Mario and Luigi at the Starting Line

I was excited to see a sample of the new Mario™ and Luigi™ Starting Line Building Set by Knex, since my 8-year-old daughter is a big Mario Kart fan (remember her Princess Peach birthday party?). This new set includes parts to build motorized Sprinter Karts for both Mario and Luigi, 16 pieces of interconnectable closed-loop tracks, and a buildable Thwomps obstacle. I must say I found the set-up confusing and frustrating (and I would imagine a a 6-year-old would find it even more so)--but once we set it up (poorly) both of my kids enjoyed it. And the Mario and Luigi characters often migrate to other areas of our apartment for use in different playsets (there are also 2 collectible items--a Mushroom and a Star--both of which we have already lost, of course!). At $59.99 at Knex.com, I think it's a high-priced toy for what it is, but if you've got a Mario fan in the house like I do, it might be a better holiday purchase at Amazon.com where it's $44.99.

We received a product sample for this review, but I was not compensated in any way for this post, and all views expressed are entirely my own.