About K'NEX

K'NEX is one of the most successful construction kits in the world, second in popularity only to Lego. It is based around a series of "Rods", which can be joined together by "Connectors" such as the one shown in our logo. Once they have mastered using these simple components, children (and even adults!) can use their imagination to make potentially millions of different working models.

It is ease of use and versatility that make K'NEX such a good investment for educational purposes, whether at home, or in schools, clubs, family learning or post-16 education. You will find that there is no upper age limit for enjoying K'NEX - it is suitable for all ages from 5 to adult. There is also a version of K'NEX with bigger components for under 5 year olds, called Kid K'NEX (see below).

Building K'NEX models helps children and adults to understand subjects such as structures, forces and simple machines, in the way that Meccano educated an earlier generation. However, Meccano was aimed and advertised exclusively at boys, whereas in our experience both girls and boys find K'NEX easy and enjoyable to use. K'NEX can also often be used effectively by children with learning difficulties, once they have mastered the basic techniques for joining Rods and Connectors together.

A further strength of K'NEX is that, when used to set Challenges, it can help both children and adults to develop skills such as innovation skills, problem-solving skills and team-working skills. These are skills that will be much sought after by employers, whether the child grows up to become an engineer or an artist.

The most recent developments in the K'NEX world are Kid K'NEX, Micro K'NEX and K'NEX bricks, as explained below. Note that, to differentiate between the four different varieties of K'NEX, we refer to the original K'NEX rods, connectors etc as "classic" K'NEX throughout this website.

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About Kid K'NEX

Kid K'NEX is a version of K'NEX with larger, chunkier Rods and Connectors that small hands can easily join together. It is ideal for children aged 3 to 7, compared with the 5+ age range recommended for classic K'NEX.

The bright colours and ease of use of Kid K'NEX appeal to young children, but undoubtedly its most attractive features are the extra components such as eyes and wheels, as the photo shows.

About Micro K'NEX

A further development in the last few years has been Micro K'NEX. This is a system that includes the rods and connectors that will be familiar to users of classic K'NEX, but manufactured to a smaller scale.

Micro K'NEX can be connected to classic K'NEX via "transition rods", shown in red at the front of the vehicle in the photo opposite.

About K'NEX bricks

The most recent development is K'NEX bricks. The bricks are compatible with the building blocks made by other manufacturers such as Lego, but most of the KNEX brick parts have holes in.

This enables them to be connected to both classic K'NEX and Micro K'NEX via "brick adaptors", as shown in yellow in the photo.

K'NEX sets and the availability of K'NEX parts

All past and current K'NEX sets are based around either Kid K'NEX parts, or a combination of classic K'NEX parts and/or Micro K'NEX parts and/or K'NEX bricks.

We stock most of the parts used in the sets manufactured since K'NEX was launched in 1991. These parts can be purchased via our K'NEX shop UK, K'NEX shop Europe, K'NEX shop USA/Canada and K'NEX shop Rest of world, as shown in the left hand navigation bar.

KNEX resources > About K'NEX


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