The K’Nex toys are akin to Lego playsets; only the shapes of individual pieces differ greatly; however, the concept is similar. The K’Nex 4X Racer set comes in a plastic tire shaped packaging which is reusable to store the individual K’Nex pieces. The reuseable plastic tire container comes covered with a cardboard sleeve featuring a picture of the final model of the racer.

The K’Nex 4X Racers come in four different colors, red, yellow, purple and green and each of the colors creates a different type of race car. Most pieces included in each set are the same types of pieces; however, since each set is created to build specifically one vehicle there will be more or less of certain pieces in each set. The 4X Racer sets are small vehicles that are abel to move after being constructed; however, this particular set does not come with any machinery to enable it to move on it’s own, it does have to be pushed along the floor. If all four sets are purchased then the individual 4X Racers can be combined to create one “monster truck” by using all four sets of pieces. Individually, though, each vehicle fits approximately within an adult female’s palm.

The K’Nex toys teach children about the mechanics of things by teaching them how wheels and cogs and axles etc fit together to create machinery which results in movement and although the 4X Racers do not move alone by the use of machinery they do teach children how things fit together and result in movement.

K’Nex company creates an extremely wide range of toys from roller coaster sets to Lincoln logs but all of their toys are designed to help your child grow in the areas of developing cause and effect skills as well as learning how things function. Some of the more expensive K’Nex playsets come with fully functioning motor kits which enable your child to build items such as Ferris Wheel’s which run via a motor and turn of their own accord. The wide range in K’Nex products and the range in skill level that accompany all of their toys make them a prime candidate for any child above six years old.

I grew up as a Lego child myself; however when my twin brothers came along they introduced our household to the concept of K’Nex building sets. At first glace and within the first day of playing with K’Nex as a child I was irritated, I was a Lego girl and darn it I didn’t want to play with K’Nex…however I found myself getting dragged back in to the world of K’Nex no matter how hard I tried to be a “Lego girl”. The thing that irritated me the most as a child, and to be honest still irritates me slightly about the K’Nex playsets is that the pieces don’t always snap together the way you want them to when you want them to. The difference between Lego and K’Nex is that Lego is made of square blocks that just pop together with no effort at all; however the K’Nex pieces, because they are oddly shaped, don’t always pop right together and sometimes they take a little more manipulation to get pieces to do exactly what you want. So what was it that kept dragging me back to K’Nex as a child, and what is it that drew me in to reviewing teh K’Nex playsets now? The shear durability of the playsets.

The durability of K’Nex playsets is amazing, when your child plays with K’Nex sets they are not limited to square buildings and square horse stables and square…everything like they are with Lego blocks. K’Nex come in a variety of pieces which enable your child to build pretty much anything the imagination allows for. Even with the 4X Racer set that I purchased I was able to create other items from my imagination with the individual pieces.

The 4X Racer set is not, by any means the best K’Nex playset I have ever seen but for the price it offers all of the imaginative play and adventure that K’Nex offers with all of their sets. If I had the budget I would more than likely purchase one of the roller coaster sets that are significantly larger than the palm sized 4X Racer; however, the budget did not allow for a larger playset or one which was motorized so I chose to review a smaller, more affordable set instead. Although the set is small it allows for imaginative play and as a plus it also allows for the addition of other K’Nex playsets much like Lego and Mega Blocks do. A collection of K’Nex that begins with a 4X Racer can grow in to a thousand block set by gradually adding smaller sets over time.

The only drawbacks I have with the K’Nex 4X Racer set besides the slight frustration in getting pieces to snap the way you would like, is the fact that certain pieces do not stand up well to rough play; for example the axle (rod) pieces tend to bend after significant playtime. Pieces are also easily lost which can be a cause for frustration especially if your child only has a small set like the 4X Racer set where no extra pieces are provided, once one piece is lost the ability to build the racer on the packaging is also lost. To solve this problem I highly recommend you purchase an extra set - for the price it really isn’t too much to add on another race car which can also serve as backup pieces once pieces begin getting lost.

Overall I highly recommend any of the K’Nex playsets. If your budget allows I recommend the motorized or at least the larger playsets before I would purchase the smaller sets; however if the budget does not allow a child will still be more than enchanted with a smaller playset like the K’Nex 4X Racer.