ThinkFun Roller Coaster Challenge STEM Toy and Building Game for Boys and Girls Age 6 and Up - TOTY

Product Description

Roller Coaster Challenge is one of ThinkFun's most popular stem toys for boys and girls, and was a Toy of the Year Award Finalist in 2018. It's a logic game and roller coaster building set that comes with 60 challenges of increasing difficulty, from beginner to expert, and makes a great birthday or holiday present for kids who like smart games and a challenge. Roller Coaster Challenge is a fun brain teaser puzzle made with high quality components, and comes with a very clear and easy to understand instruction manual - you'll be able to play within minutes of opening the box. Like all of ThinkFun's games, Roller Coaster Challenge is built to develop critical thinking skills and ties into STEM subjects like science and engineering. Playing through the increasingly difficult challenges will improve logical reasoning, spatial reasoning and planning skills, all through fun gameplay.

Features

• STEM EDUCATION: This game seamlessly blends fun with education, promoting the development of critical engineering, reasoning, and planning skills
• AWARD-NOMINATED: Recognized as a Toy of the Year (TOTY) finalist, testifying to its quality and popularity among kids and their parents
• COMPONENTS: Package includes a game board, 36 posts, 39 tracks, a roller coaster car, and forty mind-challenging cards with solutions, providing endless fun
• FOR ALL AGES: Designed as an engaging gift for boys and girls aged 6 and up, perfect for birthdays, holidays, or just as a surprise
• EASY TO LEARN: Comes with a clear, high-quality instruction manual for quick setup and play, no prior experience needed

Top Reviews

Sounds fun. But largely was not.
by Sasha Alyson (2 out of 5 stars)
August 2, 2018

This sounds like a fun idea, but it wasn't well developed.

First, production issues. Even on a properly constructed track, the coaster sometimes flies off the rails, or gets stuck. And they should include a backup coaster. If the one they provide flies off into an inaccessible spot, you're stuck.

The colors printed on the cards aren't a good match for the actual parts. With some thought you can still match them up but it's an extra complication if a young child needs to figure out that purple in the booklet is blue in actuality. The yellow loop is made from a harder plastic and is very hard to snap onto others; I'm afraid the small connectors will break off at some point. It's fun as a toy for a few rounds, but other (excellent) toys and puzzles from this company offer more thought for less annoyance.

You can call almost any hands-on toy "educational," and if you're trying to sell it, you probably will. This one barely qualifies. Compared to the harder puzzles in Rush Hour or Gravity Maze, from the same company, the puzzles on this are downright simple. It requires more of the hands than of the brain. Nothing wrong with that, just don't get it with the wrong expectations.
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Great game for future engineers or architects
by Boiler (5 out of 5 stars)
July 3, 2018

We purchased this game for our five-year son, even though the recommended age is 6+. After opening it up Christmas Day, he couldn't wait to play with it. He and I sat down together and went through the instructions as to how everything works and what each symbol stands for on the example cards. He slowly began to understand the symbolism and was eager to get started.

The cards the game provides show you how to BEGIN to set up each rollercoaster, but don't show it completed. That's where the child's logic needs to kick in. Each puzzle card gives you the exact number of pieces that you need to complete each coaster design, and it's up to the "designer" to figure out where the rest of the pieces go to complete the rollercoaster and make it function.

The cards start off from easy and progress to very difficult. With practice, and a bit of my assistance, my five-year old was starting to complete the puzzles. Now, he's even getting the advanced/harder coaster designs without much help from anyone.

All in all, this is a great game for getting kids to think in three dimensions. The intent is to take a two-dimensional "plan" and building a 3-D working model. The reward is being able to take the little rollercoaster car and send it down the track to the finish line. I would definitely recommend this game to children who are interested in architecture and/or engineering, or who like to build things with their hands. Absolutely outstanding toy!
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Overall fun game, I would recommend for the lower recommended ages.
by wutanglen (4 out of 5 stars)
August 17, 2017

