Brady and His K'NEX Roller Coasters

My son Brady is really into K’NEX. I mean really into K’NEX. If you don’t know what K’NEX are click here or here. If you don’t have time for a side trip let me explain it this way: K’NEX are a modern-day erector set. The kids that play with them build things: bridges, buildings, towers, or in my son’s case, roller coasters.

Brady also loves roller coasters. He likes to ride them, of course, but also likes to explore them on-line. Of the time we allow him on the internet, he spends more than half the time on sites featuring roller coasters made from K’NEX. He also spends significant time surfing sites that have real roller coasters. (Theme park sites and the like). Even that thing that kids used to watch before the internet . . . the TV, I think they call it. . . If it has roller coasters on it, Brady’s there. He had this video tape of a TV show that aired on Discovery that featured roller coasters. He watched that tape so much I think he wore out the VCR and the tape.

I’m happy for Brady’s enthusiasm for K’NEX. It’s a safe, productive hobby that challenges him to think, and allows him to occupy his time in a great way. So what if it’s not the things I was involved in when I was 13: baseball, scouts, piano lessons, and playing with my friends. It’s not any of the things we don’t want him to be involved in: crime, drugs, or hanging out with bad influences.

So check out some of what he’s done. These pictures don’t do justice to the roller coasters Brady has built. Some from scratch (from his own imagination), and some copied from someone else’s web post. Just imagine walking in to your bedroom and finding most of it occupied with a custom-made roller coaster winding through and around your furniture.

This is Brady standing next to one of his designs. Look at how steep that drop is. He even affixed a tunnel to his track (the white thing on the left).


This is a different design. This is the station where “guests” enter the ride, and the coaster begins and ends its’ journey.


This is yet a different design that uses his dresser to support the portion of track that turns and then drops. Notice the map on the wall – it’s from the video game Grand Theft Auto, San Andreas. I would much rather have Brady spend endless hours building K’NEX roller coasters than playing that violent video game.


Brady has placed a sign on this design. The name of this creation is called “Doom Bringer Of The Night”. This coaster is mostly under Brady’s loft bed. You can see part of the ladder on the left and the bookcase in the back. In the area under Brady’s loft bed is his desk for doing homework, and a bookcase. It’s a great space-saver for our small house. There would be no room if he had a conventional bed and other furniture too.


Here’s a close-up of one of the cars. Yeah, people really ride on these coasters! They’re just not real people.


Here’s the last picture. Don’t tell Brady I used this one; he didn’t like it. You can see the bottom of the loft bed better in this pic, and how the coaster is supported by his desk.


Okay, that’s all for this one. I’ll try to get a post out once a week or so. So until next time – God be with you.