Pro - 3D Puzzles for Adults, Wooden Marble Maze Kit to Build, Play, & Display, 8" Cube, DIY Crafts for Teens, Brain Teaser Puzzles, 217 Pieces of Laser-Cut Wood

I have built two of these and purchased three. Lot of fun to build. Looks great. People are drawn to it. Built like a dump truck…very solid. The maze itself is a worthy challenge but not impossible. It takes a few days to learn the correct path and to master certain obstacles. Prob not something you would want to give to someone who doesn’t have average or better fine motor skills.PRO TIP 1: Run the marble through all of the circles and down all of the stairs/ramps/pathways before you place the maze inside it’s acrylic box. The marble can get hung up in those places if they are not perfectly centered. You’ll want to adjust them before sealing the cube. I made this mistake on my first build and had to take the box apart to fix the spots where the marble would get stuck.PRO TIP 2: If you do have to take the box apart to maybe sand a certain piece where your ball is getting stuck, make sure you pull the maze out of the acrylic box and do the sanding far away. I did what I thought was a tiny bit of sanding with the maze still inside the box. That super tiny amount of sawdust stuck to the inside walls of the box and looked ugly. I had to take the box apart to clean the sawdust out.PRO TIP 3: Wash your hands thoroughly before assembling the acrylic box. Greasy hands leave fingerprints on the acrylic glass. I learned this the hard way. You won’t be able to wipe your fingerprints off of the inside of the box once you seal it (without having to take it apart again). The tiniest bit of Windex works great on the exterior side of the glass panels btw.PRO TIP 4: Buy a couple extra acrylic panels from Intrism. They are only $3 each. You’ll be happy you did. My family has cracked the acrylic glass twice now. It doesn’t happen often but drops do happen.PRO TIP 5: The designers laser etched arrows onto the track that look like > to guide you through the maze. But, they are very faint and difficult to see on some areas of the track (especially deep inside the cube). To make them more visible, I took a fine point brown Sharpie and colored over every arrow on each panel before assembly (See Photo). I also added a shaft to each arrow (turning this: > into this: ->). Making the arrows more visible helps A LOT!PRO TIP 6: The pieces come in seven 8” x 8” wood panels (labeled “A” through “G”) that you punch each piece out of. Do yourself a favor and take a large marker and trace the marker over the “A” through “G” letters on each panel (See Photo). This will help your eye find each panel quickly and save hit time. The designers used a computer program to place all 200+ pieces on the smallest number of wood panels. Unfortunately, fitting all of the pieces on just seven panels means that you will pull a piece from Panel A for one step only to pull your next piece from Panel D only to pull your next piece from Panel G, and so on and so forth. Making the letter hi-vis will save time.PRO TIP 7: Make sure each piece fits FLUSH before proceeding to the next step. There are some joints where you will need to apply a LOT of pressure to the pieces and/or sand the connection to get them to join correctly. Take the time to do it. Failure to do this might make pieces at the end of the construction super difficult to fit. Plus, accessing the interior of the maze (with even a child’s hand) is impossible after you finish the build.Following each of the aforementioned tips cut two hours off of my build time from my first build to the second.OTHER COMMENTS: Build your own stand. The one provided by Intrism is barely sturdy enough to support the weight of the fully built marble maze unless it is balanced perfectly. Even the smallest touch will knock it off the stand provided. Beware of small children and dog tails!I painted the start and finish lines (See Photo). It’s not necessary but it does make the start/finish easier to find for people who are picking it up for the first time.Overrall, this is a really awesome product. The designer put a LOT of thought into the track design. The build was a TON of fun. Solving the maze itself and discovering the various shortcuts intentionally built into the maze will keep you, kids, and guests occupied for hours on hours. This is a perfect gift for someone with a lake house, beach house, camp, etc. or anyone who loves wooden puzzles. I will gift this marble maze several more times. There isn’t a better marble maze out there.

this product is pretty awesome! maze was fun to put together, not too easy or too hard. took me roughly ten hours over a couple days. some pieces toward the end required a little gentle persuasion to fit property. one of the pieces broke during the build. I emailed the company and they sent me not one, but two of the pieces that I broke- at no charge, and two day express mail! I thought at first that $80 was a little steep, but this product is worth it. they sent with it a code go for $20 off another one also (no, I will not share code). I've only tried the maze a couple times, but can tell it will be challenging and fun. kudos to intrism for making a such a cool puzzle that will provide tons of fun even after finishing the build. from what I can tell this is a small business that has only this one product (which is a great reason to buy in itself) and I hope they are working on more cool projects. if you're thinking about it you should go ahead and buy it, it's worth the money. it also looks really cool just as a display piece! also don't pay attention to reviews that chastise for not having written directions. written directions would not help. build instructions are perfectly sufficient as is.

This kit just sands out vs. Ugears and some other kits. First there is one whole sheet with extra parts, and I think it has at least 1 of everything breakable. Next each instruction clearly shows you the 1 part you are putting in and tells you what sheet it is on. I found this works better than the approach with the numbers and where it is on a sheet. Then the tolerances on these pieces amaze me, some are down around 1/64 of an inch, but at the same time pieces were much easier than some to punch out. Also I only needed glue on a few pieces, and in all cases it was easy to apply. Finally there are really ingenious joins and other things like a spiral staircase with curved handrail or a piece that can flex so you can get it into place.So then lets talk about what you build. Unlike every other kid, this is as much fun to play with post build as it is to build. Unlike most marble mazes that are a linear path, this maze has multiple areas where you can turn two directions, and only one of them is correct. And sometimes you don't find out you took the wrong path for several minutes. Also the clean box is the perfect touch, because it allows people to play with it and not get dusty. Also this thing looks amazing, like an M.C. Escher work.I think the only downsides is the marble maze is quite difficult, so younger kids may not enjoy it.

A great way to relax and enjoy the product.