Review on 🧩 ROKR Wooden Puzzles Marble Run: Unleash Your Creative and Problem-Solving Skills by Brian Nicholas

Another intricate and beautiful wooden mechanical kit from Rokr. I found this more confusing and complicated than the Rokr pendulum clock I built earlier. In addition to the base, support structures, and many marble ramps, the marble walkway consists of three complex assemblies: a manually operated gear mechanism, an escalator mechanism, and a multi-level swing gate ramp mechanism. Not only does each sub-assembly have many small parts, but the final assembly step of each requires the tricky part of alignment - you have to keep track of the many slots, holes, and free-moving parts. They all have to fit together perfectly for everything to fit together. The gearbox wasn't too complicated. But it was quite difficult to complete the escalator and especially the swing gate assemblies. If you are mechanical and/or used to complex model kits, this task can be fun. I'm both, so it was a deep satisfaction. But I can see how others might find these alignment tasks tedious and/or frustrating. As with my review of the Rokr pendulum clocks, the laser cut quality is impressive. As my previous review reflects, the Rokr packs a lot of small details. It's a really nice touch that more companies should emulate. Unlike a series of pendulum clocks (which mostly consist of parts stacked one on top of the other in a series of parallel planes), there's a lot happening in three-dimensional marbles. There are structures that hang from other structures at right angles. This means that when assembling, force must sometimes be applied in multiple directions or on structures that are not easy to place with a finger to apply back pressure. It's hard to put into words, but suffice it to say that you'll need pretty decent manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination. ETA: I have to say that while the Rokr Marble Run was a more complex build than their pendulum clock, it doesn't require nearly as much post-build tuning/adjustment to work properly. This is a big part of the problem with the watch model. With Marble Run, everything worked right away. Aside from the occasional snagging of the escalator trays (mentioned in the Tips section below), only a few adjustments to the ramps here and there were needed when the balls initially got stuck. Once assembled, the marble walkway is delightful to use. It's really busy. In addition to ramps, slides, and the aforementioned escalator (a true engineering marvel), the intricate design allows the spheres to do different things depending on whether they're the first, second, or third object to move along a given path . The more you look, the more complex and varied the mechanism becomes. Tips: A razor blade is very useful for cutting those tiny pieces of plywood that are intentionally left uncut (to keep the pieces in place during packing/shipping). They can be separated without a knife, but you can damage them. Many of these parts look *very* similar, have complex shapes, and need to be properly aligned. Confirm the part numbers before disconnecting and again when connecting them. Pay close attention to the details on the thinnest sheet of plywood marked "G". There are dozens of tiny wooden "sticks" that look very similar, especially after they've been separated from the sheet. But they have different lengths, which is very important for proper assembly. Rokr offers a wax stick to lubricate some of the moving parts. Be sure to lubricate all points indicated in the instructions. But an unidentified location is the front and back of each compartment, where the balls travel up the escalator. They rise and fall side by side. Sometimes one gets stuck on the other and doesn't come down when it should. *Prior* to final assembly of the escalator mechanism, take a few minutes to apply some wax where the trays slide past each other. I've tried doing this after assembly and at this point it's no longer possible to get wax where it's needed.