Which Marble Run would you buy?

[AlphaSchmalpha]

ds, 3.5, is desperate for a marble run. I am prepared to get him a really good one (and precious little else) for Christmas.

Had thought would get him a wooden one, but now I see there are loads of different models, many in plastic, one with a motor ... .

Any recommendations please? and has anyone got one and wished they didn't?

The Quadrilla ones are lovely - expensive though.

We've got the Quercetti one - good but at 3.5 they'd still need help to put it together and make sure that the marbles are always running downhill.

ds1 also has the Skyrail one - but it's definately too fiddly for 3.5 - and the balls have a habit of coming off if you get the angles/tensions wrong, so good for budding engineers to tune it so the ball dtays on, but not great for little ones who want it to work every time.

Thanks v much Lunar - I know they are quite pricey so it really is pretty much all he'll get for Christmas. Great advice as it would be awful for him to get one he can't get going after all the anticipation (he's been asking for months)! I don't mind helping, they look like fun.

We just have the simple ELC one which we've had for years. DS2 and DD2 still fight over play with it. Its noisy though but very satisfying when you've got a box of about 2 milllion marbles like they have!

I had the Galt one, might need some help putting it together, but it's always seemed a good one, no too pricey either. They've got some different sets too.

We've got an ELC one from a few years ago - my 3.5 yr old can't put it together without help, but he likes fiddling about with it anyway. My 6yr old loves it. Definitely one of the best buys - don't nec need an all-singing-all-dancing one, but one with quite a few different pieces so you can build really big ones are fun.

We have got a Quadrilla one for DD and DS for Christmas, saw it put up in a toy shop last summer and it looks great.