As a brand, Polaroid pushes to send a message of creativity. They want you to go out and take pictures, print those pictures, record video, slap instant photos on every surface – and now, Polaroid wants you to create. At this year’s CES, Polaroid announced both the DRW101 3D Pen and the PLN1 3D Printer. Both products come in several colors (white, black, blue, yellow and pink) and fit with the colorful, nostalgic aesthetic we all know.
Polaroid’s DRW101 3D Pen is very easy to use. Supporting both PLA and ABS filament, you have a lot of options when making your imagination come to life. The pen itself is very ergonomic, fitting comfortably in hands of all sizes. It features an LCD screen which displays temperature, and easily accessed buttons on the side to adjust the speed in which filament is dispensed. Using a ceramic tip as opposed to a metal one, the pen becomes a lot safer to use (ceramic doesn’t get as hot as metal does, and cools down much faster) – and if you have kids at home who decide to simply put the pen down and walk away, it will shut off and eject the filament just after two minutes. Polaroid offers sixty different colors from their first-party brand in an odor and toxin free PLA filament.
DRW101 comes in two different models. A wired model for $129.99, and a wireless rechargeable model with a charging base for $149.99. They will be available this spring, and Polaroid will provide several free stencils for those who need some help getting the creative juices flowing.
Polaroid’s new 3D printer is a 4.7″ cubed 3D printer that provides fun for the whole family. The printer features USB port and SD card reader, as well as having a companion app on both iOS and Android that can control the printer. If you’re upstairs watching TV browsing designs on your phone, you can use the mobile app to upload the code for the design and tell the printer to start working on it. For those who are worried about children opening the printer and burning themselves, the left tray slides out and has an LCD screen equipped with an unlock code. No code, no opening.
If you want your project to have multiple colors, you can pause the printing process, remove the filament, and resume it once the other filament is inserted. This makes for all sorts of fun little things you and your family can come up with. The dice pictured above took somewhere between an hour and a half and two hours to fully print. Depending on the desired density of the project, some might take longer than others. The PLN1 is slated for a summer 2017 release with a price point of $499.
