It took Ryan Perkins about five to six weeks to recreate Canada’s Wonderland’s Yukon Striker, using up to 60,000 K’Nex pieces—toy building blocks similar to Lego—to construct a replica of the world’s tallest dive coaster.

The 27-year-old tells CTV News Toronto he has always loved roller coasters and theme parks, pointing to Surrey, England’s Thorpe Park as an amusement park he has been going to for several years.

Perkins says he used to play with K’Nex a lot growing up, saying he was first inspired by other people’s creations and wanted to try his hand at it as well.

“One I saw that … really inspired me was they built a 20-foot-high recreation of Kingda Ka, the old world’s tallest roller coaster. It was always a goal of mine to one day beat that,” Perkins said. “I did officially this year, I built a 27-foot-tall K’Nex roller coaster, which is quite cool.”

That coaster opened at Six Flags in New Jersey in 2005, earning the Guinness World Record for the tallest rollercoaster made from steel thanks to its 456-foot-tall (roughly 139 metres) loop. It was shuttered in 2024.

Since launching his YouTube channel, TheKnexMaker, four years ago, Perkins says he now tries to focus on building coasters with a “wow factor” to them—which is what drew him to the Yukon Striker.

KNEX Yukon Striker The fully constructed Yukon Striker. (YouTube/TheKnexMaker)

“In Yukon Striker’s terms, it’s the world’s tallest dive coaster, so of that coaster type,” Perkins said.

Not only is the Vaughan coaster the world’s tallest dive coaster at 245 feet (75 metres), it also broke the world record in 2019 for being the fastest “floorless” rollercoaster, reaching speeds of 130 km/h. Canada’s Wonderland says it also is the longest dive coaster, sprawling 3,625 feet (1,105 metres).

Perkins says he had to construct the Yukon Striker in chunks, as his bedroom is too cramped to be able to fit the whole length of the track (which ended up sprawling about six feet). Once he completes one section, Perkin says he would put the finished component into another room so he could then focus on constructing the next part.

He also had to determine his rollercoaster would actually work, meaning the car would actually have the right amount of speed to ride the tracks.

“I solve the speed one by building backwards, section by section, so I can test the next, slightly larger element going down into the smaller ones,” Perkins said.

In his YouTube video, which has garnered 50,000 views since it was posted on July 31, Perkins details exactly how he constructs Yukon Striker, including the steps he took to create a 3D-printed replica of the train and how he built each part of the track, doing test-runs along the way to ensure the train runs smoothly.

The most exciting part to build, Perkin said in the video, was Yukon Striker’s vertical loop, zero-G roll (where the track twists around 360 degrees, creating a weightlessness sensation) and the Immelmann, an inversion. The zero G-roll ended up being the most complicated element to build, he says, taking the longest time to construct likely because it stretches over a large distance.

Yukon Striker YouTube video Ryan Perkins as he constructs the zero-G roll of the Yukon Striker, the world’s tallest dive coaster. (YouTube/TheKnexMaker)

“In fact, this might be one of the elements that I’m the most happy with out of any build I’ve ever done,” Perkins said in his video.

Once the Yukon Striker was fully constructed, Perkins said he took the coaster outside to his quasi-backyard, a communal area shared with neighbours, to watch the train go for a ride.

“There’s a lot of young kids as well that live here that come out whenever I film and they’re like, ‘Whoa, look at that. That’s so cool,’” he said.

For its part, Canada’s Wonderland congratulated Perkins on his working model.

“This model is truly impressive. Ryan’s 3D modelling and engineering work is incredibly detailed,” Grace Peacock, director of public relations for Canada’s Wonderland, told CTV News Toronto in an emailed statement.

“He did a great job replicating Yukon Striker and all its ride elements, like the 90-degree drop, the Immelmann, loop and helix.”

Perkins has not yet ridden the coaster at Canada’s Wonderland, but says he hopes to one day.