inside one another to help steady them. They can fall over with rough play but it hasn't been too much of an issue for us. It is an expensive purchase but it is something that would last and would have good resale value.

Santa brought this for my 3 year old and we ALL love it. The building material is fantastic, all blocks marbles and various pieces are extremely durable. While other reviews complain about a structures sturdiness, it can fall over easily(especially since we build on carpet most of the time) it's creating the various mazes that is the fun.Everyday my son asks to build another maze and my whole family can't wait to do it. We plan on purchasing more packs in the future!!

This is such a fun toy! My kids love it. It would be fun all by itself as it comes with enough tracks to make a decent run. I was confused by sone of the other reviews and the lack of description, but it actually comes with over 90 pieces. I found a used run by Hape on Craig's list and bought this one too. My kids adore the chimes. They sound great and ad so much to their play time. I highly recommend this toy!