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 marbles I 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.
