Part of the appeal of K’NEX toys, I was once told, is that they get considerably bigger once out of the box. That’s definitely true with regards to the toy maker’s roller coaster building sets, which arrive in impressively sized boxes, only to evolve into even larger structures once fully assembled. Seriously, we have a number of completed K’NEX models hanging around, and while they are marvelous to look at—being so brightly colored and architecturally sound—the fact is that they take up too much space in our modest New York office. Unless we can start training them to perform intern duties, we might have to do the unthinkable and reduce them back into their component parts.
Luckily, K’NEX sets can always be reassembled, and being a construction toy, building them is a large part of the fun. For the Raptor’s Revenge Roller Coaster Building Set, I recommend setting aside a wide swath of tabletop—or a generously sized perimeter of unoccupied floor—to lay out the pieces before kicking off your assembling. This set contains a lot of pieces—617 to be exact—consisting of those colored rods and connectors that are K’NEX’s stock and trade. Of course, there is also what I consider the MVP of any building set, an instruction manual, and in this case, it features large, full-color diagrams which, thankfully, detail every last step in the construction process.
This being a roller coaster set, it also includes 19 feet of track, a green roller car, and a motorized chain lift that runs on a pair of AA batteries, and sends the car hurtling toward its destiny. The completed roller coaster is definitely exciting to watch, though I also found myself checking out all the fine details—how the track consists of many individual track segments, which are connected through rods and other small pieces to the frame, which is itself composed of numerous K’NEX components. While the Raptor’s Revenge Roller Coaster is awesome enough, there are also downloadable instructions for building a second roller coaster using the same set. Perhaps disassembling the one in the office, so that the interns actually have a desk they can work at, has an upside after all.
