Review on 14-Year-Old Mimax Marble Building Kit for Educational Purposes by Mike West

I am looking at a set of 80 marbles. The product page says Mimax but the packaging says it is a Bheddi brand. Either way, what you get here are duplo brick fakes with some special pieces that fit together to form a marble ramp walkway. This set does some things right, but otherwise you have to make some compromises when buying. First, the instructions are absolutely terrible. If you're used to working with Lego's bright, detailed, step-by-step instructions, forget it. These instructions are not. You have a few steps to build a whole tower with a marble walkway, but it's very difficult to follow. At 4 years old there is no way to build a picture on a box. Second, the instructions don't even exactly match the parts you have in the box. The base plate in the box is 16 x 16 where the instructions say 16 x 12. That confused me from the start. Third, parts are very cheap. Hollows have a specific feel and finish. These pieces weigh about half as much as duplos and don't fit together as evenly from piece to piece. The balls also come in two halves, and they don't fit together perfectly. I had 3 blue halves and 3 orange halves in the box, so I made an orange balloon, a blue balloon, and a 50-50 balloon. Fourth, the design of the 80-piece box in the picture is weak. In fact, it might take a dozen more pieces to hold it together tightly. I don't know if you can tell from the pictures but if you look closely you can see how the minimal amount of detail is used to create towers and supports. There are no structural reinforcements. Lego would never sell such a weak build. Finally, given that these items are intended to be Duplo fakes, I believe the age range should be between 2 and 5 years old. Well maybe these parts are smaller and thinner than anything Duplo makes and they are a real hazard for small children. And the flagpole is only a danger to small children - someone will gouge their eyes out. I highly recommend removing part of the flag and giving strict, hawkish supervision to children under 3 playing with it. Now that you've figured out how to build this thing, you'll see some redeeming features. Swirling toilet funnels are excellent. You've created them with the right angle(s) so the balls rotate around the funnels a few times before finally falling down the drain hole. You will also find that the parts work with Duplo blocks for the most part. Sometimes you have to put some pieces together with more effort than a 100% Duplo set, but in the end they will work. Ultimately, I would not recommend buying this set individually. However, if you already have a healthy Duplo collection, this is kind of a fun set of special items to add to your Duplo basket. That's my rating: 2 stars as a single set and 4 stars as an addition to existing Duplo houses. I'll take an average and give it a 3 star overall.