CDX Blocks: Sidewinder - 825 Pieces, Building Brick Set, Gravity Powered Looping Coaster Model, Promotes STEM Learning

This is my first "non-Lego" brick set. Figured it would be pretty tacky but I wanted another coaster for my grandkid's amusement park. What the heck - cheap but you get what you pay for, right? Boy was I wrong! This is a great set!Pro - absolutely excellent value when compared to "the real thing". High quality components fully compatible with the high-priced system. Well engineered and worked great the first time I tested it. Fun build. The coaster cars are genius. The rail system is unique and I like it.Con - The rail system is unique and I hate it (huh?). A real pain in the ass. Having said this understand that the material used is a reasonably flexible plastic that's pretty rigid over short distances - think of the rail as a sideways 'U" with the open side facing out. It bends fairly well from side to side but DOES NOT LIKE to bend up and down, i.e. against two closed sides. Curves aren't a problem but ups & downs take much foul language to keep in place. Constructing the loop will allow you to use every four-letter word you know in millions of different combinations. Just know it can be done!I used the rail straight out of the box so next set - Yes! I'll get them all - I'm going to pull the rail first, uncoil it and see if it will relax a little. Maybe a good bake in the sun? I motorized mine (simple) with a Lego power functions motor and battery pack and it's a blast! Two thumbs up!

I could not assemble this. I consider myself a pretty decent lego builder but this was a very difficult challenge. the whole thing is very flimsy and can break with the slightest movement. the track would not stay in place and was constantly snapping out of place over and over again. It took me 4 hours of extremely stressful work just to snap in the pieces on the loop because they kept snapping out. the supports fall down lots of the time as well which makes the whole thing even harder to assemble. after countless hours of stressful work i finally finished it, and it couldn’t even completed the course because it ran too slow. the instructions are very unclear. i went back to check it every step to make sure i had done everything right and felt each track piece to make sure they were snapped in, and they all were. there were also no instructions on how to attach the motor we ordered separately. don’t waste your time or money. the only good thing about it is that it looks cool.

A fun and semi-realistic lego-compatible roller coaster set.Everything is easy as it gets until you reach the track section. You must be precise with the ties, and on sections with tight bends, you must hold the rails in place beyond each connection point. Otherwise it’ll warp or snap off. Doesn’t contain spare parts.

This kit is awesome! My 10-year old daughter thought it was super fun to build. It is much more fun to play with if you add a motor so it runs itself rather than having to crank it up the hill each time. We used a lego technic power functions motor and it works great but CDX also offers a motor kit. In comparison to the Cyclone (which we got last year) this one is shorter but better built. Mostly this kit has a lot of extra cross-ties which make the track less prone to popping off the ties. Snapping the cross ties into the track can be difficult for younger fingers so adult help may be needed (my 10 year old struggled hard with each one and there are ~100 to do). Definitely recommended for both the interesting and fun build and the finished product!As far as the build itself, best advice I have is to straighten the track all the way out to eliminate any twisting before snapping into the ties. Otherwise, you end up building around a non-relaxed track which will cause problems later on. Also, note that the chain includes a few extra links which, if you include them, make the chain sag.

Overall the completed build is nice. The quality of the parts is 9/10 compared to "LEGO" brand. The instructions are clear and pretty easy to follow. My daughter, 7 years old, was able to follow the instructions and build it.The bad, it was missing pieces and we had to substitute pieces from our other builds. It is frustrating to have it 50% done and find you are missing pieces. After thankfully finding them from our LEGO pile so you can continue... only to find at 80% build missing more pieces... I did not contact the company about the missing parts because it was past the "return" date.

My 7-yr old loved building this. It wasn't too difficult, but he did need my help with the track. Great build.

Do not buy this set. It was very difficult and frustrating to assemble. It took two people, there is no way a kid can do this themselves. The assembled roller coaster did not work. The plastic track was twisted in one spot and would pop the car off the track every time. Also, the car did not complete the loop.

We were hesitant to order this for our 9 yr old but pleased to say it operates perfectly. You just need to pay close attention when applying the rails. Would highly recommend getting the small battery operated motor to run the cars. Much more fun when they go around the track by themselves.