Marblelous: The world's first High-Tech interactive Marble Track | Prototyped with colorFabb PLA & 3D Printing

Schlagwörter

The story of Marblelous
x colorFabb PLA

This exceptionally creative project won the prestigious Red Dot Design Awards 2025 and that is not without reason! Stephan Van Lumig has a very special driven story and process with his developed Marblelous. And he used 3d printing to start his project.

When Covid forced him to stop two companies he had in 2020, he saw the opportunity to work out an idea he still had in his mind. That idea was to develop a completely new and never seen marble track.

“Because I am quite tech-savvy myself, I really wanted to make a high-tech, but also interactive marble run. And I have worked long hours every day for the past five years, including the weekends."

Stephan started developing the very first marble run that combines the old-fashioned marble run with High-Tech Smart-Tricks, called Marblelous. Marblelous is available now at Kickstarter.com, order now and your Marblelous will be delivered in June 2025 and you can build almost anywhere: so not only on a table or on the floor, but also on smooth walls, windows, mirrors, etc.

It can even be combined with LEGO and with the Smart-Tricks added to it, you really create next level - and if you want - endless marble runs, which can also be controlled interactively with the Marblelous app.

"Marbles can even be teleported, across the world, in the same second."

Expand Marblelous yourself with 3D printing

“For the 3D printing community it is very interesting to get started themselves and come up with cool extensions. With the Smart-Tricks – which you can order separately – this becomes even more fun."

These Smart-Tricks are equipped with an OCI (Open Creator Interface): a port to which you can connect a motor, servo or LED strip. This way you can design your own Smart-Trick, 3D print it and then fully operate it within the Marblelous-Eco-System.

The smartest marble run in the world

It all started with bright ideas, prototyping and 3D printing

All the ideas that Stephan had, he first worked out in Fusion 360, to then 3D print them, so that he could test prototypes very quickly. Often dozens of iterations were still needed to perfect. But once the prototypes were approved, he could immediately have injection molds developed, so that they could start producing straight away. This process went faster and faster.

“...Then I had an idea in the morning, which I immediately drew out and started 3D printing to test. In the evening I could immediately order an injection mold for production."

Stephan's review about working with colorFabb filaments

Stephan mostly used PLA (black and white) to make his prototypes. He also used green, blue and orange PLA for the “funny level-switchers” in the product, such as the Piranha, the Crocodile and the Funnel.

“To test the product and its operation, colorFabb PLA is more than sturdy enough and it just works very well and quickly! These are really nice filaments to work with. Good quality, not too expensive and super nice colors (and therefore consistent!). The customer service is good, fast and always very friendly!

I am from Limburg myself, and am therefore extra proud that such a great company as colorFabb is also located in Limburg (the Netherlands)!"

We asked Stephan:

What would you like to tell or pass on to the reader?

"What I would like to convey to the reader is that it was a tough journey, with a steep learning curve. I am originally a software programmer and electrical engineer, but I still had to learn many things along the way, such as 3D drawing, developing printed circuit boards, delving into the world of injection molds and much more. And certainly the first 2 years, when I was practically on my own. It was a long journey with many ups and downs, but I am proud that I got through it, day by day and step by step. And now the time has finally come, we have recently entered the market via Kickstarter. For me personally a huge victory.

Speaking of winning… Marblelous won the prestigious Red Dot Design Awards 2025 last week, something that my team and I are of course incredibly proud of!"