I had the one that came in a kit when I was in the 7th/8th grade.



It was pretty badass, until I saw this:









Not a rollercoaster, but still cool:

12/15/2007 2:50:39 PM

roller coaster

















of love

12/15/2007 2:51:53 PM

i had that one thing

what was it called?

oh yeah, a poor family.

i never got neato things

IM MAKING UP FOR IT NOW THOUGH

12/15/2007 2:52:59 PM

i loved it when we hit the "Forces" chapter in science class in 5th grade. we played with K'NEX for like 2 weeks

12/15/2007 2:53:05 PM

big ball factory ftw

12/15/2007 2:58:49 PM

Quote :

"i had that one thing what was it called? oh yeah, a poor family. i never got neato things IM MAKING UP FOR IT NOW THOUGH"

po' folks unite!

12/15/2007 6:02:23 PM

DUDE THEM SHITS ARE AWESOME

I WANT ONE AGAIN

12/15/2007 6:03:09 PM

^another rich kid

12/15/2007 6:03:42 PM

You didn't have to buy the roller coaster kit to make roller coasters.

Back in the day, you could call them up and order replacement parts in bulk. They cost like 1/20 as much as buying the sets in the store. You just didn't get any of the design manuals.



Edit: Wow, I just looked at their website and they sell replacement parts individually now. You used to be able to get 100 rods in a package for like $3 or $4 and they're charging up to $1 per piece.

12/15/2007 6:12:51 PM

I had the Big Ball Factory and the Roller Coaster pictured above. I saved my allowance for like an entire year straight to get that roller coaster. One of the better investments I ever made, it got me hooked on engineering.

12/15/2007 8:00:23 PM

Also like Limpy said, you can get these for cheap (didn't realize it when I was a kid). The kits are pricey, but ebay is gold for finding them in bulk now.

1000 connectors and rods for only $10.00:
http://cgi.ebay.com/KNEX-1000pcs-Sorted-and-Bagged_W0QQitemZ270196881480QQcategoryZ21254QQcmdZViewItemQQisPrinterFriendlyZ1QQpvZ2

[Edited on December 15, 2007 at 8:05 PM. Reason : LINK!]

12/15/2007 8:05:15 PM

^^that was what we built every day in AP chemistry

it took us like a month to finish

but it was SO COOL

12/15/2007 8:48:56 PM

^^^ that ginger kid scares me.

12/15/2007 8:50:03 PM

^^ wtf? my brother and I built that in like 3 or 4 hours and the roller coaster in ~5 hours.

12/15/2007 9:18:01 PM

we only had like 10-15 minutes a day to work on it

and inevitably someone from my teacher's regular freshman chem class would fuck it up somehow every day

12/15/2007 9:54:38 PM

I feel shafted and left out having never seen this before...

I LOVE lego's and techniqs and making things move and work and all that like domino sets and such... this is something my kids will have (and I might go buy for the hell of it now...)

12/15/2007 10:05:15 PM

http://www.coasterdynamix.com/

Same concept, but much better looking. But WAY more expensive.

12/15/2007 10:14:46 PM

those are fucking sweet

12/15/2007 11:26:42 PM

Brings back memories of my erector sets. I have a crap ton of those things, like 60 lbs of kit.

12/16/2007 12:15:19 AM

I always wanted one of these things

12/16/2007 12:17:02 AM

we did these all the time and really liked doing the boats and helos for the base and just using gi joe for that

12/16/2007 12:43:25 AM