I bought this item yesterday as a Christmas gift and luckily I read the online reviews yesterday evening and found out about this product now rather than waiting for my nephew to open it at Christmas only to find that it would be too late to return it! As the other reviews state, the pieces did not fit together very well at all; some of the pieces would connect with other pieces, but others would not, so construction was impossible. I can't even believe that a company can get away with producing such a poorly designed/constructed product. I returned this item and will look for a better marble tube toy.