toy rec - Kaden Marble Run
May. 24th, 2013 12:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahn(Note: I wrote most of this shortly after E turned 3, and didn't post it because the only place I've been able to find it was out of stock, and it seemed a bit cruel to post it given that. But they're back in stock and even free shipping this weekend! These days, E doesn't play with them as much, though partially because I've had some real problems with our babysitter and cleaning up, so I have them put away at least half the time.)
5/5. In our house, our favorite toy by far is the Kaden Marble Run. We have the "funnel" set and the "wave" set, the latter a gift from my sister where I basically told her, "This is what E wants for Christmas. By which I mean, it is what I want for Christmas."
Basically, these are blocks of wood, nice solid unfinished beech blocks, that have grooves cut into them, straight or curved grooves through which a marble can run. They're machined so that the grooves line up really nicely and you can make long marble tracks (E calls them "slides") by fitting the grooved pieces together. You can also make "tunnels" (E's word) by fitting two similar pieces together to make a cube with a hole through it. I suck at description; the link to the toy shows a picture that has both "tunnels" (the back half) and a flat marble track "slide" (the front half).
These have supplanted every other block/building set that we own, even the legos. (Though as E gets older, the Legos are starting to come back into their own; they were a bit sophisticated for her in her early 3's :) ) The thing that makes them so addictive to play with is that the modular block structure means you can make all kinds of combinations. I was all about making the "tunnels" when we got it, and was surprised to find that E basically just wanted to make a lot of flat "slides." It's pretty cool when your kid can show you a different way of playing with a toy that you didn't think of :P :)
They also are very versatile for a large range of ages. They work as standalone blocks to stack for really little kids; when E first got them at age 2.5-ish she would put them together to make the flat long marble track "slides"; and now at age 3 she is starting to get the concept of adding gravitational potential energy to the mix. E has also turned them over and used them as regular blocks, building "stairs" or roads for her toy cars. And D and I love them too, which is the other thing that is so awesome about it; I suspect part of why it is E's favorite toy is that she has realized that she can pretty much always get me to play with it, because I never get tired of it either.
(Now, I will admit that I apparently have a deep-seated need for ball/marble-rolling sets that appears not to have been assuaged in my own childhood, or something. I got her a Legos tubes set, and my sister bought a plastic Marble Run set (she is clearly gunning to be Favorite Aunt) -- these are also very popular in our house, and it's extremely hypnotic to watch the marbles go down the run, and it's cheaper than the Kaden -- although the thing I like less about this set is that a) it's all about running the marbles rather than the building, and b) it doesn't appeal to quite the large age range that the Kaden blocks do -- it's hard for E to figure out how to fit them together at this stage, whereas she is totally figuring out the Kaden blocks, and c) it's not nearly so multi-purpose; the plastic bits can basically be used for one function and that's it. But on the other hand, having a plastic marble run built on the floor is guaranteed to be the first thing kids gravitate to when they come visit, so there's that :) )
I don't have any other wooden marble run set, e.g., Tedco or HABA or Cuboro, all of which seem to be aimed towards a slightly higher age group. Neither of them seem quite as versatile as Kaden, especially for very young children, although Cuboro appears more complex and may be more interesting than the Kaden blocks for an older child. Cuboro is a lot more expensive, also (which makes sense; the blocks look a lot more complicated to make); HABA seems price-wise fairly similar. (I'd be very interested to know what people's experiences were with other wooden marble run systems.)
The Kaden blocks are, on the scale of small-child toys, expensive ($50/set, and although we did quite well with one set, having two sets is AWESOME), but in terms of cost divided by number of hours played with it, it's one of the cheapest toys we have, really. (umm, if you discount paper plates and aluminum foil and the toys of that nature ;) ) And the blocks are nice and hefty and will basically last forever, so. (D complains because he thinks it would be cheaper to get some power tools and make one's own blocks, but eh.) Seriously, if I had known how fun these were, I would have bought them before I had a kid :)
The only downside is that they contain several plain wooden blocks. I understand that they are meant as supports, but it's hard not to think that if they had only had the courage of their convictions they would have made all the blocks with grooves. Then again, E really likes the plain blocks as well, particularly for pretend play, so there's that.
