STEM Toy Review: Ravensburger GraviTrax – A Kinetic Engineering System

Review date – 20th Nov 2025

Introduction:

I am going to sound rather old now, but when I was a child, there were a lot less toys available to me. For one, we didn’t have a lot of money to spend on them, and for another, it was the 80s (yes I know, I AM quite old). I remember playing with things like Transformers, Cindy dolls, Megasketchers and games like Monopoly and Kerplunk.

As a modern parent now, I feel overwhelmed by the toys that are currently available to this generation. When my kids ask if we can take them to Smyths Toys – my usual response is one of horror. I just cannot deal with the endless aisles of toys I don’t understand the appeal of. Like toys that make fart noises when you walk past. Or like when my son insisted that he wanted something called Mr Beast Lab Swarms which consists of a plastic tube that you fill with water, pour out some blue slime, just to get some small rubbery toy of which there are HUNDREDS to collect. All for the bargain cost of £11. I ignored him the next time he asked me for some.

Now I am a major advocate of the idea of learning through play. I feel like kids engage so much better when they are having fun, feeling inspired, and free to explore. Obviously this doesn’t have to cost any money, or even involve buying anything but sometimes, you may need or want to. It might be a birthday, or Christmas, or perhaps you just want to encourage them to STOP watching unboxing videos on YouTube, or endless episodes of Paw Patrol/. So out comes the credit card. But now the question is – WHAT should you buy?

This is hopefully the first of many reviews of STEM aligned toys and resources that I will write to help my fellow parents and educators (or even just toy enthusiasts) to navigate the deluge of toys marketed at children now. Manufacturers have long cottoned on to the idea that parents might be prepared to spend a little more for toys that have more educational value and so you will find everything labeled as STEM whether it is or isn’t. I’m ready to find out whether it’s all genuine or just pure marketing!

Let’s get on with the review..

The Product:

• Toy Name & Company: GraviTrax Starter Set by Ravensburger
• Core Concept: GraviTrax is a kinetic engineering system that teaches through the dynamic interplay of gravity, momentum, and magnetism.
• Target Audience: Manufacturer’s Recommendation Age: 8+

Inside The Box

There is quite a lot of stuff crammed into the box (which is better than the opposite). You get 122 pieces in total, 4 cardboard base plates which you build your tracks on, 2 transparent levels which allow you to create raised sections, various bits of track pieces, height tiles (to raise your track pieces by small increments), 3 sizes of rails, and 6 marbles. You also get a magnetic cannon which is technically an expansion component.

Build Quality:

The build quality of the components is excellent. The hexagonal pieces are beautifully tactile, and fit perfectly inside the cardboard base plates, all the edges are lovely and smooth. The rails hook nicely into little grooves on the track pieces and the marbles run perfectly along them. I have absolutely no complaints about the quality of the components you get although I suspect the rails won’t withstand rough handling (read being sat/stood on). Even the marbles are lovely, they are polished metal and very shiny.

Quality of Instructions

Inside the box you get 2 booklets. One is a list of components and some information about the layout of the manual. There is no text – so some of it requires a little deciphering but the images are pretty clear and easy to understand.

The manual itself is split into 2 parts – part 1 is a series of step by step track instructions, from easy to more challenging. There are 9 sample tracks to build. Part 2 is a selection of challenges – again, from easy to more challenging. There isn’t an obvious separation between part 1 and 2, which can be a bit confusing.

In terms of the quality of instructions, if you are familiar with Lego instructions it will not be difficult to understand. There are no written instructions, just pictures and numbers to denote how many of each part is required. It does get a little more complex once you get to the more challenging tracks where there are multiple levels, so an adult may need to assist with these steps.

One important thing to know is that it helps to orientate the connecting base boards to match the instructions. If you make sure of this at the outset, then it is much easier to construct each track as you can use the position of the green hexagons to help you with placement of the pieces.

Setting Up:

Time to Setup

There isn’t much by way of set up in reality. You connect the 4 pieces of cardboard and that’s it! The beauty of this toy is that you can ignore all the instructions and just start constructing your runs as you like. You have a launching block which can launch up to 3 marbles simultaneously, and then just keep adding bits of track to the board. You can raise the track using the hexagonal wedges, and the rails will hook between most of the track pieces – the only limit being you get 3 sizes of rails which may or may not work with whatever you have designed. This is part of the learning though!

Ease of setup

The track pieces are really easy to connect together thanks to the design of the system. Each piece just slots into a hexagonal hole. I would say most children should be able to do this by themselves. Where they may need assistance is if they are trying to follow the track designs in the book – once you get to the multi-storey tracks they may need some help interpreting the images.

At this point I am going to mention that there is a really excellent official mobile app that is available on both the Google Play store and the Apple App Store which is free and has interactive tutorials and instructions. It has all the starter tracks included, and you can go through the build step by step with clear visual instructions that (in my opinion) are much better than the printed version.

Play Experience & Design:

Playability

Fun Factor

Fun is always going to be rather subjective – there are definitely things that my kids find fun that I don’t (sandbox games for example), but no one is going to review any toy without making some conclusions about whether it is fun to play with or not so for this section I will report whether a) my kids found it fun and b) whether I found it fun.

Fun Factor – Kids Verdict:

My kids (7 and 10) love GraviTrax. They do love construction toys in general – open ended toys really spark their imaginations and they will happily spend hours building things together. The tactile nature of the components, and the fact it is so interactive is very attractive to them – and even when the marbles don’t go according to plan they will laugh and then fix the issue. There is also a great co-operative element to the process, it is definitely a toy that can be played with together.

