As awesome as the best 3D printers are, they’re also expensive, particularly if you’re looking for a device that your kids can use. Fortunately, there’s a cheaper way to give your kids a taste of 3D printing — a 3D pen. These handheld devices work in the same way as 3D printers, melting filament to be laid out in a design springing from your imagination.

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While a 3D printer uses gears and motors to move the print head around, 3D printing pens use you: you use them as you would an ink pen, only here you’re drawing with plastic filament to create a 3D object instead of a two dimensional sketch. To determine which 3D pen offers the best introduction to 3D printing, we tested two — the $39 Polaroid Play 3D Pen and the $79 3Doodler Create Plus. Both pens from Polaroid and 3Doodler work the same way: […]

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