Customer Reviews

Magnetix I-Coaster

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

All of my family loved this toy. It involves a lot of real roller coaster physics. It can be a little frustrating at first because the ball flies off the track unless you get the angles correct. But after you get the hang of it, this toy is really fun for pretty much all ages. Do not buy this for impatient kids; they will get frustrated. The music feature is really nice. As well as continuous music, it has two gates that play selected music when a ball goes through them. There are quite a few selections for both kinds of music. The hyper stunts are very cool, too: a trampoline, a magnet that flips the ball around the outside of the track and onto a piece of track directly below it, a magnetic bar that carries the ball across the "ravine" to the other side, a circular piece of track that changes the ball's direction by 90 degrees (horizontally), a roller coaster loop, and a ###### piece of track for downward slopes (though that one is not particularly cool). 6 year olds should have adult/older brother help when building this toy. Pretty much all smart kids of 7+ can do this on their own. This toy takes a lot of trial and error, but is very rewarding when finished.

I bought this toy for my son for his birthday ($[...]on sale at a toy store) with very little knowledge or research. I couldn't be happier! There aren't a million little pieces that are hard to put together - the magnets make it very simple to construct. Although others have looked at the magnets as a negative, I see a positive: when one support gets too far away from another, it doesn't pull the whole structure down, the magnet just pulls apart at the one support. Much easier to fix and move on.

There are lots of pre-designed structures to copy in the instruction book, but also very clear instructions on how to design your own coaster. Kids just have to look at the number on each piece of track to see how far of an incline the piece can handle. GREAT for free play in physics!! Lots of scientific inquiry comes from this toy!

I'm hoping for some extension sets to come out soon!

My 8 year old received this toy for his birthday. At first, this track is somewhat complicated to put together and actually work right. My son over time got the hang of it. He plays with it for hours. At times the balls fly off the track, but he is understanding the mechanics of pitch and speed. He applies those concepts and realizes that by adjusting the height of the tracks he can slow the balls down, which keep the balls on the track. The manual comes with 10 different variations of track designs. My son has learned to use his imagination to put together his own icoaster track. As an adult I had to explain the mechanics of a roller coaster. It is actually fun to play with this toy. My cat gets a kick out of watching the ball roll thru the tracks. Since this toy has small parts, I would keep away from animals and small kids. Overall one of the best toys this year.

Just received for my son's birthday, and it's going back to the store tomorrow. The uprights, which are green, have sidebrackets which "click" into place and are held at various heights by tension. Fine. However, the track then adheres to these sidebrackets via magnetic force only. So you get it set up, and everytime you brush by it, say putting a marble on the track, or adjusting something, CRASH the track comes off. Also if two marbles travel too closely together, and are on the same piece of track at the same time, the track comes off - magnets not strong enough to hold them both. The bases of the uprights are cheap, thin plastic and are not weighted so they tip easily. Then we did use it for a while (while tiptoeing around so as not to knock off any of the track)and within a half hour the magnetic motor upright, which drags the marbles back to the top stopped working. Electrical short.

I've always had a bias against Magnetix ever since I bought my first set of Magnetix magnets. It's not that they don't have good products but the fact that they are way overpriced. I truly they believe they rely on bright and flashy, often over sized packaging to justify the price of their products. I remember the disappointment when I opened my first (and last) Magnetix Magnet set to see a huge styrofoam piece with 8 pieces of plastic and 7 marbles for a whopping fifteen dollars.

With all this in mind I couldn't resist a marble run coaster type set. I paid full retail for this set when it first hit store shelves. Upon opening it I had the same feeling as the magnet set. A huge piece of Styrofoam containing a few pieces made me question if this was worth the eightee doll ers I paid. I took everything out and realized that most of the pieces don't snap together, rather they 'magnet' together, therefore you must use this on a hard flat surface. It also makes moving it from one location to another pretty tough without having to rebuild it.

The track pieces are molded into a non-adjustable shape. You can use the pieces to make a few different models but the options are limited. The music pieces work well and you can connect another device into them to play audio when the ball goes through using a standard headphone jack. The rails which the magnetic balls stick to and travel along were also unique.

I highly recommend this for younger kids, say 6-10, but for older kids I would recommend looking for a Bandai Spacewarp set. I don't know if Amazon sells them but you can find them on a popular online auction site for about the same price. The SpaceWarp kits allows for much more flexible design experience as the track is fully adjustable.

I bought it for my son, 10 years old, and he loves it. It is challenging for a young child to put together, but rewarding. I was very surprised to not find a cable to plug in an ipod (or other music device). It has the input jack and is designed for an ipod like device but no cable (must have male ends on both sides). You can obviously buy one, but should have been included, especially with a name like iCoaster.

When my son opened this on christmas eve morning, he was so happy. once I put it together, everything clicked in my head on how these things work. My 7 and 4 year old sons then got hooked on this and have built all kinds of neat roller coasters. they leave it for a few hours to play with it then knock it down and build another one again. they have come up with some pretty cool configurations. I dont know how anyone can rate this any less than five stars, as it is very educational and good for hours and hours of fun. My sons have learned about polarity and gravity. If my kids can build this without it coming apart anyone can!!

My 10 yo loves this toy so much. A year later and he still won't put it away for too long. Best purchase ever!

I know this is a great product b/c our friends have it. After two attempts to purchase it through Amazon...I kept getting a different coaster..the magnext which is totally different. Although the vendor was great about crediting my acct and taking it back, I am dissappointed that Amazon continues to advertise it. I have written Amazon as well.

I recently bought this for my son's 6th birthday. After realizing the "plans" in the manual were incorrect and the papers that were added in the box rather haphazardly were the correct plans for various tracks, it went much smoother. The directions are not in English but some sort of heiroglyphic-international-picture-lingo. My 6 year old understood it much better than I did!

This is NOT an intuitive toy. The pieces snap into place. Someone said they were held magnetically- not true. Everything clicks into place although the pieces feel like they will break if you click too hard-- they won't.

We have had a lot of fun determining track height to adjust the ball speed (so they don't fly off the track), playing with the plans to make it more fun-- I cannot say enough great things about this toy.

This is definitely not something to click together quickly and play with in 5 minutes. It requires patience and thought to set up- both great skills to teach a child (and a parent!).

I have already recommended it to other parents.

ADD-On COMMENT-

After 3 months of play, the main "motor" component broke. The plug-in's for the flashing lights and the track are different and my son tried to force the wrong one in the wrong hole. I called and e-mailed MEGA blocks (the manufacturer). It took 2 tries to get a response (I gave them the benefit of the doubt since Christmas is a bit busy at toy manufacturers), but they are replacing the part at no charge to us. I was prepared to shell out $50 or so since it was our fault. Does it get any better than that?

Also, we stumbled onto the website- check it out if you're considering buying this toy.