Marble runs have never really been the kind of toys to take advantage of pop culture branding. It’s just not that easy to link up those complex marble courses to popular franchises. Well, it looks like they’re going to try anyway with the Gravitrax Star Wars Death Star Marble Run, which seeks to recreate one of the most iconic battles in the Star Wars series using a marble run course.
Specifically, the set looks to recreate the Battle of Yavin from Star Wars: A New Hope, where Rebel forces gather outside the Death Star in an attempt to run the corridor and blow it up. Instead of action figures, though, the characters are represented by marbles that feature their printed heads, all making a run through the ball track, which has been designed to recreate the multiple attacks staged by the Rebel forces, culminating in Luke Skywalker, with the help of the Force, successfully unleashing torpedoes into the Death Star’s shaft.
The Gravitrax Star Wars Death Star Marble Run has a base plate clad in the shape of the Death Star to create the impression that the battle is happening on the side of the gargantuan space station. It has a 35-inch diameter marble run area, with tile designs that feature curves, crosses, and junctions to mimic as much of the Death Star’s surface as possible. The actual ball track is similar to what you’ll normally see on marble run courses, albeit with a configuration that seeks to reprise the run of the various ships attacking the Death Star during the battle.
To further reinforce the Star Wars theme, it comes with figures of X-Wing Starfighters and TIE Fighters that you can integrate into various parts of the course, allowing you to recreate the various fighter ships flying about in the actual movie scene. There are even firing cannons you can integrate into the course to represent the Death Star’s onboard defense systems.
The Gravitrax Star Wars Death Star Marble Run comes with multiple course components, of course, including different types of rails, tubes, spirals, swivels, rotating slides, spinners, and more, all of which you can put together in any desired configuration. As with other Gravitrax releases, you should be able to combine it with components from other sets, so you can make even more complex tracks with more unpredictable paths. It comes a total of 201 pieces, including six marbles, three of which are printed with the likenesses of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Darth Vader, respectively.
As with other marble run sets, this thing can be played either on your own or cooperatively with a group, making for a fun interactive toy you can mess with over and over. Will this appeal to Star Wars fans? We’re not entirely sure, since the Star Wars elements feel mostly decorative here. It is an interesting way to market a marble run set, though – one that might have some appeal beyond the usual audience of marble run enthusiasts. At least, that’s what they’re hoping for.
The Gravitrax Star Wars Death Star Marble Run is available now.
- GraviTrax is the flexibly expandable and interactive marble run system for children aged 8 and over....
