This post was sponsored on behalf of K’NEX. All opinions stated are my own.
Looking for a great gift idea for your tween that will encourage him to put down the electronics for an afternoon? The K’Nex Wild Whiplash Roller Coaster provides hours of fun for you budding engineer! It’s the perfect snow day activity for everyone from families to siblings to only children. Jake and I spent five hours together the other night assembling it. Once you’re done building, the fun doesn’t end! You can take it apart and download instructions for a whole new coaster!
Hands-on Fun with the K’NEX Wild Whiplash Roller Coaster
As my son gets older, finding non-electronic toys and activities that he’ll actually enjoy gets harder and harder. The majority of his Christmas wish list consists of video games and gaming accessories. While I feel like he has definitely learned a lot of skills from gaming, I feel like he needs to spend a bit more time offline doing fun things too. I miss the days of hanging out with him playing with actual toys! He had a K’Nex set geared towards younger kids that I got for him way back when he was in kindergarten. I remember how much he loved putting things together and taking them apart, so the K’NEX Wild Whiplash Roller Coaster seemed right up his alley.
Benefits of K’NEX and other building toys
Aside from offering hours of fun, sets like the K’NEX Wild Whiplash Roller Coaster offer plenty of other benefits for kids of all ages. Anyone who has ever put together an advanced K’NEX set knows that it definitely requires a certain amount of grace and hand/eye coordination! Building toys also help improved fine motor skills. While you may think that your tween already has these skills mastered, there’s always room for improvement.
Building a 500+ piece set like the K’NEX Wild Whiplash Roller Coaster also requires patience and a steady hand. Our kids live in such a fast-paced world of instant gratification these days. By giving them something fun that helps them slow down and focus, we’re improving their ability to do it in school and, eventually, the workplace.
Finishing such a monumental task is definitely a confidence booster as well! There’s nothing quite like seeing the results of hours of work come together in such a fun way. When things do go wrong, your tween will need to use both imagination and problem-solving skills to make it right. I’ll be honest, we ended up missing something somewhere along the line and goofed up the track. Rather than freak out and take the whole thing apart, we improvised. We looked at how we could use the remaining pieces to create a track that still worked.
Of course, the biggest benefit of the K’NEX Wild Whiplash Roller Coaster is all the fun your tween will have with it! It’s advanced enough for kids ages 9 and up to enjoy. The creepy carnival-themed coaster is over 2 /12 feet high once it’s assembled. The motorized chain lifts the car up and propels it through a whopping 14 feet of track. Customize the set with fun graphic panels and stickers. As I mentioned, once you’re done building the first track, you can download instructions to turn it into a second track!
Get the Wild Whiplash Roller Coaster Building Set exclusively at Walmart. Follow K’NEX on social media to keep up with all their exciting news and check out other fun sets that would go great with this one!
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- Twitter: @KNEX
- Instagram: @knexbrands
- Pinterest: K’NEX Brands
Does your child have a favorite K’NEX set? Tell me about it in the comments!
This looks like a wonderful gift idea! I know my 8 year old son would love this. He absolutely loves to build things, and enjoys Knex toys.
That looks like so much fun! I remember my brother owning this epic train set that took us days to build. Kids these days don’t have enough of that I guess. Great gift!
Oh wow this would be fun for so many ages. What a perfect holiday gift too. I may have to check this out!
This is such a great idea! My nephews would absolutely LOVE o build this in their new house!
This looks like a fabulous gift for some of my older nieces and nephews! I bet they would really enjoy it!
That looks like it’s going to be a holiday hit. I have no idea what tweens like these days. 🙂
I have never played with k’nex but it looks like it would be really fun to build with them. I am sure that tweens will love this.
Just the random box of connectors and rods makes my son happy. This coaster though is awesome!
The K’Nex Wild Whiplash Roller Coaster looks amazing and I am sure such toys are going to bring so much excitement to kids right away. With lot of hand/eye coordination involved this could keep the kids so much active anytime and thus improving their skills as well on the other hand.
that would be a great idea im sure my kids would love it