ThinkFun Gravity Maze Marble Run Brain Game and STEM Toy for Boys and Girls Age 8 and Up – Toy of the Year Award Winner

This game is great because the kids can play on their own or together. It has different levels of challenges. It keeps the kids entertained for quite a while. Our kids loved it so much that we bought one for my nephew for his birthday.

My kid loves this. It’s entertaining and i have a peace of mind knowing that he’s developing his problem solving ability while having fun.

Fun puzzle game for 7-12 year olds. The pieces are towers – each different & learning them is part of the puzzle. It isn’t really an infinite maze building toy because it had so few pieces, but solving the puzzles included is fun and challenging for kids.

I didn’t know how this would go over as my grandson isn’t into marble runs but i think the strategy of assembling the cubes in the correct configuration was fun and intriguing for him.

Bought for christmas present so don’t know how good it is.

I wanted a present for my 9-year-old granddaughter but when it arrived wondered if she would be interested or able to do it.. She started out by using the solution rather than the challenge side of the cards, caught on in 5 minutes and couldn’t be dragged awy from it for an hour! She said, ‘this is a good learning tool!’ i agree.

Gift

The game box says it is for age 8+. My grandson is 6 1/2 and he and i had a blast with this educational game. I’m a former elementary school teacher and immediately recognized the learning possibilities of this game. It really enforces critical thinking and problem-solving skills. 🙂

Bought it for my 6-year old nephew, and he loved it!
The game is set up so that my nephew could figure it out intuitively with minimal guidance.
The game introduces children to fundamental concepts of physics and problem-solving mechanics in a very natural way. A ball rolling down the hill won’t suddenly drop down in a straight line or turn on its own, no matter how much you want it to.

The game rules are simple. There is a starting point and an end goal that are placed in a fixed orientation on the grid and a list of which pieces can be used freely to reach that end point. There may be additional fixed pieces on the grid at start, depending on the level.

I pointed out the dots that help indicate orientation of fixed starting pieces, which one was start piece, and which one was the end piece, and my nephew was off on his own in minutes. His experience with lego model sets made the importance of orienting the starting pieces correctly easy to pick up.

The game gradually introduces levels of complexity: longer paths, double-stacked pieces, free pieces that need to be laid horizontally, solutions requiring the ball to cross back through the same piece multiple times, etc., allowing the learning process to progress intuitively. My nephew needed some encouragement and guidance at some of these progression points, but again, the uptake once he figured it out was both natural and rewarding for him (and me). Conceptually the game is a blast, even for adults.

Like others, i find it extremely regrettable that a game with such well thought out mechanics, has some pretty obvious build quality and design issues. The pieces just don’t snap satisfyingly into position, and an excited 6-year old might find himself getting a little frustrated when pieces fall out of place as he frantically rushes towards a solution. Additionally, the dots assisting with orientation are functionally sufficient, but could be more visible, and a side panel on the ramped cells labeled with an arrow indicating direction of the cell’s inner path might also decrease the frustration of setting up the board of glaringly bright fluorescent clear plastic pieces, freeing up more time to be spent on the satisfying effort of solving the puzzle. I wouldn’t mind paying another 5 to 7 dollars for a set with a more solid and polished feel.

Still, the build is serviceable, and in the end, only a minor nuisance compared to the enjoyability of the puzzles themselves.

Grandson is on the spectrum and he really enjoys this toy.

I think it was a great gift. Fun for kids and grown ups too

This toy has high performance and good safety. The only downside is that the logistics is too slow. My child waited for a long time to arrive!

My son loved this game when he was at my sisters place. That one has proper storage box that can be used for this. When we ordered ours from here, it did not come with one

My nephew 9-10 yo, had a blast with this game. A deck of cards comes with patterns they have to figure out. The cards are numbered, getting progressively more difficult. My nephew was surprised how easy it was, but by the 6-7th card, he really had to use his thinker. As an adult, i was surprised by how many different challenges there are for the number of pieces provided. He learned quick that with every few you have to rethink how the towers are used to complete the level. I do wish the board was more sturdy – the towers do come off the base easily and the towers themselves disconnect a bit too easy. But, for the cost, he loves it.

Good quality.

We have the gravity maze, and it’s well-liked. This was instantly disliked by our kid, because of how difficult the set up was. He has appropriate fine motor skills, and adults helping found it a bit challenging as well. It’s an awesome idea, it just hasn’t been well received here.

Bought it for my eight year old boy. He likes thinking games.he had a lot of fun with this. Their circuit maze is also enjoyable.

This product was a very good gift for a birthday gift. It is very fun to play with and i believe helps use your logical skills to figure out the puzzle

I got this for my 9-year-old daughter who seems to love a challenge, she got through all the easy cards rather quickly, and does attempt the hard ones now and then, but prefers dad help her out with those, so it is a nice family thing to do.

I purchased this set alongside the other offerings (the marble and laser variant), and this one is my favorite of the options. Setup is quick and easy, but it will require your own batteries. This is a bit of a shame given the laser variant had those included.

For why i purchased this, i wanted some games to play with the family over the holidays. Monopoly is fun and all, but i typically shy away from board games and gravitate towards games with unique gimmicks. Building a simple circuit seemed like the perfect gimmick, and i’ve enjoyed my time playing this game.

The game is broken down into challenge cards that have four categories of challenge level. The advanced and expert challenges were the more interesting ones because they involve more pieces and usage of a switch. Some of which can actually take some time to solve; nothing horrendously long, but longer than a couple minutes. However, there are some issues i found while playing this game.

Firstly (and majorly), the construction of my set at least has some form fitting issues. Pop one piece in adjacent to another, and that other piece pops right out. Or it lifts just enough to break the circuit. This happens enough that it can actually get a bit frustrating as you palm press down the pieces just to see the lights turn on. You may even have the solution, but because one piece is ever so slightly lifted, it doesn’t work. The switch in my set also broke where you need to push switch down to make contact.

My other complaint though is just a minor one: there can be multiple working solutions, but are not technically valid. This is more common in the expert level challenges where you may find a solution that meets all of the challenge requirements, but doesn’t use all of the pieces. Nothing major, but something i noticed.

I think i’ve gotten enough enjoyment out of this game for the price, but if there were something of better build quality i’d probably have second thoughts.