Description
- BUILD IT: Build an authentic replica of the Empire State Building that stands over 2 feet high!
- Includes 2122 PIECES: Featuring K’NEX rods and connectors easily snap together with a satisfying “click” – think outside the blocks!
- INSTRUCTIONS INCLUDED: Easy-to-follow, step-by-step building instructions means you’ll be an expert architect in no time!
- STEM LEARNING FUN: Building with K’NEX helps strengthen fine motor skills, manual dexterity, and spatial awareness; putting them on a path towards a greater understanding of STEM subjects.
- Appropriate for ages 9 years and up.
Create Your Free Price Drop Alert!
Ruthann Parise –
It is BIG. I finally got the Eye together and learned that it would not rotate easily. More about that later. The box was packed in an outer box and well protected.
The instructions, at best are poor. Because of the complexity of the build, much better representation of the three dimensional structure is needed. Some of the pieces are very difficult to “snap” together, either my fingers were too big or the strength of my fingers was too weak to get a good clean snap. But with some perseverance and a lot of patience, the job got done.
The kit was missing two pieces. On the two occasions (one for each of the missing piece), I found their Customer Service representative helpful and efficient. I received the critical part quickly and just requested the other missing piece today. So, in my book, the Customer Service group gets five stars.
It’s not an easy kit, but it can be done. The problem, is the instructions and the lack of good 3D images of what is being built and how it fits into its final position. The instructions get one maybe two stars.
The enormous wheel fits onto a cradle and is supported around its outer circumference by four wheels, one of which is a friction drive wheel connected to the motor. There are four additional wheel supports which help keep the wheel perpendicular (aligned) in the cradle. The problem is the structure is not stiff enough to support the wheel or keep it aligned. In addition, the wheel itself is made of straight pieces, forced to bend into two large radii (inner and outer) bands which form the wheel. It did offer some resistance when the wheel was formed. But I was able to form the wheel and was quite surprised that the wheel was in fact, round.
The wheel is made of rods and connectors (which are slightly larger then the rods). The wheel starts rotating with the motor but is then caught by the connector and stops. Friction alone is not enough to keep the wheel turning smoothly. I have seen several YouTube videos of this build and do not understand what I did or didn’t do to cause this problem. As far as I can tell, my wheel is constructed properly, it just does not turn smoothly.
I intend to keep working on it but have little hope that it will be an impressive thing to look at but not to rotate.
Sammy kelly –
Esta muy bien pero sería interesante que el fabricante entregara instrucciones de hacer otras cosas con las mismas piezas
Heather –
The bridge is pretty long and sturdy. I’ve added it to my Christmas collection. I was able to run an HO scale over the completed bridge. To my delight, the bridge can support the model train’s weight, but needed to use track without built in ballast as other track with ballast would be too wide for the bridge. It was fun and worthwhile to build. The instructions were beautifully done (some steps needed close examining before putting together). Was missing a few pieces, but emailed the company and they responded and mailed me the missing pieces. All in all, a fun product!
Lexionna –
las piezas son mas chiquitas que las de los otros paquetes
Jimmy W Hsu –
If you are looking for something to do during the current lockdown; something that will exercise your brain, the K’nex Architecture Series may be just the thing for you. The London Eye was my second purchase and build from this series of three. The first step was to separate and count the various pieces of which I had better luck than other reviewers as I was not missing any pieces and was giving extra pieces on some parts. After separating the build was on. No problems with this build as the step by step instructions were very clear. The only downside with the build has been the actual rotating of the wheel in that it rotates for a very brief second then stops. I have yet to determine if it is that the motor is weak or that it is hanging up for some other unknown reason.
Les –
Bought this as a Christmas present for my daughter, opened on Xmas day, assembled Xmas day night, after spending hours and hours assembling this with her and watching her getting increasingly excited to reap the benefits of her hard work we got to the last few pages only to discover there were parts missing!!! She was heartbroken, luckily a neighbours child also had k-Nex and gave her the missing parts!! Amazon! Sort out the contact seller option here and make it easier to do so! We were both very unhappy with this purchase
Amazon Customer –
This is an impressive model but the pieces are smaller and thinner than usual, making it quite tricky to build. When dismantling one piece actually snapped. It also didn’t run as smoothly as I would have hoped.
BuffaloSteve –
My 12 year old just finished this set. He says that the K’nex pieces are the equivalent to a Lego build of twice as many pieces. So 1,000 K’nex are like putting together a 2000 piece Lego set. Legos are the best quality but in terms of value for the time spent and money K’nex are hard to beat. I like them because for a lot less dollars you get a set that takes considerably more time to build. My wife is not as much a fan because they aren’t as sturdy as Legos and sometimes you hit a snag where the pieces don’t quite fit which can be frustrating. That happened here about 3/4 of the way through where the parts wouldn’t connect properly. In the end my wife figured out a work around so that my son could keep going. He was very happy with the set and is ready to take on the K’nex Golden Gate bridge which I already purchased. It does look really good when completed. Other than the one rough part of the build it was smooth sailing and excellent value for the cost of the set.
Ruthann Parise –
It was a little more challenging then some of the knex sets my son has. But he had it together in a couple hours. He likes landmarks and displays them all over his room.
Anthony L. –
This is not K’nex as I would normally know it – the parts are significantly smaller and all of the parts are either grey, black or brown in colour. The small size of the parts makes it incredibly fiddly to construct however, I think it was the painfulness on the fingers that made me give up not long after I’d started.
I’m well used to snapping one K’nex piece onto another and this is generally fine when the pieces are standard sized. However, when the pieces are as small as they are in this set, they require a reasonable amount of force to snap them into place and this means that they really dig into your fingers. I’m not sure how long kids would tolerate the pain in their fingers – certainly I didn’t believe that the outcome was worth it.
With many of the parts being exactly the same (or similar) colour, it’s also quite hard to know exactly which part is required at each stage. This is particularly the case with the rods, as it can be hard to determine exactly which length needs to be used. Whilst each part in the instructions is coded and there is an exact size guide as the start of the instructions, it is very annoying to have to continually refer back to the first page in order to pick the right part.
For the steps that I did manage to construct, the end result didn’t seem like it was particularly robust and given the flexibility which exists in many of the parts, I can’t see the finished model having significantly more strength. Again, this is another reason why I’m not sure this should be aimed at kids as it looks incredibly easy to break.
As a final point, the box which this set comes in is huge. Given the volume of parts which are inside, a box a third of the size would have been sufficient and I’m not sure why there was a need to ship so much fresh air…
Jimmy W Hsu –
There were several pieces missing, however I also received extras of other pieces so I sort of improvised and it worked for the most part. The little clips to hold the cables/red string are not great and pop off a lot when trying to tighten the string. Also there are errors in the instruction booklet. Overall though its pretty cool once it is built. I added a 2 lane road strip to make it look more realistic!
Heather –
I purchased this for my 10 year old son. Lego’s are not a challenge for him. He puts them together really fast and the looses interest. Legos are expensive and short lived. This however, has been a journey so far. The instructions are just pictures. Each step lists what pieces are used and the “finished” step. Its a puzzle in itself. He has to figure how they made the shape with the pieces they used. Makes it much more difficult and he has to actually figure is out. If you have a brainiac like I do… and they love to build and figure out puzzles… this is perfect. My 12 year old put her hands up and walked away. Younger kids have to have the right personality for this or a engineering mind person to help. Definitely worth the money. He has spent an hour a day for 4 days and this is how far he has come. AWESOME!
Shawna Mansfield –
Got this for my boyfriend, he had so much fun assembling it.