A friend sent me a link to a company site called “Toybox”. Apparently it was featured on Shark Tank (blehhh) but looks like a tiny core x-y printer for kids.
They call filament “printer food”, charge recurring monthly fees for access to models to print, and the print quality looks mediocre. It’s a different approach but maybe an idea for those looking to introduce kids to this craziness.
No idea of quality or reliability…
I think that is truly a toy, and expensive for a primitive design at $299.
You can get better built A1 Mini for much less, with a much larger build volume (180x180x180 vs 75x80x90 mm³) and four rolls of “food” for $239.
That would be a much better introduction to 3D printing, producing good prints with less frustration.
I had my share of “toy” woodworking tools as a kid. They were soon abandoned because I did not have the skills to overcome their shortcomings.
I agree and told him about pricing for the low end printers here. The Toybox is tiny on build volume (they quote in mm3 so the numbers seem big) and not much for quality. But it will get his nephews exposure to it all.