If you need to get a gift for a kid in your family and you want it to be something unique, I'm going to make things easy for you: Consider the 3Doodler Start Plus. It's a 3D-printing pen that's safe, smart and eco-friendly.
Why it's a great gift: It's a bit of an unusual concept, so you may need to watch the video I embedded here to understand how it works. To put it simply, you are drawing with plastic to make anything you can imagine. Kids insert special plastic filament sticks in the back, press a big button on top, and out the tip it comes, soft and melted. Draw directly on paper or a table. Draw in the air. Draw on your skin -- it's not hot enough to burn anything! In less than 10 seconds it hardens, and you can peel it right off the paper to show off your creation.
My favorite suggestion: Give new life to your old toys by doodling right on top of action figures. Give He-Man a new weapon. Upgrade the Paw Patrol vehicle. Make Barbie a new purse. The 3Doodler Plus hasn't damaged any of the action figure toys I've doodled on. If you need ideas, it comes with a book full of patterns to trace to get your started. And the filament is biodegradable, so there isn't a lot of plastic-trash guilt here.
I've spent several years following the coolest inventions in the toy industry, and nothing quite hits all the checkmarks like 3Doodler Start Plus. It's good for a wide age range, be it kindergarteners or preteens. It gets kids thinking creatively like an engineer, building three-dimensional objects and problem solving. It's easy to clean. And parents don't have to worry about kids hurting themselves or damaging the kitchen table because there are no external hot parts.
The pen itself is wireless and takes 30 minutes to fully charge. When making my video, I had it running on and off for about an hour making various doodles before it needed recharging.
What you'll pay: There are many kits and add-ons when you're looking to expand to more projects. But the basic starter kit will run you about $50 -- I wish there was a cheaper version -- but at least they won't get too old for it in a year, and a pack of 250 strands of the eco-friendly filament refills are $30.
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