Night City – Wooden Marble Run Kit

I spent a lot of enjoyable time on this project. I was hoping that it would work well once finished. Unfortunately the steel marbles don’t follow all the pathways that they should. Mini parts are very fragile. I only broke a few small parts. I did enjoy the time I spent building it and I don’t feel disappointed that it does not work properly. It’s just time spent assembling it that is fun. The project will most likely end up buried in the closet.

My 91 year old dad enjoyed (for the most part!) putting this together. The grandkids love it.

I loved the challenge. There were some easy to assemble sections and some that required much more patience. I did end up almost breaking two pieces with my big thumbs. I suggest having a set of small needle nose pliers ready. Would definitely buy again. Also would be interested in a much bigger puzzle.

This marble coaster was very enjoyable to assemble as an adult. The fragile and tiny wooden parts are likely going to be too challenging for a kid to do it. As you are building it, you really appreciate the amount of engineering and design that are required to make it work.The finished coaster works decently well. The gears rotate smoothly and carry the marbles upward reliably. The marbles travel down the tracks generally fine but certain paths will cause the marble to get stuck. It works about as well as you would expect for a complex DIY model kit. It's not something that's going to be fun for very long or have much durability but the fun here is and should be in the build process.

First of this is not for beginners, these puzzles require time and skill..but hands down the coolest

I bought this for my kiddo to keep them busy, and they really enjoyed putting it together. It doesn't really run like it says, so it's not worth what I paid. BUT my kid had fun, so that's what matters.

Challenging kit but worth the time. This kit is not for the beginner!! Pieces assemble well but not quite as easy as the YouTube videos show. I had to resort to a small pair of needle nose plyers for some parts and the also assist reaching some areas. I am reading reviews saying parts breaking when removing from boards and poor instructions. I did not find this to be true. Removing parts from carrier requires some finesse. no parts broke on me, but I did break one or two parts during assembly, Keep some Crazy glue handy. The instructions were detailed but pay CLOSE attention to drawingsOverall a great project

More fun assembling than using, but a fun toy all around. Be very, very careful assembling, as pieces break easily. I found the use of a small pointy nosed pliers and a dab of superglue here and there very helpful. Be very careful to follow the assembly instructions!

I was excited about doing assembly and building up it. It was so great and kinda nice work. But a thing I am disappointed is easy to be broken, and about the order of assembly. Generally, it is great and good for people who love assemble modeling.

I seriously underestimated the complexity of building this puzzle, and throughout the process I was concerned that it would not work because it is quite delicate and I even though we enjoyed the build, was sure we made a mistake somewhere.BUT it runs beautifully! It is fun to build after you get the hang of following the instructions to minute detail, and SO MUCH FUN TO PLAY WITH. Children and adults can not stop turning that handle, it has a most enjoyable clicking sound when the marbles run and fall.

Bought as a gift to my father. He loves it. Great company to deal with.

I like these puzzles a lot. This puzzle was hard but so fun! I had a few pieces that cracked and wonder at a few sections of the puzzle I have trouble with! In short this is really cool and very challenging! It will not be easy but it will be cool!

Hours of entertainment assembling it. Worked well.

I'd be lying if I said this wasn't much more challenging to put together than I was expecting. I consider myself to be fairly good with my hands, much better than average. And even though I took my time, I broke at least 5 pieces in the process. Now, one thing that's not made exactly clear upfront is that there are some extra parts - but you don't exactly know which ones. So I spent quite a bit of time with modeling glue putting a few pieces back together and ensuring they'd still work - so that was kinda frustrating. But for folks leaving negative reviews because this model posses a challenge ... they're really missing the point. That's what was kinda fun about it all. And now looking back at some of my frustrations ... well ... that was really part of the (pleasant) experience. And when the final piece was in and I cranked the gears and everything worked perfectly, I let out a belly laugh like I was a kid again. Let's just say I'll be doing more these....

