No matter who in your family has lost his marbles, you'll have fun finding them again with these wooden marble runs. There are plenty of DIY and plastic versions of these toys, but we love the aesthetic and stability of the wooden versions. We've rounded up 5 of our favorites for you to peruse.
• Cuboro Marble Run: A beautiful set from Swiss company Cuboro that has channels as well as twisting and turning tunnels.
• Marble Run with Lift at Wildwood Toys: This simple run has an elevator that raises the wooden marbles to the top and drops them into the track.
• Sounding Marble Tree at Ecoseek: Ecofriendly and musical, the "tree" drops a marble down onto differently-sized wooden "leaves," creating different tones as it falls.
• Marble Run by Quadrilla: Quadrilla makes the granddaddy of marble runs, with lots of expansion packs and solid wood blocks.
• HABA Skyscraper Marble Run at Holz Toys: HABA's skyscraper makes the marble run a sleek, tall building where marbles fall down floor by floor.
Do you have a favorite marble toy? Let us know in the comments!
(Images: as linked above)
Which Wall Color Gives the Best Sleep?
Ana Creates a Community at Home
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Z2 iPod Dock and Wi...
How to Make Easy 3-Ingredient Energy Bars at Home
Recipe: Spring Fruit and Nut Tabouli
Here are a few more wooden options that we found.
Mindware has a good one that our friends like a lot. It's for ages 7+.
Tedco has a nice set with well-made wood pieces that are simple but easy to use for the younger age group.
Here's a larger Tedco set.
My daughter loves her Q-BA-MAZE.
We have the Big Box set. It's not wood, but is a really creative toy!
This is going on my Christmas idea list. I wish the first Swiss one was not so expensive though! Although a great investment as I could totally see this in an adult's home on the coffee table for all to use. Thanks!
The Haba piece above is just an add-on to their large, and fantastic marble runs. And the Haba version is much nicer than Quadrilla. Plus, many of the support pieces can be used interchangeably as building blocks.
http://www.amazon.com/Haba-Ball-Track-Construction-Set/dp/B000F94GMO/ref=sr_1_2?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1342120970&sr=1-2&keywords=haba+ball+track
I also love the new silicone clamps which help when our three year old plays too. http://www.amazon.com/HABA-Marble-Run-Clamps-Ramps/dp/B0033LQVTW/ref=pd_sim_t_20
Finally, for 1-3 this is a classic http://www.amazon.com/Haba-Ball-Track-Roll/dp/B0002HYFF2/ref=pd_sim_t_45
We have a plastic run: Discovery Toys' Marbleworks. While I appreciate the beauty of the wooden runs, the stability of Marbleworks wins every time. You can create really elaborate structures that are very, very sturdy. We had a small wooden set first but it was hugely frustrating to have a small bump or misalignment result in the marbles getting stuck in the middle. Usually in some spot that you can't change without throwing everything else off. Some of the cheaper plastic runs have this same issue because the joints are not robust.
For a plastic toy, Marbleworks is fairly aesthetically pleasing -- akin to Lego. It has held up really well to lots of playtime, too. Seemed a little pricey when I bought it, and I see on Amazon there are many more competing products than there were back then so maybe you can find a good one for less. But I'd pay the extra $20 or so after our great experience and the huge amount of playtime it generated.
I'll second the Discovery Toys Marbleworks. It's the favorite toy in my house and every single kid who comes over heads right to it (we don't even disassemble it - only time all the pieces get put away is when my 2 year old daughter goes godzilla on it and tears it apart). It doesn't look as pretty as the wooden ones but it is fun to play with!
We love our Quadrilla set. Marbles clacking down a wooden track make a lovely sound, and we recently bought their music 'blocks' which make it sound even nicer. (I like the look of the Haba track but, even if it were available in Australia, it is way more expensive, and unlike the Quadrilla blocks, the Haba blocks sit on top of each other rather than fitting inside each other, making the marble run less stable.)
The best part of our marble track is my son wandering around complaining, "I lost my marbles!"