K'NEX - 70 Model Building Set‚ 705 Pieces, STEM Learning, Creative Play Set‚ Ages 7+

Another great K'nex set made for imaginary minds. The sets offer hours of fun. The pieces are made well, and great for ages 7 to adult. So many ideas in one box. This as with all sets can be added to other K'nex sets for more building.

I enjoyed these a lot when I was a kid; I had about 40 gallons of them. Now I'm a mechanical designer, and I work almost exclusively with people who had these when they were kids (and lego too...but those are crazy expensive and the new models are mostly licensed stuff; they are not very creative). Bought for a little girl who likes making stuff out of cups, pop sickle sticks, etc for her birthday. She was overjoyed, in spite of getting much more expensive gifts from others. An educational toy that makes a kid turn away from Nintendo...for under $40...and finding a mechanical engineer or designer that didn't have them isn't easy. What more do you need to know?One tip...this comes with instructions for 70 models. If you can get away with it, remove these and throw them away. The value here is what can be created from the imagination; not what can be created from an instruction sheet.Another tip...while these appear to be for little kids, they actually have a lot of value for middle and high school students as well. Some schools even have competitions like, "Make a bridge using only these parts, the winner is the bridge that can hold the most weight".

My 4 year old (almost 5) absolutely loves this K'NEX set. He's young so initially we had to help him learn to follow the instructional and help him snap pieces together, but after about a month he can now do most of the designs completely on his own. The instructions are different from Lego's in that they show a natural progression rather than going step-by-step, but if a 4 year old can figure it out then I think the instructions are pretty good. I love this set because kids can make so many different things; so far he's made the flower, swordfish, airplane, jellyfish, picnic basket, high dive, windsurfer (my personal favorite because it moves). This is an incredible bargain compared with Legos. I also appreciate that it helps him think logically, learn to follow instructions, and develops fine and gross motor skills. And it keeps him totally entertained for 30-60 minutes. Amazing toy at an amazing price. We'll buy more.

It is excelent to do STEAM learning

I bought this as a gift for my 7 year old son's birthday. He and his little brother (5) play with Legos for hours and hours and I thought this would be a nice change of pace for them. They have been having fun making new things out of the pieces, but are definitely having a difficult time following the instructions. I sat with them and helped them put together one of the pieces and was surprised K'nex didn't do a better job making the instructions easier for a 7 year old, i.e. tell how many pieces of each per item, how the item goes together, etc. The instructions basically just have pictures and you have to figure out how to construct the item. Once I got him started with laying out the pieces and showing him how to put it together, my son was able to help me, but he definitely wouldn't have been able to figure out such a complicated design without better instruction or hands on help. I'm happy I bought this for them and they are playing with it, but 90% of the time they are back to their ole faithful Legos.

K'nex are great. I used to work with students where we used these to help teach engineering concepts. I bought this particular set for my niece. She loves it! She is 6 years old (she was 5 at the time this was given to her). Though the product indicates it's for age 7+, I think it still works for younger children (as long as they know not to swallow the pieces). My niece often doesn't follow the model plans and instead uses her imagination to create whatever she wants, which I think is great. When she does find a model she wants to make, her mom helps her with following along to build it (though I've been told sometimes my niece understands how to put things together better than her mom does!). Overall, this is a great set with lots of good models to build, and plenty of pieces to use even if you just want to let your child get creative. This is a good learning tool, and I would highly recommend it!

Got my son 3 of these sets and he just keeps creating more and more things its all he keeps asking for kids will love it, also better stepping on these then darn Lego's lol

What can't you build with these things? I think I have as much fun as my 5-year old son playing with Kinex. We have 4 different sets. The instructions/diagrams are easy to follow. You know its a good toy when there are no sounds out of the kid for hours and the tongue is dry from concentrating so hard. Watching my kid's eye/hand coordination progress while playing with Kinex has been amazing over the last 2 years. Highly recommended for kids that like to build stuff. A step up (and I say this lightly) from Legos in that the STEM features are much more intuitive, and I like explaining the physics of some of the design concepts and using the toys as a teaching moment.. Only drawback is that once a cool creation is made, it has to come apart to make the next one! Colors help keep the small pieces from the clutches of the vacuum demon (mother).