Fisher-Price Digital Arts & Crafts Studio

This is a great toy....so many arts and crafts projects - all without the mess and risk of paint / pens leaking onto household items!This was simply to install, and is relatively simply to use - to be honest instructions could be a bit more clear - for example, there is a password page that pops up on first use which rather conveniently allows parents to set limits on pages printed and use (handy as this thing will quickly wipe out your color ink!!)...but instructions on setting this password and using the pen on the keyboard were not as clear as they could be!!There are multiple activities....from simply drawing, coloring in pre designed pictures, creating a book, party crafts such as hats and invitations...the list goes on! You can also download your own images / pictures which kids can use as a background or stamper, which is a cute idea! This is enough to keep kids entertained for a while!It is for ages 4-9...a 4 year old can use this...but it is a little tricky; as previous reviewers have stated - one needs to use a lot of hand co-ordination to do some of the activies which younger children may not have mastered to the extent this requires - that said it is a good tool to practice with!My only complaint is that this seems to have quite an odd effect on our computer...while in use it disables the computer keyboard and mouse...after use, some side effects remain - certain keys did not function on our keyboard after the first time use and we found the only way to remedy this was to reboot the computer or run a cleaner program which is a tad worrying!Other than that - this is a great toy - even adults will have fun with it - and will provide hours of use and play!

I bought this item in october for a christmas gift for my daughter. It stayed in the box it was shipped in until i wrapped it on christmas eve. On christmas i my daughter tried to play it and there was a short in the wire or something because it would light up then immediately cut off. Tried contacting fisher price and said the product was discontinued over a year ago! And the amazon return is only good for 30 days. So now i spent $50 on something that never worked and cannot get my money back.

My daughter loves to create art, including computer art, so we got her this for her 5th birthday. We are really impressed by how much is in this system! I especially like the themes within features such as the backgrounds and stampers, and you can upload your own images as well.Complaints: It does have some bugs. We have gotten into modes where it seems to respond to the prior command rather than the current one. For example, you click on one stamper and it applies the prior one, or you pick blue and it applies brown. That is quite frustrating but it only happens rarely. Also, the tablet takes a bit of getting used to. I've seen older kids really struggle with it. My daughter picked up on it right away but she has quite a bit of patience.My daughter has explored many of the features and we have many more to go. I know this will be an enjoyable system for her for a long time. It will adjust with her abilities.

I bought this for my son solely because his grandma bought him the dinosaur cd that goes with it, but he didn't have this to use it. So I forked over $50+ to keep him happy, and in the end, the software that comes with it only runs the program that came in the box with it, not the peripheral cd that is manufactured by the same company. I took the link to the manufacturer's website for software updates recommended by the device/program so that it will run the other cd...the manufacturer's software update link is disabled by the manufacturer. Can only assume they had so many complaints that they couldn't/wouldn't pay the software employees to fix, that they stopped listening and stopped providing fixes. Strike 1.The device doesn't do anything on it's own, it's just a glorified mouse. A $50+ mouse. Strike 2.If you (like many) don't have a desktop computer, relying on laptops and other electronic devices, this will be a hassle to use. It needs a computer separate from it to plug into. If you only have a laptop, the keyboard will be disabled during use, and will be in the way of this product. If you have an old-timey desktop computer, it will not be a problem though. Still, Strike 3.I would not recommend this product.

My son loved this while it was working, the parental controls are wonderful in that they keep the number of prints limited. However after about 2 months it stop being recognized by my computer, I have tried everything I know to do to get working but it won't start.

This was also a Sa**ta gift but hands-down it's been the best one my granddaughter has ever received.Once we got my christmas present up and running (a new computer with bigger drive etc...) we loaded this gizmo up and she was off and running.The great thing is she can hook it up and run it without my help and it has been just a boost for her creativity.She can use this thing for hours.Well loved and will be well used for a long time

Wow. I didn't think Fisher Price would fail me on Christmas, but they did in a big way with this. The software won't install on our older desktop (4 years old, running XP) and it won't install on our new Windows 7 box either. There's no support out there for the errors we get trying to set it up. Just sad.