There are 3D printing pens that prolific scribblers can use to rotate their drawings in three-dimensional sculptures, but all users really have a work of art left. Polaroid goes one step further and replaces extruded plastic with melted candy When your masterpiece is ready, you can eat it.
The Polaroid CandyPlay 3D pen is not a completely new idea; We’ve already seen 3D printers update extrude edible material instead of PLA plastic, and kids had access to a push pin that extruded melted chocolate since 2015. The CandyPlay 3D Pen is characterized by the fact that it is completely hands-free, so anyone can dive right in and start creating without having to first learn how to design or prepare a 3D model with software. And unlike the chocolate stick, the candy material used here is so stiff when cool that it can be layered to slowly build up 3D models.
The CandyPlay 3D Pen, which retails for around $ 50, comes standard with four strawberry-flavored candy cartridges, which are much easier and cleaner to load than trying to throw a handful of sugar into the pen. Although there are six different sweet flavors to choose from (strawberry, orange, apple, grape, lemon, and cola), the edible print material appears to be sugar-free.
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The candy cartridges don’t look particularly big, maybe the size of a couple of Jolly Ranchers. So, if 3D candy becomes your artistic medium of choice, you will likely be working through them pretty quickly. Refills for each flavor are available, but cost around $ 28 40 candy cartridges (or around $ 32 for the 48-pack with multiple flavors), it sounds like Polaroid is going down the inkjet route and making the most of its money on the refills. However, if the device catches on, you can expect cheaper third-party refills to be available at more competitive prices.
Using CandyPlay 3D pen from Polaroid seems simple: you plug it in (there is no battery), wait for an LED to indicate that the heating mechanism is warm enough, then press a button to temporarily extrude the sticky material, or set it to that it flows freely until you realize it will stop if you don’t want to hold down a button all the time. What you create depends entirely on your imagination and skills. However, Polaroid recommends starting with some traceable stencils will be available for download on its website so that users can familiarize themselves with how the pen works. It’s probably not as easy as using a ballpoint pen or a sharpie, but the payoff seems more delicious than trying to lick ink off a page.