Cuboro

From special needs classroom to family legacy

Cuboro’s story begins not in a workshop, but in a classroom. In 1976, Matthias Etter, a schoolteacher and artist working with children with special needs in Bern, developed learning aids that worked differently. He created simple puzzles, musical instruments, and three-dimensional tactile objects. Among them: wooden cubes with grooves and tunnels that connected in sequence. Children could test their work with a marble. If it rolled through to the end, the puzzle was solved.

“CUBORO challenges children and adults according to their abilities, awakening the joy of experimentation and supporting logical thinking.”

Etter spent years refining the system, trying prototypes, finding the right balance of cube types. By 1985, he had created a set with 48 elements. In 1986, he registered the brand CUBORO, from the Italian “cubo” (cube) and “ro” (roll), and found his manufacturing partner in Nyfeler Holzwaren AG, a carpentry firm in Switzerland that understood precision. That partnership endures today.

The first sets were sold under the name “Konstrito” at Bern’s Christmas market. Even then, unfinished as they were, people recognized something: the clear design, the simplicity of wooden elements, the endless ways they could be combined. At Cuboro’s first trade fair appearance, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Switzerland became a customer, drawn to the system’s values of quality and sustainability.

Over the decades, Cuboro expanded quietly. Extra sets, championships, instruction books, international recognition. The timeless design won multiple awards. In 2005 and 2025, it represented Switzerland at the World Fair EXPO in Japan as one of the nation’s top products.

In 2020, Matthias handed management to his son Sebastian, moving the company headquarters to Bern. The next generation carries the work forward with the same commitment: meaningful, sustainable toys that bring joy across generations.

Swiss beech, precision-cut to the tenth of a millimeter, made entirely in Switzerland

Every CUBORO element begins with beech from Swiss forests, Swiss Wood certified and regionally sourced. Beech is chosen for its density, its fine grain, its strength. Qualities that allow precision cutting and ensure the blocks can withstand decades of building and rebuilding.

“The complete range of CUBORO products is distinguished by its precise workmanship”

At the Nyfeler Holzwaren AG workshop in Switzerland, each cube is cut to exacting standards. The edge length is exactly 5 centimeters. Grooves and tunnels are milled with care, because a marble’s path depends on tolerances measured in fractions of a millimeter. The blocks must fit together perfectly, no gaps, no wobble, to allow constructions that rise multiple levels high.

There are no shortcuts in the making. Each element is sanded smooth, each edge checked. The natural wood color is left untreated, showing the grain, the knots, the living quality of the material. Glass marbles, five per set, are chosen for their weight and roll.

The system now includes over 100 different elements: straight tunnels, curves, crossings, drops, accelerators, even trampolines that require precise positioning to jump gaps. Each new element is designed to expand possibilities without breaking the fundamental logic.

Production stays entirely in Switzerland, a deliberate choice. The Etter family maintains direct relationships with their craftspeople, the ones whose hands shape every block. This closeness ensures that quality standards never waver and that the craft knowledge passes from one generation to the next.

A system built to last generations, where sets from 1986 still fit with sets made today

Cuboro’s design philosophy is rooted in simplicity. Wooden cubes. Grooves. Tunnels. Marbles. From these basic elements, complexity emerges, not from the pieces themselves, but from how they’re combined.

The cubes are intentionally plain. No bright colors, no cartoon characters, no flashing lights. Just the warm tone of beech and the satisfying click when blocks align. This restraint is purposeful. It keeps the focus on the challenge: building a path that works in three dimensions, where some routes are visible on the surface and others hidden in the tunnels below.

“Playing is a natural thing to do for a child, a fundamental term. It is the beginning of experience through intuition, animation, creation.”

The modular design means there’s no single right way to build. Depending on age and ability, solutions come through logical thinking, trial and error, experimentation, or touch. A five-year-old can create a simple run. An adult can spend hours engineering an elaborate track. The system grows with the player.

Everything is compatible. A set bought in 1986 fits seamlessly with one made today. This commitment to consistency means Cuboro sets never become outdated. The wooden cubes don’t break, don’t need batteries, don’t go out of fashion. They sit on shelves between uses, handsome enough to be part of the room, ready to be pulled down and reconfigured. They’re passed from sibling to sibling, parent to child, becoming more valuable with age as the family’s marble run constructions become part of its story.

Cuboro has won multiple international design and toy awards not for novelty, but for achieving something harder: a toy that remains relevant across decades, that teaches without lecturing, that delights without gimmicks. These are marble runs built for a lifetime.

From Swiss classrooms to homes worldwide, building spatial thinking one marble at a time

What began as a teaching tool in Bern has found its way into kindergartens, schools, and homes across the world. The marble run system trains fine motor skills, strengthens spatial imagination, and stimulates creativity. Teachers use CUBORO to make abstract concepts tangible: gravity, momentum, cause and effect, problem-solving.

CUBORO championships have been held in Switzerland and Germany since 1996, bringing together builders of all ages. The system’s multi-generational appeal means it truly does last. Parents who played with CUBORO as children now watch their own children discover the same satisfactions: the careful placement of blocks, the moment of testing when the marble is released, the pride when it emerges at the other end.