MindWare Marble Run Sets, KEVA Planks and Games

What MindWare makes

MindWare makes building toys and games. In our data, its listings cover seven types: marble runs, STEM kits, wooden blocks, family games, preschool games, card games and party games. The building side and the games side are close to even, so this page covers both.

The 40 MindWare listings we work from here sort into these groups:

1. Classic marble run sets and add-ons
2. Q-BA-Maze cube runs
3. KEVA plank sets
4. Other building and STEM kits
5. Qwirkle and its editions
6. Family strategy and thinking games
7. Party games, including two adults-only boxes

The grid above shows all of them with the listed age and, for games, the player count where the listing states one.

MindWare marble run sets

These are the tube-and-track runs: clear plastic tubes, funnels and connectors you build into a tower, then drop a marble in the top.

Five listings in our data, and every one lists 4+:

• Marble Run 123 Piece Set, 4+
• Mega Marble Run 215 Pieces, 4+
• Marble Run 110 Piece Set with Motorized Elevator, 4+
• Marble Run and Add-on Set, 4+
• Marble Run Regular Add-On Set, 4+

The 215-piece Mega set is the largest piece count in the group. The 110-piece set is smaller but adds a motorized elevator, which by its name carries marbles back to the top. The Add-On Set is an add-on, so it belongs with a set you already own.

Which to start with? The 123-piece set if you want a first run without a motor. The elevator set if the builder likes watching the run go by itself. The Mega set if two kids will build at once, or if the first run is already outgrown.

Lucho's take, on the motorized one: "A motor that lifts the marble back up is a pump. Keep fresh batteries in it and it'll run longer than the argument about whose turn it is."

Setting up a first marble run

A first marble run goes better with a little planning. None of this is in the listings; it's just what a tower of tubes asks of the room.

• Pick a hard, flat floor. A carpet makes a tall tower lean, and a leaning tower drops marbles in the wrong places.
• Build the first tower short. A low run that works beats a tall one that falls over at the third funnel.
• Put a tray at the bottom. Marbles roll away from where the run ends. A baking sheet or a shoebox lid catches them.
• Keep a container for the marbles. A lidded jar works. Count them in and out.
• Leave the booklet open. Most first builds follow the pictures. Second builds rarely do, and that's the point.

The add-on sets come later. Once a kid starts saying "what if it went over there," the first set is used up, and an add-on gives the tower somewhere new to go.

Q-BA-Maze cube runs

• Q-BA-Maze Rails Creator Set, 6+
• Q-BA-Maze Action Stunt Set, 6+

Q-BA-Maze sets list 6+, two years above the classic runs. By the names, these build with cubes and rails rather than tubes. A kid who has had a tube run since 4 and wants something new at 6 or 7 is the natural fit.

KEVA plank sets

KEVA is MindWare's line of plain wooden planks. You stack them into towers, walls and bridges, and the Contraptions sets build ramps and chutes for a ball.

• KEVA Structures 400 Plank Set, 5+
• KEVA Contraptions 200 Planks, no age in our data
• KEVA Contraptions 400 Planks, 7+
• KEVA Brainbuilders, no age in our data
• KEVA Brain Builders Set of 2 (Original and Junior), no age in our data
• KEVA Brain Builders Deluxe, 7+
• KEVA Bot Maze, 7+

Structures is the open-ended building set, filed in our data with wooden blocks. Contraptions sets build marble paths from the same kind of planks, so our data files them with marble runs. Brain Builders sets and the Bot Maze are puzzle-style builds by their names.

What sets KEVA apart from a tube run is that every piece is the same plank. There are no special parts to lose. That's a real advantage in a house where special parts go missing. It's also a different kind of challenge: the builder has to invent the ramp instead of snapping one in.

Tube runs or plank runs

MindWare has two ways to send a marble downhill, and they suit different builders.

The tube-and-track sets give a builder parts made for the job: funnels, tubes, connectors, and on one set a motorized elevator. A 4-year-old can follow the pictures and get a working run on the first try. That first success matters.

The KEVA Contraptions sets give a builder only planks. The ramp, the drop, the turn: all of it is invented. The 400-plank set lists 7+. That's the right age for a kid who has stopped following the booklet and started arguing with it.

If you have one child aged 4 to 6, the tube sets are the start by the labels. If you have a 7-year-old who's already done the tube run a hundred times, the plank sets are the next step. If you have both, buy one of each and expect the planks to end up in the tube run anyway.

