I got this Crayola Crayon Maker for my little sister and we both hate it! It wasn't a cheap toy, and it didn't produce expected results. It's not at all easy to use or for young children. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. It is a complete waste of money. The colors came out ugly and it was just no fun.

amd2013

USA

My kids love this products because they got to make there own crayons and colors. Great Product and easy too. I recommended that all parents get this products for this children because it is like doing science experiments. I love the way that the instructions were very easy so that I can show the kids.

CrystalJones8878

USA

My parents just got this for my 5 year old son for his birthday.  He only wanted this gift.  It states for age 8 & up. However, for 5 year olds, it's great too.  He chooses the crayons to use, breaks them off, adds them to the machine & I plug it in while he watches.  He & I do it together as an activity.  It's brought new life back into old coloring books.

audrey527

Waltham, MA

Around Christmas time, we started seeing the commercials for the Crayola Crayon Maker. Of course, it looked easy, fun, and exciting. I have one young daughter who is always breaking crayons, and thought that the Crayola Crayon Maker would be a great fun, crafty way for my older daughter to make use of the pieces of crayon. So we finally got the Crayola Crayon Maker and were super excited to give it a try! On our first try, one of the crayons did not melt completely, so as per the directions we repeated the heating cycle. By the time the one crayon was melted, the others were (my opinion/words) "over cooked" -- they looked like cheese that has been in the microwave too long and gets bubbly and hard, that's what happened to the wax. So we cleaned out those trays and tried again. The trays were very difficult to clean. The second go around was a bit better. The crayons melted nice and even. When we tipped the tray up to pour the wax into the mold, I was very disappointed, about one-third of the wax spilled. The crayons came out as they were suppossed to, but it was a huge mess. One pro that I noticed is that the clear lid locks and will not open while the heating element is on. If memory serves me correctly, the lid only unlocks when the machine cools off quite a bit. While this is definately a benifit for the safety of the children, it makes cleaning a bit harder sinse the wax that remains in the melting tray solidifies a bit while the tray is cooling. Honestly, I think that we will not be using the Crayola Crayon Maker nearly as much as anticipated - it is not worth the hassel. We are better off melting the pieces of crayon in muffin pans and making round crayons as before...

tinymansmom

Dayton, NV

I really liked the idea of this product being a good way to recycle broken crayons for my 3 little ones. The maker itself is quite easy to use, but the instructions for assembling it are terrible! You have to be sure the warming plate is installed with the small metal lip in the front underneath the front piece instead of on top of it, and the instructions made no mention of that. It is also somewhat difficult to clean if you don't get the warm wax out right away. However, with that said, the crayons do melt when you put them in as instructed. My kids, ages 4 and 5 enjoyed watching the melting process. They asked a lot of questions, so it was good for educating them about basics in the manufacturing process. Once I had the warmer plate back in the right way, the tray dumped the wax in more thoroughly. Then, when you wait long enough, the new crayons do come out of the mold quite easily. The kids have really enjoyed creating their own mixes of colors. They don't like waiting for the mold to cool, but I just have them go do something else, then set a timer. Overall, I do recommend this product!

jwiederhold

Marysville, MI

This product was given as a gift to my 3 children for Christmas. They were so excited to use it, but upon taking it out of the box we realized we needed a specific lightbulb to make the product work. No problem- I ran to the store to purchase it. The product still didn't work, and I couldn't stop the product from running. Once it's started, you have to wait a good 10 minutes before you can do anything with it (the door on it locks in place). Although it is a good safety feature, it made for a long process when I wanted to simply try a different light bulb. I will be taking it back to the store. It is a great idea for a product, I think we just had a lemon.

AmandaErbeMedina

Swartz Creek, MI

I was really excited to get this for my daugher as we had a lot of broken crayons lying around the house. I was dreaming of cute, creative little gifts made out of recycled materials. I spent some time organizing the broken crayons by color, so it wouldn't become a big swirly mess of ugly. Well, first of all it takes forever, so I wouldn't recommend it for younger kids as they'll lose attention pretty quickly. Second, it doesn't melt the crayons completely, so you're left trying to figure out what to do with the leftovers. Third, it's nearly impossible to get clean! The crayons it makes are kind of ugly, but I guess you don't really need 'pretty' crayons to color with. But dashed were my dreams of cute gifts. It makes four half crayons that you are supposed to piece together in a holder and color on both sides. My daughter made one set and we haven't touched the thing since. Thankfully I got the thing cheap, so it wasn't a huge loss.

jaonenla

Lititz, PA

Well finally a solution on what to do with broken crayons! I love Crayola as a company and will try anything by them. So when my grandaughter asked for this for Christmas I decided to get it for her. We have used it a few times so far and she loves it. She even had some friends over with their broken crayons and she showed them how to use it. It a neat way to recycle the crayons into something new. they even made some with some crazy color combinations. It brings out the creativity in them for sure. That's Crayola misson..to inspire the future artist or graphic designer. It does require some adult supervision because it does heat the wax. I takes some time to do the whole process but it seems well worth the results for the kids. I'm glad to see it is being used and liked because i hate buying toys that sit on a shelf and never get used..a grandmom's or parents worse nightmare! With the Crayola Crayon maker you get your monies worth.

loismreale

Chalfont, PA

The crayola crayon maker seemed like such a fun concept.  I have revived old crayons before by putting them in molds in the oven so I appreciated the crayon recycling.  When my eight year old son asked for this for Christmas, I thought this would be more fun than what we were already doing.  It's very easy to use and setup. Although make sure you get the recommended lightbulb.  You place broken crayons in the hopper, wait for them to melt and then lift a lever to pour them into the crayon mold.  Seems fun enough.  The waiting is long.  We had to put the crayon timer on twice to thoroughly melt the crayons.  The colors of the melted crayons turned very muddy, still interesting, but not at all a swirl of two colors.  But the biggest disappointment in the crayon maker is the size of the crayons it produces.  Although it looks like the crayons are full size from the pictures on the box.  The crayons it makes are actually about half size a regular crayon.  So your broken crayons are making new muddy, crayons the size of broken crayons. Not a fan!

famven5

Westwood, MA

The Crayola Crayon Maker is supposed to revive old broken crayons.  It sort of does that.  My 3 1/2 year old daughter received this for a Christmas present this past year from her grandfather who knew that she absolutely LOVED to color and had lots of broken crayons. The concept of the crayon maker is great, but boy, it's a lot of work and takes a long time to actually make the crayon (which, actually, is in two pieces so sort of broken itself).  First you have to place the broken pieces of crayon into this metal tray.  Then you turn it on and the crayons are melted via light bulb (that is not included and is a weird size).  This takes about 15 min.  After the 15 min is up the light bulb goes out, but the few times that we have used this contraption, the crayons are not yet melted and we have to run the timer again.  When the crayons do melt, you tip the tray in the crayon mold.  If you forget to tip the melted crayons into the mold right when the light goes out, you have to do the whole process over cause the crayons start to harden. After the melted crayons are in the mold, you have to wait until the timer goes off again that indicates the mold is cool to touch.  Then you take the mold out of the crayon maker and wait 10 min for them to further harden and remove from the mold.  Removing from the mold is messy.  If you had too much melted wax it runs outside the mold and little flakes of crayon end up all over. Because this is such a long process, by the time the crayons have melted, my preschooler has lost interest and it is up to me to finish it.  And then when the crayons are done and ready to use they are in two pieces and you use this plastic holder and stick one on each end.  The crayons may be "like new" now but not to my preschooler, she would still prefer to use regular crayons.  I don't think she's used the crayon maker crayons once.

GaleD

Sycamore, IL