My 10 year old has been playing with this non-stop since we got it. He likes it, but I think he is perhaps a bit too old for it so I would recommend it for slightly younger. My son is very good with Legos, and building games online like Roblox and Minecraft, so my only issue is this is just a bit too easy for him even in the higher level cards. Not saying it isn't a challenge, but not enough of a challenge for him at his age and again he plays legos all the time. So I also question how much replay there is with this once past the 40 cards. I wonder if expansions are coming. That would help with additional pieces and new cards. Again, this is a very good game and if your kid is maybe closer to the recommended age of 6 it would be even better. We like the game very much, just it is not as challenging as we would have thought. He is challenged a bit by the higher level cards but not overly challenged. It is a well made game, easy to follow, and the concept is great. I would again just caution if your kids are really good with building stuff, this might not be challenging enough. Good game though and since it does keep him off the computer I like it even more. My son thinks it good though and he likes making the rollercoasters and doing the challenges. He feels it is fun overall. So maybe as a dad I question the replayability but he does not.
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Really fun building game for kids. Good customer service.
by catch037 (4 out of 5 stars)
April 17, 2018

I got this for my 5 year old. I helped him do the first 2 or 3 and then he proceeded to do the rest on his own and would show me them with glee!

One problem with our set...one piece was deformed and we couldn't do a lot of the projects because of it, but my husband contacted the company and they sent a whole new set of coaster pieces, so we have extras now instead.

Happy with the customer service sending us a new piece for free and some extras, because my son was quite upset when we couldn't use the toy much due to the defective piece until we got the new ones.
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A fun puzzle
by Dawn (5 out of 5 stars)
October 19, 2018

Nice game to keep my kids occupied. My kids are younger than the age on the box but they loved the idea of following instructions on card and use their brains. make various designs and then let the small roller coaster slide down. they use it as a marble run as well. The benefit of this product compare to basic marble run for toddlers is the problem solving part and to teach kids how to visualize the puzzle on paper and translate it into something really fun.
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Great game for 6 or 7+
by Thomas (5 out of 5 stars)
August 28, 2017

Great Game. We were a kickstarter backer and bought here to give as an additional gift to someone. This is a great game for 6 or 7 plus. The three dimensional puzzle thinking is fantastic. It takes a little bit to get used to, but after about an hour - the kids are off and going and having a blast.
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Awesome Roller Coaster Builder
by Adam Anderson (5 out of 5 stars)
December 30, 2018

They must have fixed the issues with the pieces being hard to snap in and the coaster not staying on the track that the other reviewers are writing about, because it only takes a second or two for an adult to snap things together and with the exception of the few tracks that use the magenta pieces the coaster stays on the track. I will say that snapping in the pieces is probably challenging for most 6 and 7 year olds, and so trying to do this completely independently would probably be fairly frustrating for them. The logic used in this game is very light. I read the short instruction guide and fiddled around with the track pieces for a couple of minutes so I could fully understand the mechanics of how the track pieces worked and then explained how many spots over and how many posts down each track piece went to my 5 year old. After a few minutes of showing her the mechanics of the game she was able to figure out which piece would be used next and exactly where it needed to go with each step of the puzzle with just a moment or two of thought. Even though it is not really a logic challenge I do still highly recommend this product because I really like how it makes her think about the track placement, that the game demonstrates how the steepness of a descent affects the speed of the coaster, and that she can easily design tracks of her own as long as I snap the pieces together and place things where she wants them.
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Perfect gift for the child who loves to build
by Amazon Customer (5 out of 5 stars)
January 3, 2019

Purchased this gift for my son who loves to build things. He gives this toy 1,000 stars and throughly enjoys creating each challenge. For those reviews that stated instructions were difficult to follow, I'm here to tell you my son has no problem. I went over the first couple builds with him and he has been building independently since. He loves this toy.
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First STEM Monthly package that I'm excited about.
by Gabe (5 out of 5 stars)
February 4, 2019

My 5 year old loves to build and figure things out. She is very hands on, and enjoys a challenge that will make her think, but is also fun. We received this as part of the monthly STEM package through Amazon. The first few items were great for a single use or so, but left a lot to be desired. We just used the Coaster Challenge for the first time today and my daughter was thrilled, she continuously asked for more cards to try and complete, and did not want to stop using this set! The big question will be if she comes back and requests it again later, but so far I am VERY pleased and so is she. For her, I think it's a great difficulty level, but she really enjoys math and problem solving. Rather than just letting her randomly guess which pieces solve the problem, I challenger her to think out which pieces she has, and the spaces that she needs to connect. Also, when figuring out the gaps you need to connect, there is simple math involved, which is helpful to reinforce what she's currently learning in Kindergarten.
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Very happy we purchased this
by A. Urban (5 out of 5 stars)
January 1, 2018

This is a great game and it has been our eight year olds most frequently used Christmas toy. Our four year old loves running the completed tracks and parents love it too! Comes with a good number of pieces and the challenge cards are numerous and have a good range of difficulties.

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