The lights are on
Lego might have Prince of Persia, Indiana Jones, and Harry Potter, but rival building toy K’NEX has enlisted a licensing partner that may make gamers take notice. K’NEX and Nintendo have inked a deal that lets the construction-toy manufacturer create sets based on Nintendo’s Mario Kart Wii, with appearances from characters such as Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, and Bowser. And if you guessed that K’NEX is excited, you’re absolutely correct.
“Our partnership with Nintendo is a win-win,” said Michael Araten, president of K’NEX Brands. “It lets K’NEX bring popular and recognizable characters to life in a new way and provides an opportunity for kids to interact with Nintendo outside of the gaming console.”
The sets should be hitting shelves in 2011 and will include vehicles and other elements from the popular kart racer. If you haven’t been following K’NEX lately, the NASCAR pics above should provide at least a fuzzy idea of how the company deals with toy replicas of motorized vehicles. Here's hoping K'NEX does a better job of capturing the essence of Nintendo's characters than it did with its Sesame Street line. Those things are seriously scary.
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wow i had K'NEX when i was like 4y.o. but they wernt lego knock-offs then
Legos are better
Sweet. Now, Princess Chodestool can get lodged in some poor kids throat and be in another castle at the same time.
cool
i was always a lego guy, but mario kart wii is still a buy
Mario Kart now is trying to be like ModNation Racers, but that series first installment is better than the whole mario kart series combined.
Just looking at the NASCAR and Sesame Street sets I see that K'NEX has taken to ripping off Lego's bricks. What a shame. At least the way Mario karts are they should hopefully be built with classic K'NEX pieces.
Those look horrible...
Yes!! We can reply now! Awesome!
Why do those cars have shovels in the front? For winter racing? I've never seen that. Legos are better, K'Nex K'Sux.
Whether or not lego's are better (and they are) it is awesome that someone finally picked up a video game franchise. I have been wanting Lego to pick up Mega Man (and making them out of the space lego characters for years.). Not Ideal, but more power to them for securing the license.
hmmm.... it's kinda funny. Wasn't Nintendo a toy company before it became a video game company?
ive seriously never heard of k'nex before? are they like megablox or something?
i see dark days ahead for nintendo.
*looks at sesame street knex*
NO!! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO MY ROSALINA!!!
Legos are cooler than K'NEX
modnation racers mario kart style. Now I want to be able to bulid levels and karts
I, being a person who has played with k'nex and having most likely too much of it(weighs about 100lb)am appalled by the way it has copied lego. The classic k'nex has only the sticks and the stick connectors. The fact that they are partnering with nintendo/mario kart is all good, as long as they do not use too many lego-like things.