Wood Trick Wooden Marble Run Electric Motorized - 3D Wooden Puzzles for Adults to Build - 15x14 in - Roller Coaster Wooden Model Kits for Adults to Build

I just finished the Wood Trick Spiral puzzle and now I’m starting this Galaxy. These are both going to be great additions to my collection of 8 marble run puzzles. The Wood Trick puzzles are my most satisfying and rewarding to build. One thing that has made the construction easier is to organize the part cards to see their number much easier and keep the parts from falling out before needing them. You can remove the top of a box (I use a large shoe box) and cut slots out on both sides (1/2 inch wide) to set the part wood cards down into the slots. You can then easily see the card numbers without having to go through your pile of cards. Hopefully this easy to make card organizer helps others. Will update this note with a review of the finished Galaxy in a few weeks. Have fun and a lot of patience. Just completed the Galaxy and it was another one of my favorite builds. Parts fit together nicely and snug. It was definitely a fun build and extremely satisfying to see it finished. It works properly with only two items needing attention unlike most of my collection’s completed puzzles. The diverter part number 225 on page 28 would not open right or left far enough when the first marble went past it. With the diverter staying pretty much in the middle the marbles would stack up behind it and not pass to one track or the other. I lengthened the side arms on this part and the diverter works perfectly allowing the marbles to move to one or the other tracks. To lengthen the sides of this part I used the small pieces from around the large gears that fall off when they are punched out of the cards. These triangular small pieces fit the side arms of this diverter piece perfectly and are a perfect length to move the diverter from side to side far enough when the marbles pass by. I attached a picture of the diverter with the extensions glued on. The other problem was the large Ferris wheel assembly and the motor box would move up from the base allowing the gears to misalign and bind up the drive line. The pressure of the motor drive gear driving the large gear would allow both to move up out of the puzzles base. I don’t like gluing pieces to the base of my puzzles as things may need work down the road after running them for awhile. A thin strong wire around part number 4 and 5 on page 33 and the base and a wire around the motor assembly holding it to the base works well. Have plenty of patients, don’t rush the assembling, have fun with it, and you to will enjoy the satisfaction of finishing a great marble run puzzle. One of the best now in my collection.

This is a very well designed product. Everything fit together as it is supposed to. The instructions were quite easy to follow, despite what some people have reported. The pieces are fairly easy to find and identify, especially once you realize that the picture on the page, is the board you should be looking on. I spent about 18 hours putting the whole thing together, working a few evenings part of two week-end days, and broke only two pieces. One, because I did not pay attention and fitted the piece wrong and had to remove it to correct the mistake. A little wood glue fixed that problem. The other piece broke when I tried to force it into place instead of sliding it in like instructions tell you to do. The kit included two spares for that piece. I admit that I did not do much sanding and smoothing, only on the gear teeth and a few rotating parts. Still, when I started it up the first time, everything ran smoothly and the whole system worked just as it is supposed to. All in all, it is a very satisfying project. Follow the easy instructions, clean up the rough edges on moving parts, use a little wax where necessary, and you will have a very nice, working model. I will definitely be looking at other Wood Trick projects.

When I first read about this product I was hesitant. After all, it's a lot of money. Still curious I read some of the comments posted, from 1 to 5 stars. Some were unhappy with the product because it didn't work correctly (the balls flew off the course), but more were happy and even shared some suggestions. I took note of some of the suggestions from the happy customers, and was a bit weary of the possible pit-falls unhappy customers pointed out. First, I decided that I was going to put this product together to the best of my ability, and use some of the suggestions that happy customers (marked with *) left in their comments: I was very careful taking the parts from the boards using the provided tool and at time using an X-Acto knife (*). I used a bent-nose pliers (*) to press parts together tightly, or to take connections apart if not done correctly. The instruction booklet is very elaborate, though at times it took me a bit to understand certain sections. The images are clear and minute differences are well marked. Pay attention, sometimes images of the same parts are displayed in mirror-image. The pieces fit together perfectly, and the engineering of all these parts is amazing! Don't forget to wax all the parts that need it. The was provided isn't enough so I got a candle to do that. I loved the process of putting it together and finding ways to do it. When I first started the marble run, the balls flew off the track when making the first 180 degree turn down the slope. Is this a bad product after all? As it turns out the flimsy pieces making the turn possible weren't fully seated so I fixed that (don't force them in from the top, but instead slide them in from the side). Glad I found a few spare ones on the boards. This product is fun to put together and works perfectly!

