Resolved: K'nex are better than Legos

1. Cultural/Economical benefits Arguments concerning Legoland should be excluded from this debate for the following reasons: a) The Resolution clearly states that this debate is about the “Lego brand of children’s toy”, not theme parks associated with the Lego company. This definition was clearly agreed to in R1. This debate is about toys not theme parks. b) Legoland is not owned by Lego. The parks are owned and operated by the British company Merlin Entertainment. [1]. Legoland is therefore outside the scope of the debate. The economic benefits of Legoland are irrelevant to a discussion over which is better, Lego toys or K’nex toys. Additionally, the economic benefit throughout the world due to education from K’nex is much greater than the localized benefit of a few theme parks. 2. Popular Demand First, pointing out that there are more Legos in the world doesn’t prove them to be better. There are more grains of sand in the world than there are people, this doesn’t mean grains of sand are better than people. Second, showing that there is high demand for Legos doesn’t prove them to be better, it just proves that they are marketed better. Additionally, K’nex are very popular as well- there are hundreds of youtube videos showing operating ball towers, roller coasters, bridges, engines, etc. Both brands are very popular- reducing the quality of the product to a numbers game between sales figures ignores the true value of the products we are arguing about. K’nex are not awesome because people buy it, K’nex are awesome because they foster creativity and get young people interested in engineering and design. 3. Easy Handling My opponent’s claim that K’nex requires too many complicated pieces and takes to much time to master is quite simply false. The heart of K’nex is the rod and connector system, shown below: All other K’nex piece rely on this system so tat once these three configurations are mastered, all subsequent K’nex pieces are mastered. Yes, this is slightly more complicated than the one-dimanesional snapping system of Legos but it is not so complicated that children as young as 5 are unable to master it and the benefits in construction versatility far exceed such a negligible cost. To say that K’nex requires too many pieces to build simple objects is laughable when compared to Lego. Any true Lego fan is familiar with the pain of searching for that ONE piece you need to finish your creation. Just over Christmas I pulled out a Lego castle I built years ago for my young cousins to play with- the castle was nearly complete except for three holes in the roof, holes that existed solely because I was unable to find the piece I needed to fill them in. The fatal flaw of Lego is a reliance on highly specialized pieces that burdens the construction process. These simple rocket ship models show the accessibility of K’nex: 4. Unlimited imagination The claim that K’nex are only useful in sets is blatantly untrue. Look only to my opening round to see many models created based only on the designer’s creativity. I could provide image after image of K’nex model built without instructions to accompany them. In truth it is Lego that relies on kit-like dissemination. Legos sell “Harry Potter” and “Star Wars” Legos that come with highly specialized pieces tailored to the set being sold. This limits creativity and encourages builders to stick with the original model rather than develop their own creations. Look at this Star Wars Lego and note how many bizarre pieces are included on the model: Compare this to the Star Trek spaceship I presented in R1, which relies on a small range of different K’nex pieces to create an impressive model. A. Versatility. This topic was covered in 3 and 4. B. Moveable Structures K’nex offers unparalleled ability to construct structures which are able to move. I gave one example of a rollercoaster in my opening round. Rollercoaster design is very popular within the Knex community; so popular, in fact, that Knex hosts a thrill ride design contest open to grade school classes and with a prize of amusement park tickets [3] A simpler example is this functional scale, created by a proud young boy: C. Engineering Education Again I would like to demonstrate the unique way that K’nex is relatable to the world of engineering. Here we see K’nex used to create a 14 foot long bridge that uses an arch to support the weight of the structure: Note how few pieces were needed to make this elegant bridge. Such a structure is well within the grasp of any amateur K’nex builder without the need for specialized sets or an inordinately large number of pieces. K’nex were further recognized by the engineering community when Concordia’s Women in Engineering chapter built a 37 foot tall space shuttle to celebrate National Engineering Week [2]: In the following video (1:20-2:40) you can see 6th grade students applying engineering education using K’nex, followed by a seismic test of their designs. The students are clearly having a blast while learning about engineering design. Also note that the student actually correctly explains the use of foundation ties to prevent spreading in the event of liquefaction. http://www.youtube.com... D. Cultural Appropriation Toys should be a force of good in the world, teaching children skills and values that will make the world a better place. Toys which take advantage of other cultures for profit are morally reprehensible and should be absolutely rejected. When a company uses indigenous culture in their product without permission and elicits cries of protest from the culture it is abusing, that company is clearly acting unethically. This is exactly what Lego did in the creation of the Bionicle toys. K’nex is therefore ethically superior to Legos. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org... [2] http://theconcordian.com... [3] http://www.knex.com...