5/5. In our house, our favorite toy by far is the Kaden Marble Run. We have the "funnel" set and the "wave" set, the latter a gift from my sister where I basically told her, "This is what E wants for Christmas. By which I mean, it is what I want for Christmas."
Basically, these are blocks of wood, nice solid unfinished beech blocks, that have grooves cut into them, straight or curved grooves through which a marble can run. They're machined so that the grooves line up really nicely and you can make long marble tracks (E calls them "slides") by fitting the grooved pieces together. You can also make "tunnels" (E's word) by fitting two similar pieces together to make a cube with a hole through it. I suck at description; the link to the toy shows a picture that has both "tunnels" (the back half) and a flat marble track "slide" (the front half).
These have supplanted every other block/building set that we own, even the legos. (Though as E gets older, the Legos are starting to come back into their own; they were a bit sophisticated for her in her early 3's :) ) The thing that makes them so addictive to play with is that the modular block structure means you can make all kinds of combinations. I was all about making the "tunnels" when we got it, and was surprised to find that E basically just wanted to make a lot of flat "slides." It's pretty cool when your kid can show you a different way of playing with a toy that you didn't think of :P :)
They also are very versatile for a large range of ages. They work as standalone blocks to stack for really little kids; when E first got them at age 2.5-ish she would put them together to make the flat long marble track "slides"; and now at age 3 she is starting to get the concept of adding gravitational potential energy to the mix. E has also turned them over and used them as regular blocks, building "stairs" or roads for her toy cars. And D and I love them too, which is the other thing that is so awesome about it; I suspect part of why it is E's favorite toy is that she has realized that she can pretty much always get me to play with it, because I never get tired of it either.
(Now, I will admit that I apparently have a deep-seated need for ball/marble-rolling sets that appears not to have been assuaged in my own childhood, or something. I got her a Legos tubes set, and my sister bought a plastic Marble Run set (she is clearly gunning to be Favorite Aunt) -- these are also very popular in our house, and it's extremely hypnotic to watch the marbles go down the run, and it's cheaper than the Kaden -- although the thing I like less about this set is that a) it's all about running the marbles rather than the building, and b) it doesn't appeal to quite the large age range that the Kaden blocks do -- it's hard for E to figure out how to fit them together at this stage, whereas she is totally figuring out the Kaden blocks, and c) it's not nearly so multi-purpose; the plastic bits can basically be used for one function and that's it. But on the other hand, having a plastic marble run built on the floor is guaranteed to be the first thing kids gravitate to when they come visit, so there's that :) )
I don't have any other wooden marble run set, e.g., Tedco or HABA or Cuboro, all of which seem to be aimed towards a slightly higher age group. Neither of them seem quite as versatile as Kaden, especially for very young children, although Cuboro appears more complex and may be more interesting than the Kaden blocks for an older child. Cuboro is a lot more expensive, also (which makes sense; the blocks look a lot more complicated to make); HABA seems price-wise fairly similar. (I'd be very interested to know what people's experiences were with other wooden marble run systems.)
The Kaden blocks are, on the scale of small-child toys, expensive ($50/set, and although we did quite well with one set, having two sets is AWESOME), but in terms of cost divided by number of hours played with it, it's one of the cheapest toys we have, really. (umm, if you discount paper plates and aluminum foil and the toys of that nature ;) ) And the blocks are nice and hefty and will basically last forever, so. (D complains because he thinks it would be cheaper to get some power tools and make one's own blocks, but eh.) Seriously, if I had known how fun these were, I would have bought them before I had a kid :)
The only downside is that they contain several plain wooden blocks. I understand that they are meant as supports, but it's hard not to think that if they had only had the courage of their convictions they would have made all the blocks with grooves. Then again, E really likes the plain blocks as well, particularly for pretend play, so there's that.
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