As always, no form of monetary compensation was received for this post. We were thrilled to get the Kidoodle 3D printer for review and be one of the first families to love it.
I always marvel at how far DIY has come in such an extremely short time. As a maker from an extremely young age, my DIYing in my youth was almost exclusively reusing and repurposing tiny, discarded junk and cardboard to make the things I dreamt up. If young me could see me now using 3D printers and wood working to make the things I design, I’m sure she would be speechless. The idea that we can now literally make anything we dream up at an almost professional level would blow her little mind.
If young me were to take a peek into the future and see the new MiniBox A1 Kidoodle 3D printer that came out this year, she wouldn’t even believe it. It’s crazy enough that 3D printers like this exist and are so technologically advanced that they can create working models and even solve medical impairments. But, let me tell you, if she could glimpse what amazingness kids can create on their own in 2024, she would have died of happiness.
This is one of those moments where I just have to stop and pinch myself. Having a career that allows my kids to utilize this amazing tech is truly a dream come true. Getting to see secondhand how amazing this all is through the eyes of a child brings me immense amounts of joy. I mean, I’m a full-fledged adult and I’m sitting here geeking out over a kid’s 3D printer. Imagine how much my kids are geeking now that they can 3D print entirely on their own.
You see, we’re no strangers to the world of 3D printing. We got heavily into resin printing a year and a half ago when we started making miniatures for our dollhouse. But resin is finicky, really expensive, messy, and it required my help on every. single. step. The kids are young enough that mastering the designing, slicing, and then the mechanics of the resin printer on their own just isn’t possible at this point. I dreamed of one day having a 3D printer that would be more kid-friendly, but even I didn’t dream as big as the Kidoodle 3D.
Why has the Kidoodle 3D printer won us over?
No handholding. Kids can truly do it all by themselves, from start to finish. While the printer can be used like a traditional 3D printer where you design, slice, save and print your own creations, it can also be used by even younger children as it is super intuitive and easy to begin printing right away.
No extra device required. Kids don’t even need a device like a laptop or phone since the printer comes with tons of models available for printing right away. You can navigate their offerings from the touchscreen in their pre-loaded models and their online gallery, can search by keyword, or simply scroll through pages and pages of options.
It has a kid-friendly app in addition to the touchscreen. While my kids don’t have devices to use the Kidoodle app on, I find myself using the app pretty frequently. I find it easy to scroll through the different models they have available on phone instead of on the touchscreen of the printer, and start it printing within seconds.
They have tons of prints preloaded online that don’t require slicing or stabilizing – just simply press print and let the machine do its thing. I also love that this library to choose from is constantly growing and adapting as they add new print options all the time. I swear they had models as we sleep, because I seem to find a new one to print every day.
It is incredibly fast. You can dream up a toy and print it within minutes. Of course, some larger prints can take over an hour, but that is comparatively fast and nowhere near the 24-hour prints we’ve done in the past on other printers.
Safety first. The Kidoodle 3D printer has multiple kid-safe features, such as instant shut off if you open the door, and it immediately lowers the nozzle temperature. It also uses kid-safe, eco-friendly and non-toxic filaments since it is made to be used by kids.
It is a kid printer, but it can be used by adults, too. I will admit at first I didn’t know that we needed a 3D filament printer for kids, I assumed we’d get a more adult printer… but then we’d fall into the same trap of needing to assist my kids during every step while they printed. This is the perfect compromise that makes a great family printer.
It grows with your kid. Maybe they start out only printing the Kidoodle 3D models, which is surprisingly addictive. But, before you know it, your kid will be wanting to design their own toys or buying .stl files to enhance their play, and that is why we love the Kidoodle 3D. Thinking of all the learning opportunities that await get me so excited and I cannot wait to see what the kids dream up and design.
It comes with its own Kidoodle 3D printer slicing software. This can be used when you are making your own designs to prepare them for printing, or you can use any other slicing software you’d like after you set the print size to the Kidoodle specifications.
It has a small footprint. At 7.5in x 10in x 11in, you can use it on any desk, even a kid-sized one. While it is not billed as portable, it definitely could be taken with you for an event or used at a party easily.
Limitations of the Kidoodle printer
The print size. With a print size of 100*100*90mm, you cannot print huge items for cosplay and such, but for the things you would want a kid to print, it is perfect. We print a lot of dollhouse items and miniatures, as well as toys and fidgets for school, so the smaller size suits us well.
You cannot modify the Kidoodle prints. There are a few of their pre-loaded designs that we would love to scale up or down for our minis, but unfortunately, they are only available in the one size. I know that scaling up or down would require re-slicing, so that is why it’s not possible, but I wish that there was a quick and easy way to modify prints.
Making the leap from pre-designed models to printing our own designs took a big learning curve. We had some issues that required us to learn lots of new things and expand our 3D printing technology considerably, but the good news is that our efforts will make this easier on customers going forward because we got to share our journey with them to help them improve it for market. And, now that we ironed out the kinks and learned about root drives and how truly finicky machine can be, we are better off for it.
Kidoodle Specs
How to buy the Kidoodle
The Kidoodle3D printer is on Kickstarter right now and you can still get in on the early bird pricing structures if you act fast. Be sure to check out the Kickstarter and see all the fun videos and specs of the Kidoodle3D MiniBox A.
