Crayola iMarker & Story Studio Review/Giveaway

The other day Crayola sent me this awesome little package full of their latest techy toys for kiddos and asked me to give one of their prize packs away to one of you as well!

As a self proclaimed geek, I was downright giddy… as was the little chip off the old block, Miss Add.

We were thrilled to find an iMarker for the iPad among the goodies inside.

The iMarker is a “marker” or stylus that works with Crayola’s free Color Studio HD App. (So far no Android app, just iTunes folks).

Miss Add hit it off with the iMarker fast and at no time, she was flipping through her “tools” as she calls them in no time flat…

Here, I’ll let her tell ya…

From the animated coloring scenes to the 64 different colors (or millions as Add would say) to the crayon, marker and paintbrush techniques, this fun app opens the door to a world of creativity and Miss Add (and most of the adults around her) has hardly put it down.

Truth be told, it was nice for the iPad to serve as a coloring book while traveling over the holidays… but even better… it gives her a doodle pad to use all those “tools” she loves in “millions of colors”  to create until her heart’s content.

Check out my little artist and her creativity at work:

The verdict:

We LOVED it… Adults complained a little about the accuracy with the marker, but Miss Add hasn’t made a single fuss over it and its marker shape seems to work perfect for her little hands.

Truth be told the price point of $29.99 at most retail stores (Best Buy, Toys R US, Amazon, etc.) gave me a bit of sticker shock at first, but honestly she has played with it far longer than other toys I have spent way more on… and this toy keeps her content in every place from eye doctor offices to long car rides to lay overs in the airport…

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Other goodies in this prize pack included 3 different Story Studio packs: Cars, Spiderman and Disney Princesses.

These fun packages let you insert your own characters into the coloring books that you print at home. So far, we have made two characters…

Adda Girl

And, because every little girl’s daddy is her super hero…

GOODeMan!

Each story let’s you save 10 different coloring books on the site and the Story Studio packs come with paper, binding and cover paper for 3 books in addition to coloring markers or pencils.

We have had almost as much fun on the computer creating our characters and customizing the coloring books as we have had coloring them!

I can’t wait for Miss Add to get her hands on the Cars 2 and Disney Princess packs… she is going to be over the moon to see herself in the books with some of her favorite characters!

The Verdict:

At $9.99 (even cheaper on Amazon), these books are hands down worth the price for a young child like Miss Add… She easily identifies with the characters we create from her photo and enjoys coloring in the custom-made books.

Older children may be a little frustrated that they don’t look exactly like their character in the book. The photo morphing doesn’t exactly create an automatic version of your child– although you can tweak features of your character.

Regardless, I would say that creative kiddos will still like the process of creating their own coloring books that feature their own characters and the names they come up with.

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Now, it doesn’t seem fair that I have all the fun… so how about we give a prize pack away to one of you?

Note: If you are viewing this post via email or reader, you will need to visit the blog to enter the giveaway.

 

Disclosure: The Crayola High Tech Holiday prize pack, product information and prize pack for giveaway have been provided by Crayola through MyBlogSpark.

Note: All Amazon links, as always, are affiliate links.