Product test
Are the Squishy Maker’s slime-based stress balls any good?
by Stefanie Lechthaler
Why I’m tempted to steal my son’s Gravitrax Junior marble run
13.2.2024
Translation: Katherine Martin
The junior edition of Ravensburger’s Gravitrax marble run is impressive across the board. I’d love to confiscate it from my son and play with it myself.
With this in mind, the junior edition of Gravitrax, developed by Ravensburger for marble run enthusiasts aged 3-7, is exactly right for us. The manufacturer provided me with one to be put through its paces.
Here’s what’s included in the Gravitrax Junior Starter Set XXL Planet
- 10 bases
- 33 track tiles
- 96 height tiles
- 10 marbles
- 16 area tiles (desert, water, meadow)
- 16 plastic and 8 cardboard decorative elements
- Instructions containing three construction templates
Unexpected injury risk
Although the marble run is high-quality, I injured my finger as soon as I took it out of the box. The culprit? The edges of the box, which gave me a nasty paper cut. Perhaps the marble run’s cardboard packaging is just a tad too robust – the edges of the box are razor-sharp. As are the edges of the stand-up cardboard figures in the set.
I can’t figure out why the set comes with this avoidable source of danger. Especially since the adult version comes in a harmless, resealable box. This could easily be improved upon. Having said that, you’d need to be really pernickety to notice it. Besides this one point of criticism, the marble run well and truly wins me over.
The material is robust and has a nice feel to it. Base plates in the set can be freely combined, so you can choose whether to build an elongated track or a compact one. Assembling it is super easy – it comes together without issue. The track and height tiles are easy to stack, so even young children can have a go without getting frustrated.
We really enjoy all this experimenting. It stirs up our eagerness to get the marble run functional. The cycle of constructing, testing, rebuilding, testing again, decorating, rebuilding again and experimenting never gets old, and we’re constantly creating new marble runs.
The XXL version is always a joy. There’s a perfectly balanced number of components, with enough for any construction plan. Fortunately, the developers thought to include more than one marble. This way, it won’t be an issue if one disappears (more than likely).
Header image: Anna Sandner
Anna Sandner
Senior Editor
Anna.Sandner@galaxus.deScience editor and biologist. I love animals and am fascinated by plants, their abilities and everything you can do with them. That's why my favourite place is always the outdoors - somewhere in nature, preferably in my wild garden.
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