I surprisingly couldn’t find any recent threads on this, so with Black Friday coming up I thought I’d start a new one rather than bump something old.
I’m hoping to pick up a 3D printer as a Christmas gift for the family - mainly for our kids (ages 3, 7, and 8). The big priorities are:
-Multi-color printing (so they can make toys and figures that look fun right out of the printer)
-Affordable price range (ideally just a few hundred dollars, nothing too high-end)
The main use would be kid-friendly projects: toys, figures, and little creative builds.
There are so many “Top 10” lists out there that it’s hard to know what’s actually worth considering. Has anyone here found a good option that balances cost, ease of use, and fun for kids?
The Bambu Lab one is probably about as close to "it just works" as it would get. Some people don't like them because they're more proprietary and 3D printing as a lot of open source enthusiast types.. but lots of people just want something that does the thing when you push the button.
I mean strictly speaking ANY FDM printer can print multi colour as long as you can babysit it and manually change out the filament, just a lot easier with a system that can switch the filament for you.
But be aware that multi colour printing can generate a lot of waste.. like more waste than the actual print in some cases.
I think Bambu Labs just introduced a new printer that has multiple hot ends and cuts the waste to almost nothing but that's in their higher end ones that are in the thousand+ range.
In 3D printing world cheaper can often means harder to get something you want which is usually the opposite of kid friendly.. and even the best ones still run into things where you have to figure out why it isn't printing what you want and fix them.. the filament is too humid, or the bed needs to be cleaned, or this particular model needs larger pads for better bed adhesion, or the default generated supports allow too much shake which makes the print fail.. it's a deeep rabbit hole, just be warned. Be prepared to have to learn stuff to help when things don't do what they'd like.
But for simple stuff like just downloading a popular flexible dragon model from the Internet and printing it I think it's hard to go wrong with the A1 mini. I unfortunately don't know anything about Flashforge so can't speak to that one.
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I have the Bambu A1 with the AMS. I definitely recommend the Bambu ecosystem for beginners into the hobby as they have made everything very easy to use. I have had very few issues with any of the prints that i have done, whether that is downloaded files or ones that I have made myself.
The biggest limitation with the mini is the smaller print bed. I think the upgrade to the A1 is worth it for the larger print bed alone.
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But be aware that multi colour printing can generate a lot of waste.. like more waste than the actual print in some cases.
Thanks, guys. I dug more deeply on this one in particular and didn't realize the difference. Like 10-20x the material and print time according to this video.
Time is most important to me for fun use and trying to get kids to share, so I think I'm going to go with the A1 Mini. If they get super into it I'll upgrade in the future.
edit: After thinking about it more, this video is an extreme example of the waste issue. Because the nemo fish has its colors stripes in the vertical direction, there are tonnnnes of color changes every layer so lots of waste. If, in theory, he could have built it standing on its nose there would be way fewer changes and fewer waste issues. General googling seems to suggest its still a lot (1-2x?)
Last edited by Frequitude; 11-28-2025 at 11:03 AM.
3D Printers
