Marble Night City 3D Wooden Puzzle

This was a fun little project, but you definitely need some patience to do it.
This isn’t really for kids unless you are supervising them. These parts are tougher than they look, but you can still easily break them. Have some glue ready to go (not included).
The instructions are good for the most part; I would have been willing to pay a little more for color instructions, but they are fine as is.
There are a couple of parts that should have been made a little thicker, particularly the ramps. You end up trying to bend wood and it’s not really flexible. You can make it work, but it can be a chore.
But it’s a solid little project. Should take 6-10 hours; probably not a one day project.

Building this was a little tedious and required patience. There were a few times were i tried to rush it an ended making mistakes. I also found having small needle noise pliers were helpful to sort flattened the insertion ends just slightly to help get them in the slot without breaking. Having some gel super glue on hand was helpful for my own blunders.
Built this for my son to play with (he is 2 going on 3) and he just loves that all he has to do is keep turning the crank and it keeps going. He is just so amazed by it. I would definitely buy this product again and I highly recommend it.

The marble run uses gravity to send ten steel balls done a complex and multiple path slope. The concept is great but the instructions and illustrations are not clear enough and easily cause mistakes.
The slope of the raceways must be exact or the balls hang up or go over the edge. If pieces are not joined perfectly, achieving the perfect slope becomes impossible.
I had to make my own slope adjustments by gluing small pieces of wood scraps to force proper alignment.

While this is definitely not for kids, I really enjoyed putting it together. The pieces are very accurately cut and well-marked. You have to be careful not to break them, some a pretty fragile. Once you get acquainted with how things go together it isn't a problem. I broke a couple of pieces, but they were easily repaired with some wood glue. The instructions are all pictures and some were a little small, but I took a pic with my phone and zoomed in to figure those out. There are also some videos that help (QR codes in the manual direct you to the videos.) There were a couple of times that i tried to make something work before completing the assembly and was worried that things didn't align properly, but later steps in the assembly fixed every issue. If you are impatient, or have trouble following instructions closely, this isn't for you, but I loved it. I ordered my second one just a few days after completing the first one. Highly recommended.

Yes, it will go together (maybe), but it takes some puzzling to get it all to work; Make sure the "rails" give the balls enough room to travel as you build it... this will require a lot of sanding. So will all of the nibs and tabs that all the rails and other parts are attached to.
Some necessities I've found on this project;
1. Get a Dremel-type tool. You'll need it plenty.
2. White glue, toothpicks, tweezers also.
3. Patience, patience, patience.
I only had one part break but it wasn't critical.
Be forewarned, it's prolly not going to work perfectly...
But as you know, that very fact is the REASON to buy and build this kit...
I'm still debugging mine but it works well now.
It is an amazing assembly of parts, and I suggest testing your build as you assemble it so there are no despair surprises in final assembly-- The end result is well worth it.

Took us a little longer than suggested 7 hrs I believe it took us about 11-12. But we took our time prices are fragile.
Had an awesome time building and seeing it work once finished.

I bought this for my future son-in-law and he loved it. He spent a whole evening putting it together!

The hand crank works fine but now it can run continuously. I was able to superglue a round Lego to the final wood nut holding the crank, with the ability to easily unplug it and go back to the hand crank.

All pieces cut out perfectly. Overall, instructions were pretty good. Some pieces are very fragile so be careful where you apply pressure. Take your time and you will be fine.

Enjoyed building amazing the way all fit togethwr

Finally committed to building this bad boy today, and HOT DANG it’s the hardest but most rewarding ROKR model I’ve done!🙌
Only broke two pieces, luckily they plot the spares pretty well, and I have a perfectly functional unit. This ain’t for the faint of heart, there’s a lot of spatial reasoning and tool usage challenges to work your way through but man…it’s so worth it!!

Got this for Christmas from my wife. I'm a 66 year old engineer and this is the 6th ThinkPuzzles model that I have built in the past couple years. I thoroughly enjoy putting them together. As a now semi-experienced builder, my advice for a successful build is don't rush, take occasional breaks to avoid mental fatigue, follow the directions carefully, and pay close attention to the details.
As careful as I am, I nearly always break one or two pieces during the assembly of any of these models, usually by accidentally applying just a little too much force - the pieces fit very snugly and can sometimes be tricky. In all cases, I've been able to repair the damage with a little patience and a little wood glue. This kit was no exception. In this case, I snapped one of the little guard rails into two pieces, but with some carpenters glue and a toothpick to apply it, it's all good.
Once assembled, I had two issues getting everything to work properly. One of them was my fault, the other wasn't. First, as careful as I was, there was a ramp that needed to be installed into the lowest possible position in its mating piece, and I installed it too high. I had to partially disassemble that section to correct it. That one was on me. The other one involved the little tilting subassembly at the end of the first chute. It's supposed to flip back and forth each time a ball comes down the chute so that every other ball takes the alternate path. Mine stubbornly kept returning to the same position after each ball instead of flipping. After messing unsuccessfully with various solutions, I ended up putting one of the spare black spacers on either side of the tilting mechanism and adjusting their positions to hinder the motion of the tilter a bit. When properly tweaked, the ball coming down the chute had enough force to flip the tilter, but gravity was not enough to flip it back to the incorrect position.
Following all this, everything worked beautifully. I'm very pleased with the result.