I am a mechanically-minded, professional woodworker, who loves a challenge with my hands. So I dove into the ROKR marble run puzzles by assembling the 4-pack, each of which was fun, somewhat challenging and rewarding by taking my time and following the well-described, step-by-step instructions. Each took 6.5-7 hours for me to complete. Then I wanted to do the Goliath. The best of them all, so they say, and it is. HOWEVER, without the experience of the first four, this would've been absolutely frustrating. The instructions are FAR less detailed. The illustrations are much smaller and they leave a lot up to your experience with previous marble runs. So, was it worth it? Absolutely. BUT, buyer beware. This is NOT for kids or inexperienced builders. Had the building instructions been as good as the 4 previous puzzles, I'd have given it a 5.

I really enjoyed putting this kit together , altho the pieces are very thin an fragile it definitely requires a lot of patients and care putting together . I found the use of needle nose pliers necessary to press many of the parts together to avoid breaking them . Even though they say no glue is needed , foresight tells me many of the parts will come loose before its completed , so I used small amounts of wood glue on most of the joints pressed together . Especially on the tracks an rails , wasn't necessary for the steel pins . Also needed glue on all the steps to keep the spiral track in place , once completed everything worked fine , works best on a level surface . Fun project if you take your time , but probably to fragile and complicated for younger children , some of the directions are a little vague and not quite clear .

My child is nine years old, but he likes ROKR very much. This is his six ROKA. Although it is very challenging for him, he still enjoyed the process. Only one problem is some part is too easy to break , my boy has to use hot glue to fix it .

I like the way this kit turned out a lot. The pieces are of high quality and fit together nicely. It’s a little above average in difficulty and you’ll need persistence to put it together. But once it’s tuned it works great. To summarize, you’ll need to a) add a guard rail to stop the ball bearings from occasionally exiting the spiral. You can use the left over original plywood cut out. Just find a 5” diameter guide pieces (I used 8mm film can) and use it to cut the outside diameter of the spiral. b) put a plywood wedge with 45 angle under one drop hole (finger points to location in photo) to kick the bearings forward and keep it moving c) add the correct number of spacer rings so the bearing drop freely between the plastic pieces and d) adjust the play in the flip-flop so it alternates properly. Mine works very well and people really like it as do I.

I bought this for my 42 yr old husband and he loved it. We've always loved the movie Fracture (with Anthony Hopkins) and the copper ball mazes in the movie. He put this together over 15hrs. He said, take your time, patience is a virtue. Also, this is the first one he's ever put together. We've made other things similar to this

It was fun to do and you get excited to see the marbles do their thing.

This was a bit of a challenge compared to the others I've built. I'm sure some of you have already run into some build/design issues. One of the major issues was of the drop-down to the placeholder 'flags'. The problem was with the lack of speed buildup once the marble drops to the second level. There's not enough force to engage the flags in order to allow the held marbles to drop. After about 6 marbles there was enough force to push the flags. It just didn't seem right for this to happen. So after much thought and ideas I used a piece of 5/8's tubing in order to allow the marble to gain enough speed/force to hit the flags (see image). I superglued the top of the tub to the bottom of the top run. There were a couple of other issues but were insignificant. The manual had a few areas that needed zoom inserts to better convey the assembly. But overall I'm glad I bought this one. Much more involved that the other Marble Runs.

This is the 5th marble run I've assembled from this company and I've to say it was the most rewarding albeit challenging, even for someone who has done a few of these models. The key to a successful build is patience, patience, patience and to take each step looking at the picture diagrams very carefully. There are some components that should only be attached a certain way and sometimes the only clue is in the drawn figures. I only did a section or two a day, not wanting to rush as this particular model requires careful joining of the parts due to the less bulky material.HINT: gently bevel with sand paper the tabs that will fit into the corresponding slots but don't overdo it! Also, wax the slots where two pieces will interlock with each other. Use only thumb and finger pressure to press the pieces together. There were a couple of places where the joints were a little loose and I had to use super glue to hold them together.All in all, this was the most rewarding marble run of the five I've done - just take your time and don't rush it! Love the complexity of the different runs that the marbles take, raises it to a higher level than the previous ones.

