[Dark Hunter]

As you may already know, the Space Shuttle program is officially over quite soon. But we already have a topic about that, so here is something tangentially related.

Three guys (one of whom is a personal friend of mine) have built a scale mode of the space shuttle out of K'Nex, as well as several other things. They're planning on building quite a bit more, including, they claim, a 1:1 model of... well, something, that they will submit to Guiness World Records when complete.

[Klaustrophobia]

man i used to love k'nex.  there used to be a k'nex military base in my parents' living room complete with helicopter, plane, runway couple of space fighters, supply truck, 10 or so space marines, and a 5 foot tower.  modified all the given designs to be armed to the teeth with missiles, vulcan cannons and rocket pods, etc. 

[Pred the Penguin]

K'nex is a painful to use IMO...

[Klaustrophobia]

certain connection types were a bit difficult and chafed the fingers, yes.  and i did manage to get a couple dodads together such that they will never come back apart without a dremel tool.

[Nuke]

i was always more of a lego person.

[Kolgena]

I felt lego was much more flexible to use than Knex. It also didn't leave holes all over the place when you were finished making something.

[Pred the Penguin]

To each his own I guess... I did have some fun with the K'nex set I had.... actually still have.

[StarSlayer]

K'nex was fun, as highlights I recall include building a giant SCVN-2812 Saratoga and a badass outdoor worthy HUMMVEE.  K'nex excelled at whipping up large, durable constructs relatively quickly given the wire frame nature of it.   If I had been forced to use only one system as a child I'd still opt for LEGOs but K'nex had its strong points.  Especially since K'nex still offers a generic starting point from which to build whatever you dream up, whereas Legos increasingly seems to be driving more towards franchise kits nowadays. 

[Pred the Penguin]

Wasn't lego supposed to be about creative use of imagination? Too much stuff is getting dumbed down.

[Mongoose]

I always loved following the instructions to the letter (brick?) myself.

[Nuke]

Legos increasingly seems to be driving more towards franchise kits nowadays. 

this is sad but true. i primarily collect technic and mindstorm sets. you can prototype all kinds of machines with the parts. but lately the sets leave something to be desired. they are just not as good as they used to be.

[StarSlayer]

Yeah tbh I might have built what was in the instructions once when I first got a set, after that they went in a giant bin that I used to build whatever I could dream up.