Customer Reviews

Knex Value Tub 400 pieces

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

My 7-year-old daughter loves this tub of K'nex, and has now foresworn her LEGOs. 400 pieces does not go as far as you might expect, however; you may find yourself shopping for an expansion set soon.

LEGO:
* you can build houses
* simple stacking approach
* upgrade to Technics for 3D building
* those adorable little LEGO people
* wider variety of pieces and sets

K'Nex:
* 3-dimensional construction
* more complicated trigonometric approach
* you can build bridges
* everything can rotate

And I saw a K'Nex set that lets you join LEGO and K'Nex ...

I bought this set along with another set. I think it wouldn't be as much fun without more sets together. I bought them for my nephews to play with when they stay with me. My 8 year old nephew really loves them. He would spend all of his time building different contraptions if we let him. He loves to show them off and have us take a picture of him with it. My 11 year old nephew just wants to play video games. With a little encouragement, he did start to build "Cars" and want to take pictures. The hardest part is getting them to take them apart for next time. They always want to save them. There are a lot of different types of pieces and shapes, but often they want more of one type of piece that they used up. I also wouldn't get a set because of what the directions will help them build. My nephews just want to think it up themselves. I would get sets that have the most pieces. There is also a problem with small pieces rolling away and the dog getting a hold of them. I would only get this if you have a good place for them to play with a lot of small pieces that roll easily. They had a lot of fun when they discovered the small motor also.

We had an old K'nex set and wanted to augment it with a larger set. We thought, with 400 pieces, this would be a great addition. However, upon receiving this, there were too many small parts; a size we've never seen before. Nowhere on the box or in the description is described that this is a mixed-sized set. Nor do they say on the website.

Looking at the K'nex sight, there are three sizes:
Standard: The original size, what we were hoping for.
Micro: These are tiny pieces, at least 1/2 the size of the standard.
Kids K'Nex: These are much larger pieces for very young kids.

These different sizes do not necessarily interconnect with the larger size (as Lego does with Duplo/Lego) and it is very frustrating that K'Nex doesn't say how much of each size one is getting in each set. The other sets (350/450) are similarly ambiguous.

Again, with Lego as the standard, I'd like them to list the number of each piece somewhere so one knows what they are getting. You can go to K'nex directly on their website and purchase parts directly instead of sets and it appears that this is the only way to get just the standard size.

We want the standard size becuase it is the right size for our children who like to make large creations but for whom the Kids size is too constraining.

Ok, so my son was all excited to get an Amazon.com gift card. He searched for what he wanted and found this 400 ct. box of K'nex. It came in the mail pretty quick but SUPRISE - these are mini-k'nex and won't work with the full size K'nex that he already has. There is nothing in the description that says this. Beware.

We have other K'nex sets and enjoy them very much. I purchased this for extra pieces unfortunately the bucket contains all tiny pieces and is not of use. I wish K'nex better labled what size pieces came with the tub.

All who have received this from us have been pleased, as our own has been with his. Some of it works well with Lego too.

My son got this from the Great Pumpkin in exchange for his Halloween candy. He LOVES it so I have no complaints about that, but these are MINI K'Nex, and that is not clear from the item picture or description. Just keep in mind that they won't fit together with any other sets of regular sized K'Nex, and that the size of the tub is GINORMOUS compared to the amount of pieces you get. One reviewer said it filled 1/4 of the tub... I would say more like 1/10, but who's quibbling?

Having said all that, it really is an excellent toy, GREAT for open ended play, spacial thinking, and imagination. I'm glad we got it.

I originally purchased this for my son who has a degenerative neuromuscular disease and has weak fine motor skills. He loves Lego's but can't deal with the "small" regular ones. I thought this would give us all an oppurtunity to play together plus make more than just "square" things. He loves it. He can put the bigger pieces together himself, and we help him with the smaller pieces and we make wonderful things. I also purchased the tub that has the 150 pieces with wheeles and things to go with it. We've made really neat things and he enjoys it. My 12 year old daughter loves playing with them when my son goes to bed. So I would recommend this over Lego's... don't get me wrong Lego's is still a good toy and they do work with K'Nex just make sure you have the Lego's brand as the generic Lego's won't attach. But this is a good toy for children that have medical issues as long as you supervise the play time. As there is small pieces they could choke on, and possibly get frustrated with because they couldn't put them together etc (My older son doesn't play with these just for that reason. He has the same disorder but gets frustrated easily and doesn't consentrate "sit still" longer than a few seconds. So this toy isn't for those children). But under fun play time it's great! And not many toys can say that for a medically challenged child.

I purchased this toy for my daughters' birthdays (4 and 6), as a shared present, and they love building with it. This is usually done as a "group" project, as some of the pieces are a little bit difficult to snap together for them (but honestly, I have trouble with a few of the pieces myself), but it's been great to see them working together and collaborating on a building project.

I was at first a little worried about whether or not all 400 pieces could be contained in the tote. Opening the box for the first time dispelled that concern. The box looked practically empty! The pieces are very small, and barely cover the bottom of the storage box. However, don't let that fool you, since you can build lots of things from this seemingly small sprinkle of parts. The fact that they claim to be compatible with other snap-style building blocks is a bonus. In any case, there is room for plenty more pieces, should you choose to buy more.

The downside of this toy is that the some of the pieces really are difficult to put together and take apart, and require a good deal of dexterity to do so. However, given this fact, the finished products are pretty durable because of it. I remember skinning my fingers as a little girl taking apart my Legos, though, so I'm thinking this might just be a right of passage.

I bought this for my five year old, thinking he was probably big enough to enjoy it. He is, but some of the pieces require more hand strength/coordination than he has right now, so I sometimes have to help him a bit. Still, it's a great way to work on fine motor skills and spend some time with him. He loves it and I'm pretty sure he'll still be playing with these for several more years.