The soft balsa wood parts are easy to break if your not careful. The instructions are confusing at times. To get it two work properly I had to modify some parts. The part numbers are hard to make out on the grey painted sheets of parts which aids the confusion. With a lot of patience, you can make a working model."Brain teaser for kids", not hardly. Even though the parts are all laser-cut this really is only for a modeler experienced in solving construction problems.

My dad used to build "puzzles" like this when I was a kid; I don't remember any of them being quite this fancy and deluxe though! Love the different shading, the contrast between the bare wood and the charcoal wood makes it not only look classy, but makes it easier to see all the intricate levels that your marbles run through! There's a really nice variety of slides & chutes & spirals to watch your marbles do, too, it's really cool.Building it is definitely complicated, but they have made it as clear & as helpful as possible! They include all the helpful tools you'll need, including a small wax stick that you will need OFTEN (though I will say a small emery board is far more effective than the little square of sandpaper that these things always include). It can be quite a challenge to pop out some of the pieces from the wood sheets; I recommend a very thin scalpel to cut the connections before attempting to push them out! I did wind up breaking a few pieces but they glue back together easily.Only complaint on this is that some of the pieces are a little warped. That always seems to be the case with these kits, but I don't usually worry about it because the issue usually straightens itself out once the pieces are all snapped together properly. Unfortunately, I should have worried about it more this time, because there are things you can do to mitigate the warping before assembly, and now it's too late! One of the very large, semi-circular pieces that keeps the marbles lined up as they go into the chute was bent, and while assembly helped, it didn't help enough, so now approximately every 1 in 12 marbles jumps out & goes rolling across the room. It's still cool to see the other 11 marbles.Bottom line is, it's really cool, fascinating to build, looks great when done, but if you notice a piece is warped, deal with it before you begin assemby.

This 3D puzzle was loads of fun to put together and it worked for a short time and again for another short time after some adjustments. The problem is that the pieces are so delicate but require a certain amount to force to put together. Super glue works well on the tiny, wooden pieces, but the continuous loop of marbles are hard to keep going. The instructions about the putting the gears together and waxing them before installing them helped tremendously. On my particular set the laser cutting didn’t make it through the first few parts on the wooden sheet, so I had to use a utility knife to cut it. This might not be a good present for kids under 18, because it might require superglue and an exacto knife. Even with the little problems and some frustration at having to adjust certain parts, it was fascinating to see how the angles, ramps and parts fit. (This said it was “Night City” so I thought there would be lights like in a city at night, but there were no lights—as in a video advertising that set).

Was easy to put together. However did break one piece. Contacted company and never heard back. Was able to glue piece back together. Have to make sure all pieces are put together correctly or balls won't roll.

The instructions ate easy to understand. Work on an appropriate work space.I have not finished this yet so i am not evaluating this on it’s completed operation (but built two mazes).I think this will be an interesting maze.

I bought this for my father while he was recovering from a small injury. He loved it and he took his time with it and sent me progress pictures along the way. He remarked at how great the quality is and also that it does require some attention and that it is not for little kids. I plan on buying him more, he's 82 and these things are great for keeping his mind occupied and sharp.

Fun and challenging. Well made and good instructions. Difficult but not impossible.

I originally thought my son and his 7 1/2 year old daughter would like this puzzle but decided to work on it with my husband instead and we are enjoying it immensely! The directions are fairly easy to follow and the laser cut parts, although fragile, are going together fine. The directions say not for children under 14 and I would have to agree with that. We are in our late 60's and are enjoying it. We haven't got the whole thing together yet, but so far so good. Can't wait to see it done! And the grandkids won't be playing with this one!!!!

Maze was fun to build. Took about 2.5 straight hours. Plenty of spare pieces in case any break or are lost.Edited: was able to.modify it to address the design flaw. Works well enough now! Old comment: Critical design flaw: the ejector at the top of the gear that brings the balls to the top of the maze does not work. Instead of the balls being pushed out of the gear and into the maze path, the balls stay in the gear and fall off the top of the structure. None of the balls even enter the maze. Kind of defeats the purpose of the 'infinite ball maze' when none enter the maze.