Best birthday gift this year
Got the teal one for my son's 7th birthday and it beat every other present on the table, including the LEGO set. He spent the whole party handing out little black-and-white prints of the guests like a tiny paparazzo. Grabbed a second pack of paper rolls that same week because he does not stop.
Grandpa nailed it
I'm 68 and useless with gadgets, but I bought the pink one for my granddaughter and even I figured it out in five minutes. She snapped a photo of me napping in the recliner and taped the print to the fridge. Now every visit starts with 'where's the kitty camera.'
Survived our whole road trip
Ten hours to the coast and my 6-year-old documented every rest stop, gas station, and cow along I-75. It bounced off the car floor twice and didn't even flinch, rounded body did its job. The rear screen kept her busy without me handing over my phone once.
Wonderful, but that strap
No complaints about the camera itself, the teal is gorgeous and the ink-free prints are the whole appeal for my 5-year-old. My only gripe is the wrist strap runs a little short for her chunky winter sleeves, so it slips off. Half a star back once she's in short sleeves, I suspect.
Two kids, no fighting
Bought pink and teal so my 4 and 8-year-old wouldn't wrestle over one, best decision I've made as a parent this year. They stage little photo shoots of the dog and compare which filter looks better. The sibling peace alone was worth the sixty bucks.
Finally, something not a screen
We were drowning in tablet battles until this showed up. My 6-year-old now spends her afternoons wandering the backyard photographing bugs and printing the ones she likes. It's the first toy in ages that pulled her off the couch without a single argument.
The gift that stuck around
I was braced for it to end up in the closet by February like most gifts do. It's April and my grandson still carries the teal one everywhere, cat ears and all. He's on his fourth roll of paper, which tells you how much it actually gets used.
Even my 3-year-old gets it
Wasn't sure a toddler could handle a real camera but the big shutter button and the fat little body are clearly made for tiny hands. My 3-year-old points, mashes the button, and squeals when the print slides out. She frames roughly one out of ten shots, which is honestly better than I expected.
Our hallway photo wall
My 9-year-old has covered an entire hallway wall with her dotty black-and-white prints, everything from the cat to her grilled cheese. There's something about the little thermal photos that feels like a keepsake in a way phone pics never do. We reorder the paper rolls monthly and I don't even mind.
Charged before we left
Plugged the pink one into the same USB-C brick as my phone the night before a birthday party and it was full in well under two hours. My daughter shot the entire party on one charge without a single dead-battery meltdown. That fast top-up saved the whole afternoon.
Lovely, mind the print delay
The teal camera is genuinely great and my 7-year-old adores the cat ears. Only heads-up: the print takes a few seconds to finish sliding out and he keeps mashing the shutter thinking it's stuck, which spits out a blank. Once we taught him to wait it's been smooth, so it's a small learning curve, not a flaw.
Didn't expect the video
Bought the pink one mostly for the photos and completely missed that it records HD video with sound. My 8-year-old has now made about forty tiny movies of her stuffed animals 'interviewing' each other, audio and all. The microSD holds so many that I've stopped worrying about running out of room.
The filters kept her busy for hours
My 7-year-old worked through all 16 filters the first afternoon and had strong opinions about every one (the sketch one won). We got teal and she hasn't put it down since. Honestly the quietest Saturday we've had in months.
Refill rolls way cheaper than I feared
I braced for Polaroid-style prices and it was a pleasant surprise — a three-pack of rolls ran me under six bucks and printed dozens of shots. My grandson goes through paper like candy, so cheap refills matter. Teal camera, holding up great after two months.
Lasted the whole zoo day
We spent about six hours at the Oregon Zoo and the battery never quit — she photographed every otter twice. Charged it the night before and that was it. Pink one, and the wrist strap saved it from the sea lion tank railing more than once.
Birthday party favor of the year
Handed one to the birthday girl at her 6th and every kid there wanted a turn printing their own goofy face. Prints slid out in a few seconds and the table was covered in little dotty photos by cake time. Teal, and it survived eight kids passing it around.
He calls himself a photographer now
My 9-year-old announced he's 'into photography' and now documents the dog, the mailbox, breakfast, everything. The real glass lens actually makes his shots look decent, not the smeary mess I expected from a kids' toy. Pink, though he insists the color is irrelevant to his art.
She's scrapbooking her whole summer
My daughter tapes every print into a journal with little captions underneath — she's got three weeks of camp already filled in. The black-and-white dotty look is perfect for that, weirdly nostalgic. We keep a spare roll in her backpack now because she never stops.
Teal was right for my older one
My 11-year-old thought the pink looked babyish so we went teal, and she was thrilled — the calmer color made her feel like it wasn't a little-kid gadget. The 2.4-inch screen lets her frame shots properly and she actually deletes the bad ones. No screaming over an iPad in sight.
Real lens, not a cheap plastic disc
I've bought two toy cameras before that had a foggy plastic lens and blurry results — this one has actual glass and you can tell in the photos. My granddaughter's shots from the ranch are sharp enough to keep. Pink, drop-tested off the porch twice already, still fine.
Just know the prints aren't color
I'll be honest, I didn't read carefully and my daughter was a little let down that her rainbow drawings printed in black-and-white. Once we explained it's thermal printing she came around, and now the dotty look has grown on both of us. Good little camera — set the color expectation with your kid up front.
My favorite gift as the fun aunt
Sent the teal one to my niece for her 5th and my sister says it's the only present she still plays with a month later. Watching her print a photo of the cat and run it to the fridge was worth every penny. Free shipping got it there before the party too.
Survived a full sibling brawl
My two boys fought over this thing like it was the last cookie — dropped it, yanked the strap, the works — and it powered right back on. Docking half a star because they burn through a roll a day and I'm ordering paper constantly. Pink camera, tougher than my phone honestly.
Finally, the same cable as everything
Cannot overstate how nice it is that this charges over USB-C — same cord as our tablets and my headphones, no hunting for some weird adapter. Fully charged in about an hour and a half before our road trip and it lasted the whole drive to Glacier. Half a star off only because my son mashes the shutter before the print finishes and jams it now and then.