Customer Reviews

K'Nex Big Air Ball Tower

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

If you are up to a big challenge, I would highly recommend building the Big Air Ball Tower. I received this set from my parents on July 9. I had the tower completed in about five to six hours. If you want an easier challenge, I would recommend bulding the Junior Big Air Ball Tower. But, if you are up to the real challenge, build the Ultimate Big Air Ball Tower. The most challenging part of this set is adjusting the orange tubes correctly. My favorite parts of the set is watching the balls go through the loop and bouncing off the trampoline. I really enjoyed building the Big Air Ball Tower, and I hope you will, too.

My son has been interested in this toy for well over a year now. After reading the reviews here I was never going to get it and had pretty much talked him out of it, but every once in awhile he would mention it. So when I was shopping for his 7th birthday I saw it on sale at Toys R Us for $40. I was VERY hesitant to purchase it, but I thought that maybe the Jr version would work and that the K'nex pieces themselves were worth the $40.

First my husband put together the Jr. version and it worked just fine. So my son took it down and built the big version. He put together the whole thing himself and it works great. Every so often the balls get stuck, but it by far exceeded my expectations. Is it worth $99? Maybe. But it's definately worth the price when it's on sale.

Thumbs up to this toy!

My son got this for his 10th birthday. He has previously built just about every major K'Nex kit including the Ferris Wheel, Screamin' Serpent, Rippin Rocket, Electronic Arcade, and Loopin' Lizard. His excited reaction when he opened the box: "Wow. This looks complicated!" That was the highest possible compliment he could have granted to this toy.

A week later, it has lived up to his expectations. He thinks it's the best K'Nex project ever, and I share his opinion. The things that other reviewers seem to be complaining about are the very things that make this superior. It's complicated. It requires a lot of tweaking to get right. But unlike the simpler projects that you build and then stare at, this one demands involvement. If you want a model kit, buy something else. If you want the thrill of building and interacting with a classic Rube Goldberg contraption, this is one great toy.

If your child is not extremely patient, or has never built a K'Nex project, I would NOT make this the first. The instructions are not easy, but kids who've succesfully completed large K'Nex models before will be more comfortable with the familiar graphic lexicon of the instructions.

RE all the reviewers' comments about missing parts, I would be amazed if anybody could get through the construction of this thing without making some mistakes along the way. Thinking that a part is missing is part of the process of discovering you have to retrace your steps to figure out what you did wrong back in step 47. If that sounds awful to you, don't buy K'Nex.

RE all the comments about balls missing targets and tubes needing adjusting and balls flying in the wrong direction, see above. This thing requires tweaking to get right. Balls WILL fly off in the wrong direction. That's what makes it all the more satisfying once this thing gets humming.

If you are shopping for a serious K'Nex fan, Big Air Ball Tower gets 5-Stars.

While my friends (young and old) have enjoyed K'Nex products a great deal in the past, the Big Ball Air Tower simply is not up to par. The major problem concerns the orange "Flexi Tubes" which, in theory, deliver the balls from place to place in certain parts of the model. As many other reviewers have noted, these things are a gigantic pain to get working properly; in fact, I would have to rate them as K'Nex's most ill-advised engineering decision ever. Furthermore, they are held in place by these abominable black plastic brackets which should clip together firmly but don't. The first time I activated the model, I was appalled: balls were flying every which way, fleeing the confines of the model as if possessed, rolling under the sofa, getting chased by the dog, etc. Many hours of determined tweaking improved the situation somewhat, but we never were able to get it to the point that the model could be left running unsupervised for more than a few minutes without losing at least one ball. (And bear in mind that, if you lose as many as two, the model will simply cease to function, since there will no longer be enough back pressure within the air motor to launch the remaining balls up the vertical chamber.)

Furthermore, even getting the model to behave with a mediocre amount of consistency required using several parts from other K'Nex sets to add additional support, barriers, and guides. If you don't have any other K'Nex sets...well, best of luck, especially since I'm quite certain that my Big Air Ball Tower was missing no fewer than four pieces that would have been necessary even to build it according to the instructions.

K'Nex have attempted to help by providing online videos to offer advice about potential problem areas of the model. Unfortunately, this advice is almost entirely self-evident and ultimately does very little to assist with the most vexing problems, such as how to keep the balls from taking a nose-dive toward the carpet on the way from the spin wheel to the pivoting arm. For that, you may find yourself needing to spend literally hours adding spare parts and maybe even a little duct tape. If that's your idea of fun, more power to you -- but I can't imagine inflicting it on a ten-year-old.

This is one of the best toys yet. If you child is a builder, they can build and build and rebuild. The best part is, the air blower works to blow the balls through the tubes no matter if it is built or not. Toy amazes the kids and after only a few days has been played with more than anything else. Other toys were returned and put in a corner, this one is a keeper!!

I have been an assembler at a certain toy store that shall remain nameless for 5 years. When i was asked to build this toy as a display model, I thought it would be fun and would enjoy it. BUT I DIDN'T! It took me 8 hours and I didn't have enough pieces and it didn't work properly and was destroyed in under an hour. I do not recommend this toy to anyone - any parent - who plans on building this for their child. If you have a child with lots of experiece w/ Knex, they might like it, but overall...its really bad. Don't buy it. It's not good. And i'm not bitter.

My 9-year old son and I had the best 10 hours together this year. If you are up to a challenge and want to spend some real quality time with the kid, then this is a great buy. Yes there are problems with the instructions and initially I thought pieces were missing. (...)

We bought this KNEX set for our son last Christmas. We bought it even after reading reviews that said that it was too hard to get the tubes in the right position to make it work, thinking "our son can do it." He LOVES KNEX and was so excited to get it. The reviews were right--it is very frustrating and we never could get it to work really right. I suggest the other sets, especially the rollercoasters.

yesterday we where buying the christmass presents, when i saw there was the big air towel at 40 bucks, so i said to my mother if i could buy so she said yes, when i got home i began building it, after 6 hours i finished it.

And when i tried everything was going all right, so it wasn't that difficult

I bought this for my son, who is almost 12 years old. He has many other K'Nex sets (roller coasters, space station, dragster...) and this one, for how much it costs, its not worth the money. When you finally build it, (it took him about a day) it wants to fall over. It doesn't do what it says, with the balls falling where they are supposed to. We are actually contacting K'Nex corporate to see if they would be willing to trade it in for another set. I would NOT recommend buying this. The rollercoasters are much more fun, and the kids don't get so frusterated putting them together.