Play: K’nex Amazin’ 8 Roller Coaster review

This post contains items sent to us for the purpose of reviewing. Opinions & words are my own.

We absolutely love building things in this house, and we’re forever being shown creations from one or both kids that they’ve made from our collection of K’nex, lots of which belonged to Sam when he was a little kid! The latest K’nex kit that’s captivated us is the Amazin’ 8 Roller Coaster.  After construction you have a roller coaster that runs with a little motor, and the coaster car sets off down the course with full 360 loops!

Amazin 8 roller coaster from K'nex

Creating our rollercoaster took a couple of hours (with a few distractions and a very energetic kitten trying to help!)  but the instructions were easy to follow and all pieces were present and correct. Athena (8) and Arlo (6) worked pretty well as a team to construct the coaster, which only a few squabbles along the way! The set contains 448 parts which are mostly the mini sized rods & connectors and the instructions are mostly visual, on large clear pages of the booklet that comes with the set. There are tips and hints at the start, including to ‘Take your time to enjoy the building process, don’t rush!

It was really nice to see the frame of the roller coaster start to appear as the kids picked out the pieces and clicked them together, but the best bit was when they attached the motorised chain  lift and switched it on and the car started whooshing around the track, as you can see in the video below…

What you need to know about the Amazin’ 8 Roller Coaster from K’nex

  • Aimed at ages 7+, younger kids could assemble it with help
  • Requires 2x AA batteries (not included and you’ll need a small screwdriver to fit them)
  • You’ll need a large flat surface to build on, think table-top rather than thick carpet!
  • Is 2.6 feet high once complete
  • Isn’t noisy, there is a low hum when the motor is running.
  • Can be built, dismantled and rebuilt whenever you like
  • The pieces can be used to make other creations too
  • Helps with fine motor skills, problem solving and spatial awareness

This set and a lot of others are available to order here from John Lewis, including sets for both older and younger kids with varying levels of difficulty.

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