Customer Reviews

K'Nex Octopus Whirl

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Hi, my name is Jorge. I'm 9 years old. The OCTOPUS WHIRL was awesome!!! Although it seems that it might be a little more challenging for 7 year-olds. I liked that when I was finished instead of just spinning regularly it spins on an angle. It rocks. That's why I recommend this for kids. It was the best one that I built so far. Right now I'm working on the one for 9 year-olds and up, and that's gonna be a challenge but fun!!!!!!!

I think I need to buy another one for my desk at work. This thing is cool.

I would take the one I have to work, but my kids (4 and 6) play with it almost every day. We haven't taken it apart yet since Christmas. They even manage to fix it themselves sometimes when a piece or two falls off, which is not that often considering how rough they can be. They also have not broken a piece yet, although they did lose one of the very small pieces. Luckily we had a replacement in their K-Nex bin.

This was a very enjoyable ride to build. However, like all K'nex products I have built, it suffers from a multitude of small parts which are difficult to hold, compounded by being made of a slippery plastic that compounds the problem. Another defect is in the illustrations, I often found then almost indecipherable but I plugged away and got through. Part of it is my fault, I am too old to retain full use of all my joints, I am partly color blind and have trouble discerning what part is called for but I still enjoyed building the models. And when I am done and turn them on, to see them work, then all my effort becomes worthwhile.

Ok, so I had to put most of this together for my 6 yr old son, but towards the end he was able to help. My kids just love this....their lego guys get to ride on...What fun. No problems putting it together once I got the jist of it.

A year after receiving this toy as a gift, I'm happy to say my 5-year-old son still chooses to bring this one out to build, where other toys are abandoned, broken, or discarded. He needs help to build it, but manages to make repairs on his own, and has asked for the other "thrill rides" in the set.

It requires a little construction savvy and patience, and has lots and LOTS of little parts. Our fingers are always worn by the time we're ready to turn it on. Good for kids and parents who are mechanically inclined -- frustrating for people who aren't. Did I mention LOTS of little parts? Yeah, get some baggies for storage.

This purchase was a smart choice, some of the parts are smaller than the usual size K-nex. My 8 year old grandson had no trouble following the directions. This is a good set for a first time K-nex.

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 Octopus Whirl is number four in 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 6 year old son received this for Christmas and loves it! He put it together in a couple of hours, and it works great. Only difficulty he had is that we had to show him how the gears worked, as this is his first Knex set that includes the battery powered motor and the gears, but after we showed them how they worked, he was able to put them together on his own. We are now searching the internet to find where to buy the other sets in this series.

My 13 year-old-son put this together in a couple of hours and we think it's AWESOME!!! It works well and takes up very little space, which I like. He wasn't used to the smaller than usual pieces, but figured out how to put it together. We LOVE the motorized feature! Looks like the real thing in action! A younger child may need an adult's help and certainly should only pick it up by the base. We would highly recommend this set and have always been pleased with K'nex toys!!!

My sister purchased this toy for my son's 7th birthday. There is no way on earth a 7 year old could put together the 454 tiny pieces. The instructions are simply pictures. It's difficult to put together and now after several evenings of working on it I finally got it together and my son picked it up by the octopus arm and it fell apart. This is a dud toy!