GAME REVIEW : GRAVITRAX – STARTER PACK & EXTENSIONS

We recently received a press drop from SISO TOYS SOUTH AFRICA to review and explore the GraviTrax – Interactive Track System. As we hurtle towards the silly season and hopefully, early Christmas shopping, (“nudge-nudge”), this toy is definitely one that you should add to your kid’s gift list for a few reasons. (#AD)

Firstly, its not going to be one of those gifts that gets unwrapped, played with and left forgotten after a few minutes for the rest of the year as most toys end up anyway and that’s because of its various configurations that are clearly illustrated in a step-by-step construction plan booklet, so the minute you have mastered an ‘easy’ track system you move onto a more challenging  track system and so on and so on.  Secondly, this toy isn’t just going to keep the kids engaged for hours but the dads too. Whilst it’s targeted at kids from 8 years and older, with the assistance of a parent, children slightly younger will be able to participate and enjoy building GraviTrax too. This family was hooked from the minute we opened the box and couldn’t wait to progress from Track A through to track I. A word of caution though, it’s not as easy at it may look and if you don’t have patience or the ability to translate a one dimensional instruction in a booklet into a 3-D representation of that same diagram, you could be pulling your hair out by the time the project is complete. The GraviTrax is an incredible STEM toy!

AIM OF THE GRAVITRAX

GraviTrax is an interactive track system toy from toy manufacturer, Ravensburger. Darren and our son have thoroughly enjoyed exploring and playing with GraviTrax. For a change, J is loving the fact that he is the one that gets to challenge his dad to find the next challenging Trax to build together. You can design and build your own race tracks and experiment with gravity, magnetism and kinetics to propel your gravity sphere to the finish. It has a variety of tiles, levels, tracks and features that allows you to control the speed of each gravity sphere. Build your Trax with multiple levels so that you release the metal balls from as high a point as you can. The higher you release the metal balls from, the faster they will roll winding its way to their final stop on the lower levels. Think dominoes on steroids! 

GraviTrax comes with an instruction booklet that shows you how to build different Trax. From real easy ones (green colour coded) to the more challenging ones (purple colour coded), that CAN stump the parents! Once you’ve built your Trax the fun is in watching the magic your first ball will create as it zooms through the Trax connecting with other balls along the way. The fun isn’t only in building the Trax but also in watching the metal balls crisscrossing each other, rolling speedily down and up the Trax, blasting out of a magnetic canon and landing smoothly on the Trax as it makes its way down to the finish.

Be warned that like with all things in life, the metal balls don’t always stay or land on the Trax you have built. This is when you need to relook at your Trax to see if you’ve built it as instructed. We found that we hadn’t even though looking down at the Trax it looked phenomenal. 

The GraviTrax really is great fun for the whole family, with a life lesson for the kids too. Things don’t always work how you plan, but there’s always a solution as long as you have patience, stay focused and persevere for a solution. 

WHAT YOU GET IN THE GRAVITRAX STARTER BOX

The GraviTrax Starter Set offers everything you need to begin building your own action-packed track systems. With over 100 pieces and 18 different construction elements, discover how the laws of physics affect the path your metal balls take. Experiment using different heights and angles to control the speed of the metal balls. The included tasks and construction plans introduce you to the world of GraviTrax. 

As you become more confident with building your GraviTrax, why not download their free app onto your smartphone the App Store or Google Play and design your very own tracks then test it using your actual GraviTrax set.

OUR THOUGHTS

The GraviTrax is great fun for the whole family. Building the tracks will require patience especially as you build the more challenging ones. Believe me, building the track will require you to stop assuming which piece of the track goes where, and actually read the manual provided to achieve success! Watching the metal balls making their way to the finish around the tracks you’ve built is worth it! 

We’ve also been fortunate enough to persuade the guys at Siso Toys to let us have an additional 2 ‘Starter-Sets’ to giveaway and share the fun. Our son wanted his bestie to be the first one to share the experience with him and the second set we are going to be giving away to a lucky follower. Look out for this giveaway on our Instagram feed!

Here’s GraviTrax clip to give you an idea of the fun you’re bound to have.

Disclosure: This product was sent to us free of charge for the purpose of this review. The views shared represents our honest opinion of the product.