I purchased this WOOD TRICK GALAXCY for my 75th birthday, was fun assembling and fascinating to watch run. Few times assembling was tricky but worked out fine, just follow the instructions closely and most of all don't rush. I think the price is fair for the piece of marvel, assembly is not difficult taking your time.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through it and I love it. This is my third model of this type, and first by this company. It is, for the most part what I call "idiot proof", insofar that most times parts will not fit in the wrong places. So if it doesn't fit, look again and you should find your mistake and be able to correct it. I am looking forward to finishing it and seeing it in action. I do have a couple of cons that I encountered that need mentioning. Almost right away, after removing a few parts, several other parts needed later became separated without pushing them out. This required me to label these parts (they were all circular gear parts of varying sizes) and keep track of them separately. It made me think about what would happen if someone started out by separating all the parts first. Don't do that! And then on the other hand, there were many parts, particularly on Sheet 4, that were very hard to pop out. Often the pieces would sliver, with a sliver hanging off, or, a small sliver breaking off the piece. This is a problem when the pieces are long and thin. It took way too much extra time trying to get out pieces carefully due to not being cut quite enough. Even with extreme care, I cracked a couple pieces. Those pieces were easily repaired with a drop of Elmers. I also couldn't seem to get the sphere to sit snugly on the base. It kept wobbling. Again, a drop or two of carefully placed glue was the solution. You have to be careful using glue when you have moving parts. The model is intended to be completed without glue, but I think I will add a couple drops in a few other places that seem fragile. The directions are all graphic with no text. The sequence of assembly varies from page to page; sometimes going left to right, top to bottom, but other pages the sequence is displayed in an "s" pattern (l to r, r to l, l to r) , and yet other times, the sequence goes in a left-right up-down and diagonal direction. There are arrows that show which is the next step, but they are so light I didn't even notice them until about the 4th or 5th page. I don't have to patience to use the tiny piece of wax included to use to wax where indicated. I fired up a wax wafer melter and dunked those pieces in the melted wax. If you do it quickly, there shouldn't be too much extra wax. Put newspaper down because it's a pain to clean up little wax crumbs. I can't wait to finish it up!

I read many reviews on this before buying this model and I tried some of the other wood trick models before purchasing this one. First off this is some of the highest quality material. 3 ply plywood. Try and buy this and have fun sourcing the material. Next, this is first class laser quality work. This is top shelf. For those having issues, try a less complex model or maybe lego. This is a model for anyone who has a good mechanical aptitude and has patience. The instructions are absolutely perfect. Unsurpassed, color, 3D and detailed. My advice is not to get too far ahead of yourself on this and to trust the instructions. The flow of the build is a perfect mix of complexity to test a person's abilities and organized to keep a person curious about what's to come and to keep the builder interested. I had some minor adjustments to make and this functions as I had imagined. There is an entire board of extra parts. The planetary gears are amazing. I am curious if the engineer of this model is a rocket scientist or an accomplished software engineer or maybe both!

I have made many models over the years, including sailing ships where you build the hull from pieces of raw wood. This product is very well made! The instructions are great and the pieces fit together extremely well! Very impressed. No glue, but you will need an Exacto knife or small tools to cut edges. They provide sandpaper and wax (for gears touching other gears) along with wooden tool to punch out pieces. Tips: After punching out the pieces for a particular section, I sanded the edges. In addition, if you are fitting square pieces into square holes, I sanded a very slight bevel off the edges of the inserting piece to make it easier to get the piece “started” into the hole. Then use a blunt end of a tool…even the Exacto knife will do…..to push the piece into the hole. This is particularly harder fitting pieces into the base. Those seem to fit tighter and you will need to push those in hard. Make sure you get each annd every piece all the way into the hole! This is important to make sure the entire marble maze works as intended. I only had one small glitch after completing, but I just moved and pulled a little bit on the piece where the marble wasn’t completing its journey and that fixed the problem. In other words, adjust the section to make the marble go where it is intended. Have fun! I did!

Some of these types of puzzles are possible to put together but instructions are lacking, the pieces are not engineered well, the structure is flimsy, or the outcome is more luck than skill. THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE! I was recovering from a bad flu and spent several hours just following the extremely well-written instructions to eventually have a fully assembled and working Marble Machine. I did make a couple of mistakes which were easily corrected and I broke one part but it had a replacement in the extra sheet. Sand the gears, rub on the paraffin, and with a little tweaking it runs really well. The grandkids love to turn it on and play with it. The only real problem I had was one of the paths with elastic band "ladders". I never did understand exactly how that was supposed to work and what tension was required but found a setup that is very reliable. The mechanism is very clever and high quality. If my wife can stand it I'll be doing more....:)