Mancala Board Game Toy Set: Marble Game with Wood Board Color Glass Stones Storage Bag Hardwood Folding Game Board for the Whole Family

This looks good. I bought it as a present so I haven’t opened the seal. From the look of it I’m hoping it lives up to expectations. It’s larger than I imagined, so that’s a good thingUpdate : well made and colourful glass beads. However, it would be very useful if it had a closure fastener to keep everything together. It’s currently being secured with an elastic band.

I had to buy some box locks to secure the end of the box, 2 of the stones were welded together. Sold as portable but not portable of the pieces are constantly falling out

Great fun for good value

Im very disappointed. It says it comes with a storage bag but it doesn't. It came in a cellophane wrap. The wooden box doesn't lock and since it doesn't even come in a box everything will just fall out

As always with mancala sets, the troughs are too small to stack enough seeds/marbles in mid play. Does the job though.

Wanted something different to play with grandson. It’s an ancient game, easy to learn. Can be played in 5 minutes. Beautifully made and nice size for travel.

This mancala game comes with shrink wrap around it and that's it for packaging. The mancala board is folded in half and inside holds 50 glass beads in two colours. There are no instructions included, none, which I found disappointing as I really wanted to understand how to play this without having to look it up on the internet. There is also no storage bag despite the listing title mentioning it and the pictures above showing one.The board itself unfolds and as I said it contains 50 glass beads, a spare of each colour perhaps in case you lose one, which are lovely to look at and comfortable to hold. The glass beads/stones themselves are well made and smooth to touch and the board itself though made of wood it well made and rounded off nicely so you won't hurt yourself or get a splinter or anything using this. The game itself is still new to me to play as I've had to look instructions up online for this, however it's a fun game to play once you get the hang of it and it's just a shame this didn't come with instructions as it would be nice to be able to gift this to someone who has never played before without asking them to look up the instructions.There is one very disappointing feature about this board. Despite it being well made out of thick wood with hinges on one side, there is no way of fastening it when closed to keep it shut. There's no little latch or even a magnetic closing to this, which means that if it should ever fall off a shelf it's stored on or dropped (accidents can happen) I'm concerned that all the glass stones could fall out. This really should have come with either an outer cardboard box to keep it in, or some form of fastening as the glass stones are just kept inside the various dips in the game board rather than any additional bag or anything. If there had been a fastening of some kind I would have given this a higher rating, but overall a well made game board and beads/stones.

My children learned to play Mancala in their maths classes in primary school, because it's supposed to nurture mathematical thinking. Whether or not it does, it's a nice family game - although I wouldn't recommend substituting the glass counter with Smarties as we did: the sugar high isn't worth it! This set is nicely made and finished. It's made from finger-jointed pine, so shouldn't warp; and the glass counters are pretty and tactile. My only criticism is that there is no clasp for the board to hold it closed, which is an unfortunate oversight, and I've docked a star for that. The price (£17.99 at time of writing) is higher than some other similar sets, but seems to be about mid-range.