Mario Kart from K’NEX, a review

When you’ve got boys…you’ve got building toys!  There’s something in boys that makes them want to build things, destroy them, then build something else.  K’NEX knows what makes boys tick and has been providing the building kits to nurture that create/destroy process for years.  It’s even better when the building toys are on wheels…and jump off ramps and zoom across your living room floor.

Brand-new from K’NEX:

Meet Mario and his friend, Luigi, part of a line of K’NEX vehicles based on the popular Wii™ game, Mario Kart.

 

 

 

The Mario and Standard Kart Building Set features a buildable Mario figure, a pull-back motor and all the K’NEX pieces needed to recreate his Kart from the Wii game.

The Luigi and Standard Bike Building Set comes with the pieces to build his bike.  Both sets are for ages 6+.

Both David (age 11) and Peter (age 5) could not wait to get their hands on these sets.

Within 5 minutes of the package arriving at my door, they were building.

The instructions were pretty clear, though Peter needed some help.

 

And in no time, they were done. 

  

Yes, Mario’s bottom half is riding in the back of his Kart.  They will be boys.

The trickiest part was probably putting on the the stickers.  I will note here that some of the stickers are designed to go over adjacent bricks (the side stickers on Mario’s Kart each go over 4 adjacent bricks), making it impossible to take those bricks apart.  Not a biggie (think of them as new specialty bricks), but worth pointing out.

But the best part, was racing them.  K’NEX really thought this product out, right down to the packaging…the packages are designed to be used as ramps!  And they even went to the trouble to create pdf files that you can download for free, print, and tape to your box to make it look like Mario Kart track (complete with acceleration arrows).

Check it out:

Peter gives the pull-back motor a try.

I hear K’NEX has more fun Mario Kart fun coming in June!  In the meantime, you can find these these Mario Kart sets on the K’NEX website or in a store near you.

Disclosure:  I received this product from K’NEX for review purposes.  I received no compensation.  The opinions expressed here are my own and I was in no way required to write a positive review.  My thoughts cannot be “pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered.”  They are my own.

Credit:  The quote in my disclosure comes from the 1960’s TV series The Prisoner.