Customer Reviews

Drop-n-Swing

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My five-year-old son and I love putting Knex together as a team. Everything went like clockwork with this model until we got to the "drop" seat which was the very last system. It was educational, because we had to keep checking and rechecking to see what had gone wrong. I was surprised how even this kept my son's attention. Finally, we called Knex. They were very helpful and knowledgeable, and admitted that they had put together 5 or 6 of these at the shop and none of the drop seats worked the first time. They said this particular model needed to be precisely snapped and balanced exactly how the directions indicate, or it doesn't work. So, we checked again. Still couldn't get it working. So, after a day's work, we just sadly put it aside.

My son wouldn't quit, however, and kept noodling with it for another day. I don't know how he did it, but he got it to work, and it wasn't by being obsessively exact. Kids are great, aren't they?

This is a fun product to put together and play with.

the chain is delicate and it has no extra links to use. We broke one link and had to figure out how to glue it so it would work.
The actuall drop part works now...I think. It does get stuck sometimes.

When it works properly, it is a fun toy.

We did not lose any pieces from this set, so we could build it all the way. The problem is that we couldn't get the drop part to work. Otherwise, the swing part works fine. We unhooked the gears to the drop part and we just run the swings. We operate the drop part by hand. I think Knex needs to change things so that the drop part works easily!

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We put this 90% together & then broke one of the tiny chain pieces. The set instantly became useless as there are no extra parts to replace broken or lost pieces. I was able to order a replacement piece but with shipping the tiny piece cost me $[...].

Pros: Neat & challenging design, good instructions, fun to put together if you have all the pieces

Cons: No extra pieces, only builds one thing, Expensive at full price - I found ours half price at Target. Many of the pieces are smaller than the standard Knex so they are easy to loose and/or break.

As stated by other reviewers the drop swing doesn't work quite right. I added some of my son's Lego to the bottom of the drop swing to add weight and got it working right.

They arent the most durable but alot of fun and cant really be beat for the price and entertainment value

This set is a good choice for a beginner. The directions are easy to follow. the parts are small so be sure to take care with younger siblings in the household. Takes some time to assemble, builds Reading skills as well as patience and dexterity. Well worth the price

I know some folks have said K'NEX is too hard for kids to put together, but IMO it is a project for a parent and a child. My husband and eight year old daugther have put two of these together working as a team and it was so much fun. My daughter has to use critical thinking skills and learns mechanical engineering techniques. This Drop-N-Swing is number five on the list to do. I think these types of projects offer quality time for parents / children and really challenge their minds. We have three more that the team will be working on in the near future.

My first introduction to Kinex. I say mine because this was too tricky for my almost 7 yr old son to put together (believe the box when it says for ages 7+). Clicking the pieces together needs nimble, coordinated and strong fingers and the instructions could be clearer (maybe they're designed that way to get the kids thinking for themselves?).

The design is ingenious and would be a great lesson about gearing and gear ratios for older kids. In our case, the drop seat needed an extra lego brick added to it, to make it heavy enough to fall all the way to the base of the tower, in time to be pulled back up again without getting stuck at the top. (The seat also included my son's Lego Agents figures who were relaxing on a day off from their adventures!).

Only just put it together, so can't comment on durability. Will be interesting to see what other designs (if any) the kids can come up with.