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Average Customer Review
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The most helpful favorable review
The most helpful critical review
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
Fun construction project
I bought this as a project to work on together, w/ my daughter who is 3 yrs old. Interestingly enough, even though she is way under the targeted age group of 7+, she easily learnt how to snap the pieces together and w/ some guidance from me in gathering the various parts actually assembled most of the supporting structure. This definitely speaks volumes about the ease of...
Published 17 months ago by AVJ
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flimsy, parts are 1/2 size of my other K'Nex parts and easily lost, no extra pieces
I bought this for my 4-1/2 year old son as I thought it would be fun and since we have a big box full of other K'Nex parts, it could be used elsewhere. The price was right when I bought it, but I was quite disappointed when I got the pieces out of the box that they were a totally different size than all of my other K'Nex parts, about 1/2 the size. So that make them...
Published 9 months ago by Jeffrey L. Braun
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
Fun construction project, October 22, 2008
Durability: Fun: Educational:
I bought this as a project to work on together, w/ my daughter who is 3 yrs old. Interestingly enough, even though she is way under the targeted age group of 7+, she easily learnt how to snap the pieces together and w/ some guidance from me in gathering the various parts actually assembled most of the supporting structure. This definitely speaks volumes about the ease of assembly of the product.
Setting up of the track proved to be a little challenging for her (no detraction from the product) not so much for the difficulty in getting delicate track struts to snap w/ other components but more so because of the need for precision (out of the league of a 3 yr old), so had to put that together myself while she assembled the gear chains.
The entire assembly took us two days of working together (we put in a couple of hours each day). The operation held her spell bound and this has been one of our 'most fun' projects working together. My daughter enjoyed the experience and you could see her actually 'getting it' towards the end of the project. So would definitely recommend it to other parent-child teams.
Comments on the assembly:
- The directions while pretty well illustrated aren't crystal clear - the coloring of the components leaves a little to be desired (had to call in the wife to decipher some colors)
- The chain connecting the drive shaft is dodgy at best until you modify the assembly a little (more on that later), which is the primary cause of the loss of a star, but this is probably a common issue, so the box had supplementary information on how to tackle such a situation
- No extra pieces (I can see the need for a couple of extra blue beams for support of the chain)
- The tracks seem a little delicate, while my daughter did try to push the car up the incline to get it to move w/o the motor a couple of time she dint really put it through the full 'kids test', but it did cause us some concern
All of the above certainly seem like a litany of woes, but I wanted to list all the issues out, and they are relatively insignificant (especially in conjunction to the price of the product), when you consider how much fun my daughter had putting it together and running the car up and down. Though I will add, it is more fun to put together than see the car run (but that could just be me).
More on the issue w/ the chain:
- The chain as I mentioned earlier was loose, this causes the chain to slip and lose pulling power
- If you take off a chain link to fix the problem then it pulls the chain too tight against the frame and the motor isn't strong enough to pull the chain over, causing the shakes and rattles (thought it was going to bring the structure down
- The best solution is to actually dismantle a blue rod w/ two yellow connectors on the second level of the support structure and move it to the top in such a way that it pushes the chain over a couple more of the bottom teeth of the gear wheel, this will do two things, get more of the motor torque to apply as well as reducing the play in the chain
- You will also have to move the motor in a horizontal plain versus the vertical plain as shown in the pictures
The fix above probably seems complicated but it isn't. I unfortunately had to do it by trial and error after which I found the supplemental piece that showed how to do just that.
Over all a great buy, certainly recommended for kids of 'all' ages, and will prove to be a great 'project' for parent-child teams.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Works great!, November 30, 2008
Durability: Fun: Educational:
This was a fairly easy Knex project to build. My 8 year old son and I were able to complete it in a day. He did need my help with a few pieces, but he was able to do a lot of the building by himself.
As the other reviewer stated, the instructions sometimes are a little hard to figure out as the colors seem a little off at times, but I was able to figure it out. My eyesight isn't the best in the world and I had to use reading glasses to see some of the tinier parts in the instructions. I think the instructions are better than on the older Knex kits.
We found the supplementary instructions right away, so we were able to get the chain lift to work the first time around.
Please do not copy this review for use elsewhere on the internet.
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Excellent toy for me and my 7 year old daughter. This toy is difficult for a 7 year old but it teaches so much., January 14, 2010
Durability: Fun: Educational:
Excellent toy for me and my 7 year old daughter. This toy is difficult for a 7 year old but it teaches so much.
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Awesome toy... for grownups, September 24, 2009
Durability: Fun: Educational:
My girlfriend and I bought this at Target the other night after we had a yearning to play with some toys. It was a blast for a couple hours and $[...]. The instructions weren't the best, but between the two of us we figured it out (it helps that she's a mechanical engineer). The finished product is mesmerizing (the roller coaster actually works!) I'm planning on buying a bigger set now since we had so much fun with this little one.
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great building toy, July 20, 2009
Durability: Fun: Educational:
My son received this for his 7th birthday. He loves building with legos and k'Nex every day and the speed coaster took him approx. one hour or less to put together. It stays together and he and my four year old son turn it on for a short while sometimes.
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KNEX Speed Coaster, July 6, 2009
Durability: Fun: Educational:
The toy is priced well, has great "building instructions" is simple to put together yet challenging conceptually for children and is fun to play with. Di d I mention the PRICE is great for what you get compared to Lego. My son is a rollercoaster "expert" and loved building this.
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flimsy, parts are 1/2 size of my other K'Nex parts and easily lost, no extra pieces, June 2, 2009
Durability: Fun: Educational:
I bought this for my 4-1/2 year old son as I thought it would be fun and since we have a big box full of other K'Nex parts, it could be used elsewhere. The price was right when I bought it, but I was quite disappointed when I got the pieces out of the box that they were a totally different size than all of my other K'Nex parts, about 1/2 the size. So that make them totally incompatible. And as a few others have stated, since they were 1/2 the size of my other ones, once I put everything together it seemed rather flimsy. I bought the Swing box too but am probably going to take that back.
Once together my son loved it, but I expect it to break quite often with the small pieces as they flex quite easily and become disconnected.
As to the size, since they smaller than my other ones, I can see them being lost quite easily. Another deduction on my point score is with the ease of losing them, once put together there is not a single piece left over. So if you lose one of the very tiny black connectors, you're screwed.
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Fun to build, but for older child., February 10, 2009
Durability: Fun: Educational:
Great toy and really fun to build. We bought it for my 7 year old nephew for Christmas. But we ending up building it for him. It is very advanced. It was a challenge for a 27 and 35 year old to build. Probably best suited for someone 11-14.
Our nephew did enjoy watching the car spin around the roller coaster though.
I love this series of toys, it makes a nice change to Lego's.
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Christmas gift that is still being played witih., January 26, 2009
Durability: Fun: Educational:
I bought the Speed Coaster as a Christmas gift for my 7 year nephew. I was very hesitant to purchase it as it looked like the kind of gift that would be played with once and than be delegated to a closet. I was very close to saying no to this and buying some Wii games that I knew he would play with daily. Turns out my nephew loves it and wants the rest of the set for his birthday.
I was also concerned that he would not be able to build the Coaster which would take away from the educational value. Turns out that with minimal adult supervision he was able to put it together. After a month nothing has broken and the Coaster is getting just as much play time as the Wii.
Needless to say I have already looked into buying the rest of the sets for his birthday next month.
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Speed Coaster, January 19, 2009
Durability: Fun: Educational:
This coaster was was very difficult to assemble and is very fragile to use. Our 9 year old lost interest in this toy every quickly.
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