Xyloba Piccolino – Musical Marble Run Construction Kit (25 Pieces)

Xyloba is a creative marble run for building and composing music, made to be enjoyed by young and old alike. Discover the Xyloba modular system across its three progressively more comprehensive models — Piccolino, Mezzo, and Orchestra — each built around the same core idea: creativity through tune sequences generated by varying tower design.

With Xyloba Piccolino, children can build marble runs that come out different every time. The set's 4 interchangeable sound modules produce simple, playful melodies — a wonderful, approachable starting point for first-time builders discovering the joy of musical construction.

Set Includes:

• 4 x Building Bricks
• 4 x Sound Bricks
• 1 x Passage Brick
• 1 x Base Plate
• 6 x Marbles
• 4 x Chime Bars (C4, H3, A3, F3)
• 4 x Short Roll Tracks
• 1 x Long Roll Track

Product Details:

• Recommended Age: 5 years and up. Not suitable for children under 36 months — contains small parts that pose a choking hazard.
• Includes: 25 pieces total
• Dimensions: 53 x 26 x 7 cm
• Material: Beechwood, metal
• Made In: Switzerland

Note: Xyloba Classic sets are available in three sizes — Piccolino (25 pieces), Mezzo (40 pieces), and Orchestra (96 pieces) — offering a range of complexity to suit different ages and levels of musical ambition.

The Story Behind Xyloba

The idea for a musical marble run first took shape in 1969, when Samuel Langweiler set out to design a track where a rolling marble could strike a series of chimes to create a melody. Samuel envisioned something truly interactive: a system where the chimes themselves could be rearranged, letting children build not just marble runs, but their own original tunes, simply by changing the order of the chimes and the spacing between them. The design process brought plenty of challenges, but after many experiments, Samuel arrived at his first working melody.

As a cellist with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Samuel spent long stretches of time on tour and had little opportunity to seek out a manufacturer for his invention. It wasn't until years later that the Weizenkorn Foundation began producing and distributing his design under the name Xyloba Musical Marble Runs.

Today, Xyloba remains a wonderfully creative wooden toy — one that builds fine motor skills and spatial reasoning while nurturing a genuinely musical way of thinking. As the marble descends the track, it strikes each chime in sequence, and the interlocking system of ramps and sound blocks allows for an enormous range of possible setups.

About the Weizenkorn Foundation

Based in Basel, Switzerland, the Weizenkorn Foundation is a social enterprise that supports and employs over 200 young men and women living with psychological impairments who might otherwise struggle to find work. Within the Foundation's sheltered workshops, these skilled craftspeople handcraft every component of the Xyloba Musical Marble Runs, alongside many other beautifully made wooden toys.