Marbles the Brain Store offers products geared towards building your brain power! Their products aren’t boring drills or test though, they offer a ton of games, puzzles, and even books and software. Their products are broken down into categories that include: Critical Thinking, Memory, Coordination, Visual Perception, and Word Skills. Then, they  have a helpful “Gifts For” section that lets you easily pick a gift guide and be shown items appropriate for their likes, age, or even use. This includes guides for conference tables, smart moms, and even clever kids! I reached out to Marbles the Brain Store about the possibility of reviewing several items from their store. I was given the chance to review their Marrakech and Oblo games. I also picked up several items and puzzles from their site which shipped free along with my review items. I had been looking for some desk toys to send along with my husband for his office desk.

The Eni Puzzle is based on the concept of those slide puzzles we all used to play with as kids. The ones that came on a grid of 8 or 15 pieces that would slide around the board until you completed the picture properly. Only this puzzle has rows of colors and you can twist each column in the row which makes a much more in-depth puzzle. I had a lot of fun playing with this little puzzle. It is small so it would be a great toy to throw in your purse or even your desk drawer to pull out when you’re waiting for an appointment or on a long conference call. I found it pretty easy to solve overall, but I find I’m pretty good at these types of puzzles. It did take me probably 20 minutes to complete it still, and I had a lot of fun doing the puzzle! The Oblo Puzzle which is the round one shown is pretty cool in it’s concept, but I found it really easy to complete. Maybe I just have an eye for this type of puzzle but I was able to put it right together my first try, and in just a few minutes. My 4 year old has been playing with it though and I think it’s a great tool to help him look at this a bit differently and try to solve how to make things fit together in a non-traditional format (like jigsaw puzzles). He hasn’t figured it out yet, but he enjoys playing with it and it’s fun to work on it with him.

Next, I wanted to see what kinds of toys they had for kids! I picked out their Baby Beads for my youngest. The Baby Beads claimed not only were they great for babies and the paint was safe, it was also a fun toy for adults to play with. This toy is very cute with its bold paint colors and large chunky beads. It does a great job at catching the attention of my 4 month old and I have picked it up to twist the beads in my hands as well. It is a bit limited in what it can do though as the string it’s connected on is very tight so the beads won’t twist that far in any direction. I then selected Ogosport 12″ Disks which I thought would be really fun for my boys, and even us adults as well. I grabbed the Boing! Ball as well that goes with their disks as it looked really fun. We have all had so much fun playing with these disks. Their description describes them as being mini trampolines, and I thought that was a great description. They are much softer to the touch then trampoline material, but they function like one. We had a great time all bouncing balls back and forth. This is a great toy for getting the kids to be more active and playing together.

And finally, after selecting something for my husband and boys, I picked out something especially for me! I LOVE board games and was really intrigued by the looks of Marrakech! I was very impressed as all the pieces of the game are very high quality and really unique! The instruction manual also offers a 10 year warranty on ALL pieces! The premise of the game is simple – you are a dealer in a rug market trying to have the most of your rugs in view at the end of the game. The rules are very simple and the concept is easy enough for children to be able to play while the game can also bring in strategy for adults. My husband and I played as a 2-player game and it worked pretty well even with 2 players, which is very hard to find in a game. In a 2-player game you play as 2 rug colors which you mix together and then play in that order. On your turn you try to avoid landing on another players rugs as you have to pay them the equivalent of the number of connected half rug squares. Then after paying any fees due you get to lay a rug of your own on a space that is touching at least one side where the token is standing. You can not cover another rug completely in one move, but you can cover two halves of your opponents rugs. The board looks really cool with all the rugs piled on top of each other and covering the board. We had a good time playing and this is a great shorter game in comparison to all my hour or longer games we more often play.

You can connect with Marbles the Brain Store on their Twitter and/or Facebook accounts where they share their Deal of the Day specials! Or shop for their items directly through their website. All orders over $100 ship free. They have a huge variety of items and this would make a great shop to look for Valentine’s Day gifts for your spouse, or even children.