Chris Osborn started with a roller coaster K'Nex set in December of 96, his parents bought him another set in 99. He bought a K'Nex ball factory in 2000 then his sister bought him yet another the following Christmas. Inspiration set in. In January with all the holiday sales, Chris bought another coaster set and a bunch more ball factory sets. Since his cousin, David, got a new house with unusual spaces, corners, and high ceilings it only made sense to build something grand in his living room, family room and over the fireplace. This first buildfest was held over the long holiday weekend in January of 2001 and was nicknamed the Sorethumb Coaster because of pushing so many pieces together using thumb power.

David then, like Chris, got caught up in the K'Nex frenzy.

Every time they saw a sale on K'Nex sets, they ran out and bought as many as they could. Of course with more sets, more builds were on their way. The next buildfest was held in the offices of Full System, Inc. Over the Easter holidays in 2001, a creation twice the size and twice the complexity came to occupy the floor, walls and even the space above the ceilings of the office lobby. This build was nicknamed the Redfinger Express. You guessed it. Everyone's fingers were quite sore after pushing all those parts together. A special web site was set up so visitors could view the action through webcams and interact with the builders one on one through chat sessions.

There was no stopping these mad K'Nex builders!! Chris and David bought several more large sets. In November of 2001, Chris moved into a two story house with a loft overlooking a living room. Perfect! The Atomic ParaBall was born. This build was so fantastic, even the local paper wrote it up. Chris made sure all the team members had special aprons to hold K'Nex pieces and added even more webcams and a remote camera controlled by visitors to move a special Atomic ParaBall K'Nex camera to watch all the activity.

To learn about subsequent builds, like the one just completed (CharlesCoaster) and future builds coming up, visit (and bookmark) the buildFEST home page!