Techno Gears Marble Mania Extreme: Fun but tough to build

Techno Gears Marble Mania Extreme 4.0 (The Learning Journey) lets you build your own marble run. The pieces are made so your marble will move through what you built on its own.

It has more than 200 pieces, so there are plenty of slides, swirls, gears, connectors and even an automatic power lifter ball return for you to build many different designs. It does require one AA battery, which is not included. If you have other Techno Gears sets, you can combine them with this to make even bigger designs.

I was excited to try this toy, but it ended up being difficult to build. It took four of my friends and me four hours to build. After it was built, I let my 6-year-old friend try it, and he said it was “the most amazing toy!” but my 5-year-old friend had a hard time figuring out how it worked. My 11-year-old brother and I both thought it was a little complicated, but fun. I think the toy is best for kids under 10, but it may be challenging and take a long time to build, or you may need a parent to help.

Rating: 3.5 smiles out of 5