On 20/20 this weekend, John Stossel did one of his pieces in which he in essence pitted k’nex toys because they do not come pre-assembled. My God! These poor brainless children do not expect to be challenged! They need their entertainment spoon-fed. John, thanks for your little contribution to the dumbing of America. No wonder the tech and engineering jobs are going overseas.
Isn’t that the damn point of the k’nex toys? Watch out LEGO corporation!
Actually, I think this is the most telling part of the whole article:
One figures that the adults went into panic mode when they were presented with the toy. (“Oh my God, I’ve got to finish building this before Christmas!”) The kids, on the other hand, had time to play around with it.
Moral of the story, I suppose: people don’t enjoy trying to build things on deadline. But, heck, you all knew that anyway.
He used to be a good reporter. Now he’s a corporate flack for Disney News.
I alway thought that building was the whole point of playing with k’nex.
That is the point. Unfortunately, John seems to think that this is too much challenge for america’s youth. I guess he thinks you should just go buy your kids some disney dvd’s instead.
I saw the article. It was estimated to take over 5 hours to put the thing together. That’s a lot of work!
And don’t expect your average 7 year old to help very much either.
He was giving a light-hearted rant about the annoyances of the season. What is the problem?
I see he has a new book coming out in which he whines and moans about the “cheaters” and “scam artists” in the “liberal media”. You mean the same liberal media that puts you in the spotlight quite a bit? Eric Alterman: “No liberal can boast of such generous terms from any major television network as those enjoyed by the ideologically driven John Stossel, whose work is consistently questioned by his colleagues and yet whose diatribes are just as consistently broadcast by the network.”
I think you, like Stossel, have missed the point of K’nex.
The roller coaster at the end is not the toy itself. The actual fun in K’nex and Legos comes from actually putting the model together. The actual building is what makes those toys so fun.
5 hours? That’s not much work at all for model builders. And even imaginative 7 year olds tend to have a lot of fun putting this sort of stuff together, although I’ll note that the item in question is actually estimated for ages 10 and up.
Having a parent put K’nex or Legos together for their children completely defeats the whole purpose.
I’ll add that I think I spoke too quickly. The building of this particular roller coaster is not the entirety of the purpose, but it’s definitely a large part of it.
Our son put the similar k’nex Screaming Serpent coaster together, taking about six hours over two days. He was 8 at the time.
In the two years since, he’s done it at least three other times.
Stossell’s report was lame.
Watch out for the new, improved, k’nektd line of toys, designed to encourage the development of laziness and ineptitude.
If a parent is intimidated at the thought of assembling a K’Nex roller coaster, then maybe he shouldn’t buy the darn thing to begin with?
Somone should pit their wedsite. slooooooooowwwwwww…
A good friend’s 8 year old assembled that very roller coaster. It works too. It looks fragile, but I was told (and by watching it being shook while it was running, I was shown) that it actually is rather sturdy. Maybe not ‘throw it over your head against the wall’ sturdy. Maybe its not ‘angry little brother with a Louisville Slugger’ proof. But it was fairly durable.
Now, I don’t know how long it took him to do…but I was told he did it by himself. And if it took him 10 episodes of ‘Sponge Bob’ to do it, what’s the real harm?
Granted, I’ve seen some Toys R Us Bikes that were hell on earth to assemble (which Stossel should stick to). When I got my bike’s brakes redone, the guy in my local shop had a TRU special up on a vice and was trying to assemble it. Now this guy eats/sleeps/lives bikes…and he said he’d be Very lucky if that bike could ever be ridden. He showed me where the bolts didn’t fit & where the welds were done like shit…and he made his case.
If you want a bike for your kid, you really should get it through your local bike shop. The extra $ you pay now will be well worth the extra quality, service, and good will when you come in for accesories and/or repairs alone. But having a fully assembled working (quality) product under the tree Christmas morning…That’s priceless.
Yes, it was lame. The rant should have been targeted toward something you are supposed to receive already assembled (like the bike or Barbie Jet or something). The child should get this in the box and the real joy bulding it together with dad (or even alone if they want).
JS has had some good “Gimme a Break” stuff, but it must have been a slow news day when they came up with this one.
Ditto for lame. I think he’s run out of rants. It had to happen.
I remember playing with K’NEX toys when I was younger, and I remeber I loved the challenge, and I bought some for my cousins. And now THEY enjoy the challenge of putting things together, and I enjoy spending time with them to build things and have fun. Bah. John Stossel. It’s obvious he’s run out of ideas, so now he’s attacking something just because HE can’t put it together.
Cool, they have a toy that takes 5 hours to put together? That’s way longer than Legos (except the Imperial Star Destroyer).
He’s run out of things to complain about. Just like Andy Rooney.
He jumped the shark the first time he ever said, “Gimme a break!”