Building Dreams : Charity: Money is raised at CityWalk for group that tries to grant terminally ill youngsters their last requests.

If nothing else, it was a diversion, a respite from the usual crush of playing with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures and baseball cap collecting that normally fills Josh Garrett’s days.

Sifting through buckets of snap-together plastic construction toys Friday under a circus tent at Universal CityWalk, 11-year-old Josh gradually pieced together a small mechanical windmill, holding the colorful contraption up to admire.

“I’m not really into this stuff,” said Josh, tilting his head and squinting for a better perspective on his creation. “But if I get better, I might think about it.”

That would be good news to the folks who pitched the giant tent this weekend outside the Cineplex Odeon movie theater--and good news as well to a few terminally ill children.

” In an event that is half promotion and half charity, a Pennsylvania toy manufacturer is letting children play with its new product--a modern version of Tinker Toys called K’NEX. And if the kids--or more likely, their parents--buy what they build, all of the proceeds will go to the Make A Wish Foundation, which tries to grant terminally ill children their last requests.

The parts are all made by the same company that makes the plastic gizmo that protects cheese on many take-out pizzas. It is the first venture into the toy business by the plastics company, which says K’NEX teaches children the fundamentals of geometry and physics.

On Friday, as tourists meandered wide-eyed through CityWalk’s neon-bedecked urban canyon, the circus tent decorated with 7-foot-tall Ferris wheels and grandfather clocks was mostly empty. It was a school day, after all.

Nonetheless, a few children, a few teen-agers and a few parents sat on the floor before giant bins of plastic clips, plastic rods and plastic sprockets, linking them slowly into dune buggies, cranes and swing sets.

Even Josh’s grandmother, Debbie Alper of Tarzana, joined in, helping her grandson and 8-year-old granddaughter Whitney Homchick put the finishing touches on their models as they waited to watch “Jurassic Park.”

“These work a little different from Erector sets,” said Alper, who put her age at “going on 13.”

“But they are fun to work with. I’m having a ball.”

Across the tent, teen-agers Amy Craig and Joey Aguilar pieced together all-terrain vehicles. “It was here,” said Craig, 16, of Reseda. “It was something to do.” Inspecting her model, Craig had not decided whether to shell out the $13 to take it home.

“It goes to a good cause,” she said, shrugging.

Indeed. Make A Wish coordinator Lani Hana said the $5,000 she expects to raise during this weekend’s event will pay for two average wishes from children.