K’Nex Cosmic Twist Coaster

I was curious as to what was in the box addressed to ‘Mom Blogger’. It was a K’Nex Cosmic Twist Coaster set! In unison my husband and daughter exclaimed, “Cool!” Yes, it even included a motor! We knew this would be quite a lengthy project so it was difficult to take out the time to devote to it. Finally, we had the chance to put it together this past weekend.

This particular set is suggested for ages 9 and up. As this was our first K’Nex project, it was really a challenge to understand the instructions and learn how to assemble basic parts. I now understand why this is classified as an ‘advanced’ set! Unless your child is familiar with building other K’Nex structures, it would be wise to have a mechanically-inclined adult or two help out.

My daughter had to be very patient as I checked and re-checked to make sure each piece was put together just right. After an hour, we had only managed to finish the first 13 steps out of 56. My daughter was pooped and my spatial thinking had turned off so we decided to call it ‘quits’ for the night.

The next day we geared ourselves up to finish the project. Now that we had the frame set up and were more comfortable with assembling the pieces, building went much quicker. My daughter was able to do quite a bit more without my help, even taking over a few of my sections. Just as a warning, your fingers will get a bit sore from clicking all the pieces together so don’t feel bad to switch off with a building partner or two periodically.

After the main structure was getting taller and was finally completed, work on the track began. This is when the coaster really began to take shape. It was getting so exciting to anticipate what it would be like to go on such a roller coaster in real life – scary!

After a 1-1/2 session of K’Nex building, we were almost done. My husband put together the chain to attach to the motor and I snapped the last bit of track together. Done!

We sat for a while and just watched the roller coaster. It was even a bit more entertaining than watching television, even Speckles thought so. Finishing this project provided a fantastic feeling of accomplishment and, best of all, my daughter had a wonderful time!

While I would not suggest the Cosmic Twist Coaster as a first K’Nex project, it was a blast to put together. We did have four left-over parts and could not find anywhere we could have missed using them in the instructions. As mentioned, there were 56 steps and much of this was without text. As the images are somewhat 3D, you do need to have a knack to mentally picture the pieces and how they fit. After adding the track, there were only two or three spots that pieces did not fit exactly but those few details made a big difference. A little tweaking was done so the coaster ran properly This project was very time consuming and, now that it is fully assembled, takes up a huge space to display it. With the amount of work we put into it, there’s no way we’re taking it apart now. The pieces are much easier to put together than take apart anyway.

All in all, if you have child that has outgrown the basic building sets, this series of K’Nex is perfect and is a great idea for spending quality family time together. I’m already eyeing what’s available for our next project!

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