Other MindWare building and STEM kits

• Gearjits Clock, 12+, a wooden kit
• Start-Up Circuits, no age in our data
• KaBlocks Blast, 3+, toddler blocks

The Gearjits Clock is the highest starting age among the MindWare building kits in our data, at 12+. KaBlocks Blast is the youngest, at 3+.

Qwirkle and its editions

Five listings in our data carry the Qwirkle name:

• Qwirkle, 6+, 2–4 players
• Travel Qwirkle, 6+, 2–4 players
• Qwirkle Cubes, 6+, dice, 90 wooden cubes
• Qwirkle Rummy, a card game
• Qwirkle Rummy Color Blind-Friendly Edition, 6+, 2–4 players

Qwirkle is a tile-matching game: players build lines of tiles that share a color or a shape. The base game, Travel Qwirkle and the Color Blind-Friendly Rummy edition all list 6+ and 2–4 players.

The Color Blind-Friendly Edition is worth naming. It's the one listing in our data marked as color-blind accessible. In a family where one player has trouble telling colors apart, that's the box.

Travel Qwirkle lists the same age and players as the base game. Qwirkle Cubes swaps tiles for 90 wooden cubes and is filed as a dice game. Qwirkle Rummy turns the idea into a card game. If someone at your table already owns the base game, one of the other editions is a way to play the same idea in a new spot: the car, the porch, a table too small for tiles.

Our Qwirkle page compares the editions in detail.

MindWare family and thinking games

Two-player games:

• Double Spot, 6+, 2 players, strategy
• Sectori, 7+, 2 players, 15 minutes

Games for 2–4:

• Skippity, 5+, 2–4 players, a board and 100 skippers
• Gembatan, 8+, 2–4 players, 60 tiles and 60 gems
• Rock Paper Switch, 8+, 2–4 players, strategy
• Leaps and Ledges, 8+, 2–4 players
• Q-bitz Jr., 2–4 players, 15 minutes, with a solo mode, 60 pattern cards and wooden cubes

Games for younger players:

• Seek-a-Boo, from 18 months, 2+ players
• Slappy Camper, 5+, 2–4 players

Seek-a-Boo lists the youngest age of anything from MindWare in our data: 18 months. Q-bitz Jr. has a solo mode, so a kid can play alone.

First game, not best game: for a 5-year-old, Skippity and Slappy Camper are where the labels start. The 8+ strategy games can wait a few birthdays.

MindWare party games

• PicWits and PicWits, the second listing 30 minutes
• Twangled, 6+, 4–8 players
• Animal Trivia Challenge, trivia
• The How I Survived Card Game, 8+, 4+ players, 15 minutes
• Burst Out Laughing Gas, 10+
• Bella's Mystery Party: The Case of The Stolen Buckle, not adults-only

Twangled and How I Survived both need 4 players to start. For a house of three, cross them off.

Two adults-only boxes

• Shenanigames Wordtini, 21+, adults only, 25 dice and 20 challenge cards
• Shenanigames 3 Things, 16+, marked adults only, over 80 scenario cards and 110 survival items

Both are marked adults-only in our data. They belong on a different shelf from the marble runs. Read the label before a mixed-age gathering.

How to pick within MindWare

By age, from the listing labels:

1. 18 months to 3: Seek-a-Boo, KaBlocks Blast (3+).
2. 4 and 5: the classic marble run sets, KEVA Structures (5+), Skippity, Slappy Camper.
3. 6 and 7: Q-BA-Maze, Qwirkle editions, Double Spot, Twangled, Sectori (7+), KEVA Contraptions 400 and Brain Builders Deluxe (7+).
4. 8 and up: Gembatan, Rock Paper Switch, Leaps and Ledges, How I Survived.
5. 12 and up: the Gearjits Clock.
6. Adults: the two Shenanigames boxes.

Then decide on the kind of play. Building and watching: marble runs. Inventing from scratch: KEVA. A quiet table game: Qwirkle and the two-player games.

Who should skip MindWare marble runs

• A child under 4, by the labels on the classic runs.
• A house with a crawling baby or a toddler who still mouths toys, unless the marbles can live up high between sessions.
• A builder who wants a finished display piece. Marble runs are made to be rebuilt.

For marble runs across makers, see the marble runs page. For plank and block sets, see wooden blocks.

Marbles and small parts

Check the age label on the listing. Toys with small parts are a choking hazard for children under 3. The CPSC requires a choking-hazard warning on toys that contain small balls or marbles, and keeps small balls and toys with small parts away from children under 3 in its advice to parents. Count the marbles back into a lidded container after every session.

Tube or plank, pick the kind of builder first. Then count the marbles in and count them out.