Fun Factor – My Verdict:

I cannot lie – I also love this toy. I am a pretty goal oriented person, and the challenge of making ambitious tracks that work well appeals to me greatly. There is a deep satisfaction to be had from seeing your marble/s make it to the end of the track – even more so when there are simultaneous runs going. Even the sound of the marbles has a kind of ASMR feeling to it.

Expandability

The starter set is more than enough in my opinion for many hours of play without needing to spend any more money. That said though, I love the fact that you can. There are so many brilliant expansions available – from loop the loop extensions, catapults, to powered sets that can send your marbles up stairs. I can see these as stocking filler gifts for a long time to come.

The STEM Analysis:

Core Principles in Action: Stem Principle Checklist

As I want to focus on the STEM learning aspects of the toys I review – in this section I will evaluate which STEM principles (if any) this toy explores. Please refer to this guide to see the whole checklist I will be evaluating each toy on.

STEM Discipline	Principle Evaluated	Score (1-5)	Comments
Science	Physics / Mechanics (Gravity, Momentum, Energy)	5	This area is where GraviTrax excels. The tracks demonstrates the conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy (marbles picking up speed from a height), momentum (marbles hitting the magnetic launcher), gravity, energy transfers, friction (or lack of).
Engineering	Structural Integrity (Stability, Support)	2	Through building the tracks, you can learn how the stability of a track can impact the success of the run. The components are well designed to afford some great stability but you do need to ensure the connectors are well seated so the marbles can slide well.
Engineering	Spatial Reasoning (3D Visualization)	4*	I have marked this one with an asterisk as it only really applies if you use the printed track examples. Being able to interpret the 2D diagrams to build a 3D structure is an excellent way of developing this skill.
Engineering	Design Thinking (Debugging, Iteration)	5	When a track doesn’t quite work as expected some debugging is required to work out which part is the problem. Followed by an iteration to fix the perceived issue and retest. This toy is excellent for encouraging this process.
Mathematics	Geometry (Angles, Patterns, Symmetry)	4	The hex grid system is excellent for teaching geometry. Making the pieces fit together, lining up the curved channels, calculating the distance of travel required to use the rails are all excellent examples of learning in this category.

Learning Methodologies:

Iterative Design (Trial and Error):

Playing with GraviTrax necessitates a high level of debugging. Whether trying to copy one of the example track designs, or building your own, there will be many moments where the marbles do not do what you planned them to. Perhaps there was an issue with setup, or a fault with the design, or just plain physics. In this case, there will be tweaking required, and many many restarts. Even when you copy one of the tracks from the book, you might see a way in which to improve the track design so the marbles flow more smoothly or faster. For example, I made one of the more advanced tracks and found that towards the end of the track, one of the marbles would lose momentum and fail to reach the end point. I adjusted the height of one of the pieces to give the marble a tiny bit more speed to ensure it would be able to get to the end consistently.

Structured vs. Open-Ended Play

GraviTrax is much more of an open-ended toy than it is structured. There is an instruction booklet with a reasonable number of tracks to get you started but I expect after maybe trying one or two, then it is just going to get dumped to the side in favour of just building your own. In this, the only downside (as with many other construction toys), is going to be down to the limits of what you can build with the number of components supplied in the box.

Thankfully, (although your wallet won’t be), there are a whole multitude of expansion sets and components available to purchase to keep the excitement going. In my view this is one of the best aspects of GraviTrax – some of the additions you can purchase are genuinely brilliant. For instance, you can get a zip-line which uses a magnet to pick up a marble and drop it at the end. There are also mini ‘trampolines’ which sound like they might add a whole new level of unpredictability. You can also just acquire some extra bits of track and rails if you simply want to make longer tracks. This does add to the expense somewhat, on the other hand it extends the longevity of this toy quite significantly.

Value Proposition:

Cost

The current retail price of the GraviTrax starter set is £55. Expansions start at around £10 for small extensions and go up to £80+ for the large powered sets.

Cost vs. Educational Return

Whilst this is not a particularly cheap toy – I think that the learning and the hours of fun derived from it actually makes this very good value.

Longevity

Due to the open ended nature of GraviTrax – every track will end up being a little different and therefore feel like a new experience so I can see it lasting well as a toy. Plus as mentioned a few times – if you are prepared to invest a little more money occasionally- being able to expand the options for building makes this an excellent toy in terms of longevity. [There is also a good preloved market for components]

I’d also like to add that if you have a mobile device which you can download the app onto – it will also add an extra dimension to the life of this toy. Although I mentioned earlier that you can access the interactive instructions on it – that isn’t the limit of what you can do with it. You can also create your own custom tracks which are runnable! In this, I mean that you can press play and watch a virtual marble run through your custom track – and you can also do cool things like customize your ball to be on fire, have different backgrounds, and change the camera angle. You can access expansion components that are available that you might not own – essentially try them out before buying them. You can save your tracks and even share them with friends. There is also an option to load tracks using special codes although I haven’t looked too much into this yet. The app is slick and well designed – definitely a great companion to the physical toy. Plus did I mention that it’s free?

Final Verdict

There is no doubt in my mind that GraviTrax ticks pretty much all the boxes for STEM learning. It is fun to play with for almost all ages (although please be mindful that it contains small parts for those with very young children), and there are so many different learning opportunities to be had. I would absolutely recommend this.

Ratings:

Disclaimer:

Please note that I purchased this set with my own money and have not been incentivised by Ravensburger or any other company to write this review. The opinions I have shared are strictly my own (and my kids).