Archive for 'Construction & Blocks & Models'

My 9 year old son likes this!
Review from my 9 year old son: It was a good experience. I built the helicopter first. It doesn't fly, but the solar panel makes the blades turn. Don't be confused by the picture - the helicopter is too heavy to fly. The instructions have no words, but I go by the pictures anyway. I did not have much trouble following the instructions, although some parts were confusing. Sometimes it's hard to get into the small spaces to tighten bolts, but I was finally able to do it. Learning about the solar panel was neat because you could see how it made the motor work and you could experiment with the different amount of sunlight. Maybe it's the California sun, but as soon as I took it outside the blades started turning! Building the helicopter was a little bit easy, but still worth it. (It's rated age 8+). We bought it on sale for . Not sure I would pay full price for it. I'm looking forward to building the windmill, oil driller, the bike, and the car.

Fun, but does not live up to potential.
First off : Unless your child is a mechanical genius, do not buy this for them if they are under 13. Even being 13+, patience is needed. These models are very intricate, require good coordination and some mechanical know-how.

Germans, they make the best stuff, right? Or so Mr. Sham-wow told me. Well, for the price I bought this at (eighty dollars) I feel I paid a little too much. So unless the price is below eight - zero, I would not reccomend it.

With that being said...

Complaints : The instructions look like Ikea building instructions for hades. No words, just arrows and pictures. And boy, are some of these pictures loaded. Very intricate stuff.

The solar panel is tiny and requires a lot of sun to work. I had to put mine directly underneath an incandescent bulb for it to spin. I haven't been able to get it to work outside. Most likely will not be able to until summer.

You can build only one model at a time. Not five.

Pieces are easy to lose and will most likely be mixed up in the box

Positives :

If you and your child have the patience to build this, you and they will have the satisfaction of a job well done once this is built. For whichever model you may choose. And for me, that is all that matters.

Components are high quality.

Instructions, while being dense, are clear.

K'Nex are great learning toys, good value
My son (Age 8) has built both of the roller coasters included in the instructions. This is a great learning toy to encourage exploration of basic physics and engineering: why does it work?, will it still work if I change this?, how can I make it better?. I am a big fan of K'Nex and the open learning possibilites of their toys.

Loopy
Makes for a real family activity. We all had a part in its construction. We have done many of these before.

Excellent toy
Great toy to challenge my son. He has a vision and will create it. He uses Knex to build his own after building the toy as instructed. He does not read the instructions though just looks at the box and it is done. This helps him develop his vision and technological growth.

Not your typical K'Nex project
We have an almost nine year old who builds with EVERYTHING from K'Nex to Uberstixx to all types of lego's. She even makes her own creations to include machines and things that "transform." She asked for this for Christmas and Santa brought it for her. The product says for ages 9 and up. The reality: This coaster took two adults HOURS to assemble, and MANY of the photo-instructions were difficult to decipher.

Once you DO get it put together, it works well. It is fun to watch the car ZOOM quickly around the track. For about two minutes. Then the novelty pretty much wears off. I anticipate that our daughter will leave this up for about 2 days, then start taking it apart to build other things.

She also received the K'Nex Educational series kit about gears and that item, I feel, is much better. She has already built a few different items with it and was able to do so completely on her own.

Kids still favor Legos
The only problem I have with the Trios are the fact they are hard to take apart. Even my husband and I had a hard time assembling and breaking the pieces apart.

strong toys
These toys are pretty fun and very durable as far as toys go, for sure. They are a little hard to put together and pull apart. Fun and colorful.

My 5 year old LOVES this toy set
My 4 to 5 year old wanted a castle for Christmas and I was thinking these blocks would be too hard for him to put together. I was told by a friend that their 4 year old loves his TRIO sets so I went ahead and bought it . My 5 year old loves this castle set, I also got him a few of the add on sets, and plays with it every day. He can snap the blocks together easily, a few of the pieces ,like the flags, take some effort but he is able to add them to the blocks himself. The initial building of the castle a adult will have to do for this age group as the instructions are detailed but after that just let the kids "go for it". Great for the imagination - Spiderman and Batman help battle the "bad knights" for example.

Great toy but better for older children
My four year old got this for Christmas instead of the Legos he wanted. These did cost more but the Legos were all sold out. I thought this would be a great replacement but they weren't. The only problem I have with the Trios are the fact they are hard to take apart. Even my husband and I had a hard time breaking the pieces apart. I do not know how they expect small children to he able to. If your child is nine and older (or really strong) then these are great but don't expect a five for six year old to be able to put these together.

Great toy
Santa got this for my 4.5 year old twin boys. I put it together. It's not hard to put together, but I think maybe a little hard for their age. They have not played with it very much. But, I think in time it will be a favorite. Once they learn how to put the pieces together themselves.