Review – VTech KidiArt Studio
October 1, 2008
Last week, a very nice woman by the name of Kristin contacted me. She works at Edelman on the VTech account and was wondering if I was still interested in being part of VTech’s Demo Team.
When I was out at BlogHer this Summer, VTech had one of the most intriguing booths out there. They kept bringing out toys that I just knew I couldn’t go over and play with – because I’d end up buying every one for my darling daughter and also because I knew I’d feel guilty about it if I got to play with them and she didn’t. So I went over – made mental notes about what things were probably going to have to go on the Christmas list this year. Oh, and let them know that I’d love to be part of the VTech Demo Team given the chance.
What’s the VTech Demo Team? Basically, moms who will have a chance to test out VTech toys and share their experiences. It’s feedback for the VTech folks from real parents and their kids. In this case, it’s also information that I’m going to share with you, dear readers!
So when the box containing the VTech KidiArt Studio showed up on my doorstep last Friday? It was met with great anticipation! After all, this was definitely on the Christmas list… so a little Christmas in September wasn’t exactly unwelcome.
As you can see in the slide show, it was taken out of the box as quickly as possible. But due to my own state of illness on that day – it was left up to GeekDaddy and Buttercup to set it up and get it going. Which they did.
Then Buttercup proceeded to get obsessed by it for the next 4 days.
She played with it until the batteries died. She begged for new batteries. She played with it after the new batteries were in. She showed it to her best friend T when she came over for a play-date on Monday… and they played with it until the arguments about who should get the pen got beyond bearable and I sent them off to play something else.
So. You’re getting the idea already that this particular toy is getting a thumbs up, right?
It didn’t take Buttercup very long to figure out the interface. One of the things we do with new tech toys is just let her start playing with it. Yes, we keep the manual nearby – but if it’s too hard for her to figure out on her own? It’s losing points pretty quickly. Fortunately, it didn’t take her terribly long to figure it out. The icons are easy for a kindergartner to figure out – the pen & table interface is pretty easy to get used to as well.
She played with all of the various features. She seemed to understand it better than I did… Then again, I’m all for a toy that she gets well enough that I don’t have to help her to every little thing with.
Buttercup is the kind of kid who loves playing with Microsoft Paint on the computer for as long as she can – or any other program that has “graphic capabilities” – so I figured that she’d like having her own ‘electronic art studio’ and I was right. What I didn’t count on was that she’d want it to do more than it did. She was a little disappointed that “make your own movie” was really about doing stop-motion photography with clip-art. She’s gotten too used to livestreaming video I’m afraid. (Go figure.)
Okay, so to shorten this up a bit – let me put this in more of a bullet-point list for you.
Things We Liked
- Easy to set up
- Easy to use – even for an almost-6 year old who hasn’t read the directions
- Lots of clip-art and different things the software allows for
- Ability to expand (apparently – there are or will be other cartridges available for this – or so GeekDaddy tells me.)
- Child-friendly environment – the sounds, little character voices, pictures and clip art provide a great atmosphere for kids.
- Having the ability to plug it into either the TV (using S-video jacks) or the computer is a nice perk.
- It continues to be interesting the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th day. Altogether too often, electronic toys lose their allure after about day 2 here. It’s only the good ones that stick around longer than that. This one has.
Things We Didn’t Like
- The batteries rand out rather quickly, despite putting 8 fully charged ones into it on Friday, by Monday morning, they were drained. GeekDaddy tells me he thought there was some way to plug a power-supply into it, but one wasn’t provided… and the site seems to imply that batteries are required.
- The camera isn’t the highest quality – and seems to have a strange delay that means that the picture is actually taken about 1 full second after the sound of the ‘click’ and the frame freezes… because when you see the actual picture, it’s not the same. Which is not good if you have a child who likes to squirm about right after the click.
- The camera also seems to “flip” the picture when it’s pointed at the child. Images from the desk come out as shown – images taken of the seated child do a mirror-image flip.
- The pen-drag interface isn’t as smooth as a mouse… so it takes a bit to “get it”. Buttercup picked it up after a bit, but Mom & Dad still have issues.
- Lack of light source – the camera doesn’t have a flash, and it doesn’t do very well in low light. We had to open the windows and turn on extra lights to get decent pictures. A flash would be nice.
When it comes down to it, the plusses actually out-weigh the minuses. This is a fantastic educational toy as well as one that masquerades as pure entertainment from the kidlet’s point of view. It improves motor function and fine motor control, spatial relationships and shapes.
On a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being “wouldn’t use it even if it was free” and 10 being “impossible to drag the kids away from it, plus an amazing deal for the price” I’d give the VTech KidiArt Studio an 8.5 – but only because of the lack of a power supply and the weirdness with the camera. All in all, we *do* have to drag Buttercup away from it – which is how I know the battery thing is an issue.
So yeah, it’s worth putting on your Christmas list if you have an artistically inclined 4 to 7 year old in your house. I firmly expect that Buttercup will still be playing with hers through then!
Administrative note: This review was not paid for. The VTech KidiArt Studio was provided by the company for my review and feedback. The company had no influence or input on what is contained in the product review above. All opinions expressed are those of the author and those attributed to others specifically named in the review.
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