I tried the $300 3D printer that was backed on 'Shark Tank' - my 5-year-old son and I both enjoy making toys with it
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- The Toybox 3D Printer ($299) was designed with young makers in mind; its app and website are kid-friendly and the hardware only takes a few minutes of parental setup.
- Dozens of pre-designed models are ready to print with one button and original designs are also easy to create, upload, and print.
- The printer and its accessories are reasonably priced considering the cutting-edge technology, but it's definitely not cheap by any standards.
For reasons beyond my understanding, my five-year-old son Ben is fascinated with 3D printers. I'm not even sure where the young man first learned of the technology, but for more than a year now, it's captivated him. He has dreamt of using the 3D printer at our local library and counted the days until he'd be able to use one at his school. Sadly, the school's unit is relegated to older elementary grades and Ben's only in prekindergarten.
Then my wife and I discovered California-based Toybox, a cool brand that received an investment from "Shark Tank" and makes a 3D printer for just $299. It's a reasonable price to pay for an innovative item, but definitely not a "cheap" purchase that should be taken lightly. My wife and I felt it was affordable for us and we especially liked that it was easy for our five-year-old to use on his own.
Within a few minutes after we got the colorful "Printer Food" PLA filament in place on the back of the printing unit and threaded it into the extruder, Ben had already created a custom design he wanted to print. And with the tap of a button, that's what he did.
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3D printing has been around since the 1980s, but it wasn't common or meant for household use until well into the first decade of this century. Today, while the technology is hardly new, it's still not mainstream and that's largely because of the high prices. Many legitimate, full-sized 3D printers can cost more than a thousand dollars, and even those that are smaller and more affordable are still too complex and fragile for young kids.
The Toybox printer, on the other hand, was designed expressly for kids. Its remarkable ease of use knocks down barriers to one of the most exciting types of hardware while the well-designed app and website encourages deep exploration into design. Also, it's awesome to play with a toy you made yourself. I mean, for your kid to play with a toy he or she made.
Creating one of the pre-designed "toys" - and I'm using that term loosely because there are rings and bracelets, figurines, race cars, cups, planters, and so much more - available on the site or app requires about as much effort as sending a text message. Once the printer is switched on and warm enough, you just tap through to the item you want to make, hit the print button, and the machine will create the object right before your eyes.
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Naturally, custom designs take a bit longer because you have to create them first in the Creator Space. You can also upload models you found on other sites or created using computer-aided design platforms. With a bit of time spent learning how to use the system, you can essentially create anything you can imagine, even complicated pieces with multiple colors and moving parts that you can assemble after multiple printing sessions.
And if you have questions or issues, you're in luck - Toybox customer service works every bit as well as its printer. We had an issue with the printing nozzle grinding the pad on which it was supposed to print and being that the unit was brand new, I was annoyed initially. I mean, the printer is affordable by our standards, but not cheap so I expected it to work well out of the box. Not only did a brand rep get on the phone quickly with me, but he actually started a FaceTime call so he could walk me through the fix - which turned out to be about a single turn of a calibration screw.
The best thing about getting your kid a Toybox 3D Printer? When they think of some new toy they want, they can make it right then and there. Okay, maybe they can start then and there, because large objects can take hours to print, but you can at least have a ring with bunny ears in about three minutes.