GraviTrax Vertical Starter-Set

Product Information

Test your creative limits and the laws of physics with the “GraviTrax PRO Extreme Starter-Set”! Vertical components and four action accessories from the PRO series (Splitter, Mixer, Turntable, Helix) combine to create more challenges, more possibilities, and more extreme fun! Set up’s a snap as children explore STEM concepts while engaging in independent, creative play. Simply add more accessories for endless possibilities to experience the power of gravity and educational fun today!

The GraviTrax sets are designed for anyone aged 8 and up (though I might recommend 10 and up for the GraviTrax PRO) and are perfect for solo, group, or family play. They are sophisticated enough to be fun for adults on their own, as well. The GraviTrax PRO, along with its expansions and accessories, is a marvelous set that can build both simple setups and elaborate configurations, depending on the ages and desires of the people playing. It can be relatively affordable, just by purchasing a base set, or it can be something you literally build on over time, with expansion sets and accessories. Other than needing to be careful with your cardboard base tiles, the set is pretty sturdy and should last for a very long time, bringing joy to multiple generations. It’s already had plenty of play in my house, and I look forward to bringing it out for any design-minded visitor. Ravensburger sent my ten-year-old son and me six of the latest GraviTrax expansions to try out. We rated them over four different features as follows: I was surprised with the consistency here, simply because of how energetic this expansion is. I expected the marbles to go flying off all over the place, but they went where they were supposed to the vast majority of the time.Consistency: How consistently did each expansion do what it was supposed to do? For this, we used each piece 10 times in an identical setup and recorded how often it worked correctly.

Tl;dr: All in all, GraviTrax and GraviTrax PRO are incredibly fun marble run sets for STEM-minded kids and adults. As I got older, I still loved my marble game—I still have it—but longed for something more involved, interesting, and customizable. I got my kids one of those plastic marble run sets that you can put together yourself, but it wasn’t terribly satisfying for me, as it was difficult to build anything complicated. Recently, though, I had a chance to try out the GraviTrax PRO set, an improvement on the basic GraviTrax set that GeekMom Sophie reviewed for us previously. GraviTrax PRO To start, a little bit of assembly is required. Hexes need to be punched out of the four base plates (tip: save these to be used as game pieces for other games you play!), and the pillars and balconies need to be assembled—this is pretty easy as everything is marked with letters and there are instructions in the booklet. Once those are set up, though, you won’t need to do it again. One Scoop Piece (in seven pieces – this is the only expansion that requires significant construction before first use) The instructions for the included projects are pretty clear, but for some of the more involved setups, it can be difficult to tell where to attach the balconies, since they are transparent and harder to see on the busy diagrams.Despite its enthusiasm, the Scoop is remarkably consistent and worked perfectly every time we tried it. The one expansion I would advise avoiding is the Trampoline. Scoring just 18/40 in our challenge, it was inconsistent, hard to use, and included the least amount of bonus pieces which made it poor value for money. While it looks cool and is probably the most fun to watch when it actually works, it’s just not worth your money in my opinion unless you’re looking for a complete set of all the expansions. Watching the marbles lift out of the Volcano like an unfurling flower when the button is hit is weirdly satisfying. The fact that 1/3 of the pillars don’t have a tunnel through them seems like a missed opportunity. There is no disadvantage to having a tunnel through a pillar, and having some without a tunnel limits your options.

The Mixer accessory provides a random element. Marbles that reach the Mixer, from multiple directions, swirl down the vortex center and are redirected to one of three directions below. CORE: Simply be creative is the plan here: with uncomplicated building elements that can be used intuitively and in a variety of ways and where kids from the age of 8 have fun trying things out and getting started. All beginnings are easy! The marbles are made of metal and are decently heavy for their size, so they roll really well and keep their momentum. You can design your setup to make marbles go up, down, whip around corners, or whoosh down vortices. Planning is half the fun with this set, as is swapping out pieces and trying new combinations to create thrilling and sometimes-unpredictable runs. The Lifter expansion, as might be obvious from the name, lifts marbles vertically to three different levels depending on how many pieces you use to build it. It needs to be manually operated each time by a button and can send marbles in different directions at the top. What’s in the Box?

Last summer, my son and I were sent a set of Gravitrax toys for review and ended up loving this elaborate and creative toy. Today, we’re still playing with it regularly and have been taking a look at six of the latest GraviTrax expansions now available to make your GraviTrax system even more impressive than ever before.