Apartment Therapy Ohdeedoh | Marble Run by Quadrilla

Marble Run by Quadrilla

In our opinion, building toys get you the most bang for your toy-buying buck. Blocks, train tracks, logs... you get these toys when your kids are young and -- if our own childhood is anything to go by -- they'll be played with for years. These build-your-own marble runs fall into the same camp. Not only do you get the fun of designing an endless variety of runs, but you also get a lesson in chaos theory as you watch the marbles move along the tracks. It's where art meets engineering and physics.

The quality of Quadrilla's German-engineered wooden blocks and twists makes this a keepsake toy that will last for years. And like any good building toy, you can start with a decent basic set, such as the one pictured at the left, and keep adding as many expansion kits as you want... until you can ostensibly create a complex masterpiece such as the one at the top of this post.

Basic set ($59.95) at Playfair Toys. There's also a smaller "Try Me" starter set ($44.95).

Comments (5)

oooooo I want one for me! The kids are too small for marbles anyhow ;)

posted by val299 on December 17th 2008 at 5:38pm
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val299, funny you say that! My folks have one of these for my son, who is interested in this but not quite old enough, but last time we were visiting them, after he went to sleep, my husband and I played for about an hour! We had a blast - much more fun that if my son was hanging around!

posted by oteach1 on December 17th 2008 at 9:02pm
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Actually, my two-year-old (almost 2.5) can play with this Quadrilla by putting marbles in the top block (with supervision -- don't leave marbles out for little ones). Once you learn how to build a tower, successive builds become easier and easier, and you need that because these towers are so easy to knock down.

posted by stickyricemama on December 17th 2008 at 11:19pm
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I bought the basic set back in July for Christmas for my kids. They are going to love it! I also ended up buying a few individual pieces. I wish I had gotten one of the bigger sets, but I suppose we can always add on later.

posted by donnafergie on December 18th 2008 at 10:03am
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I got the Haba marble run for my 5-year-old for Christmas this year, after he has been desperately wanting this for, oh, his entire life, I think. Any time we go into a toy store with a marble run he is captivated for an hour, and if we get a toy catalog that has one, I always find it carefully circled later on. I did have some worries about choking hazards (I have a 3-year-old and a 6-month-old also), but he wants it so much, I felt like this was the year to get it. I'm pretty excited about it too, myself.

I decided on the Haba one after asking around at some toy stores, and they said the Quadrilla one is more of a pain to put together and easier for kids to mistakenly knock over.

posted by World of Julie on December 23rd 2008 at 1:06pm
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