Tomy K’nex Mario Kart Race to the Finish Line set – Review

Character / Creative / Review / Video Games

November 8, 2011 0

My two boys are HUGE HUGE Mario Fans!!! So when I first heard that Nintendo, Tomy and K’nex were teaming up to release a new range of toys based around the Mario Kart Wii game I knew this would be a must have for them. My feelings were confirmed when I saw it action for myself for the first time at the London Toy Fair this January.

Firstly before all the racing fun comes the build. To be honest when I first saw all of the pieces coming out of the box I got a little scared that this was going to be a long day, but it really wasn’t half as bad as I imagined.

The first thing I had to get my head around was the Knex itself. I like to think of myself as quite a seasoned Lego builder, but this was my first experience of Knex. I will admit to sitting there for about 5 minutes with the first few pieces trying to work out what to do, but once I got the hang of the way the Knex fits together I was fine, it makes perfect sense once you’ve cracked it.

I would recommend setting aside a quiet time to put the track together as it can be quite tricky in places. It’s not something I would be able to do with my two over excited boys hovering over my shoulder, I waited until they were asleep to tackle it. It took around an hour in total to put the whole thing together, Karts and all, which isn’t to bad. The thing that took me the longest was sticking down the decals in the middle of the track, I wanted to get them perfect which was difficult for me. I’m notoriously sloppy with the stickers that go on the toys, not on purpose you understand, just not got very steady hands.

Once everything was setup we could finally get down to the business of racing. The first thing that strikes you is the tremendous sped with which the Karts zip around the track, they are incredibly fast! I think possibly a little too fast, but maybe that’s just me. Even though the Race to the Finish Line set looks quite big, the Kart’s zoom around it in seconds. I think if you had several of the Knex Mario Kart Wii sets put together making the track longer, the speed wouldn’t be so much of an issue. Looks like I’ll have to invest in some more track, the bigger Bowser’s Castle Ultimate Build Set looks amazing!

The addition of the Thwomp’s is a really neat touch which every Mario fan will appreciate. Trying to squish your opponent with the Thwomp and stop them in their tracks as they race around is really fun, and makes for a great game. The Thwomp contraption looks quite difficult to put together from the photographs, but is actually quite simple. It’s really effective though and adds lots of gameplay to the set. A few more different obstacles like the Thwomps would be nice, but I think again you need to buy and add additional sets for these. I noticed that the Bowser’s Castle set has the fireball lines which look really fun.

One of the coolest things about the set according to my boys are the Mario and Luigi figures and the mushroom and Star. When they are not rushing around in their karts, Thomas and Jacob just loving playing with the two little guys on their own. When the figures are in their seats you only put in their top half, but you can take them off afterwards and attach their legs to make them complete bendable figures. My sons absolutely love playing with all of their Mario toys (and we have a lot as you can see from Thomas’ Video at the bottom of the page) and the Tomy K’nex Mario Kart Rcae to the finish set makes an excellent addition to their collection.

It’s a must have for Mario fans everywhere!

	K'nex Mario And Luigi Starting Line (Firebox)	£49.99
	K'nex Mario And Luigi The Starting Line (Toys R Us)	£49.99
	K'nex Mario & Luigi At The Starting Line (Tesco Direct)	£49.97
	Mario And Luigi Starting Line (Amazon)	£47.99
	Tomy K'nex Mario Kart Wii Mario And Luigi At The Starting Line Set (Amazon)	£37.50
+ 2 others available from Amazon ↓
	K'nex Mario & Luigi At The Starting Line (Amazon)	£Check!
	K'nex: Mario & Luigi At The Starting Line (Play.com)	£37.99

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