4 Best 3D Pens, Tested by Beginners
Choices for kids, tweens and adult crafters ready to try creating original plastic artwork.
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A 3D pen is a crafting tool that works similar to a hot glue gun, except what comes out is warm plastic filament. The plastic dries quickly, hardening and holding its shape. At the Good Housekeeping Institute we tested and ranked four of the most popular 3D pens easily found at Amazon and Walmart, kits that are good for children, beginners and crafty adults.
The main thing we learned: Crafting with warm plastic is not easy! It is fun, but if we were to give one piece of advice it's to buy extra filament, being sure it's compatible with your pen. You will burn through a lot of it while you're learning how to control the pen and progress from crafting objects that are fairly flat pieces of art (literally everything we managed to create) to those that are more professional 3D designs (as shown in the brand photos).
3Doodler Flow
Pros
- Power source is permanently attached
- Comes with stencils and a guide
- Helpful videos on YouTube
- Kit includes 80 feet of filament
Cons
- More expensive than other choices
Our testers appreciated the stencils and tip guide included with the 3Doodler Flow, good for beginners and fairly experienced crafters alike. The power source is permanently tethered to the pen so you won't have yet another cord kicking around the house, getting mixed up with your other cords. It also comes with a power adapter brick to plug the cord into.
Using it is straightforward: Wait for the two lights to turn green and start pressing either the "fast" or "slow" button to start. "Slow lets you be more careful and deliberate," a tester noted. We recommend watching the brand's how to get started video.
This choice also comes with a maintenance tool. You can use it to clean out clogs. Also see the brand's helpful video on how to change or remove filament.
This kit comes with far more filament than any of the others on our list. For refills, there are some fun choices like the 3Doodler Tri-Color Filament Refills. The brand is launching Chefdoodler for making edible sugar designs for baking projects; that's still in preorder as of press time.
Filaments included: 8 colors, 80 feet of filament | Power: Permanently tethered USB cable. Also includes a power adapter.
RELATED: Craft Kits for Adults
SCRIB3D Printing Pen
Pros
- Low price, and compatible extra filament is cheap
- Sliding speed-control button
Cons
- Comes with only three colors of plastic
This bargain has more than 10,000 five-star Amazon reviews. "The kit came with stencil paper and a QR code to figure out how to use it, which was nice," our tester said. The speed-control button slides to give you a range from slow to fast, which allowed more control."I'd say it's still pretty hard to get the hang of it, but we had fun with it," a tester said.
The SCRIB3D kit only includes three colors of filament. A tester warned, "It's a long process to change colors, and you run out of filament pretty fast." Fortunately Amazon sells replacement filament for this pen for less than $10, cheaper than the extra filament that fits the 3Doodler.
The pen comes with a separate USB cord and a wall adapter.
Filaments included: 3 colors, 29.5 feet of filament | Power: Attach the USB cable, included. Also includes a power adapter.
3Doodler Start+
Pros
- No hot parts are exposed
- Comes with stencils, activities and a plastic pad for doodling
- Short strands of filament good for beginners
Cons
- No wall adapter included for the USB cord
Start+ is for beginners, tweens and kids ages 6 and up. The other 3D pens on this list are not made for children, and the tips of those can get hot, but the Start+ is made so that no hot parts are exposed. It's a shorter and fatter pen than the others, and the beginners in our Labs found it easy to wield.
Notably, this kit comes with a lot more help! There are 10 stencils to follow to make creations like our ladybug, shown. A booklet has more elaborate activities to try. And the Start+ comes with a plastic pad to use for free-forming designs, nice if you want to prevent your kid from working their hot plastic on your tabletop.
The more adult pens on this list come with long strands of filament, but this beginner kit comes with many short strands, encouraging kids to work in shorter bursts. Eight colors are included, and when you're ready for more, buy the specific filament for the 3Doodler Start.
We frequently recommend this in gift guides like our list of the best gifts for 8-year-old girls and best gifts for 10-year-old boys. It's great for tweens, too, and there's no shame in starting with this one as a beginning adult. What this kit is missing is a wall adapter, so you'll need to find a power brick to plug in the USB cable and power the pen. Ages 6 to 13
Filaments included: 8 colors, 42 feet of filament | Power: Permanently tethered USB cable. No power adapter included, you need your own.
The 3Doodler Start+ comes with 10 stencils to guide beginners through making some creations, a book with more extensive activities plus a plastic "Doodlepad" to use for free-forming art.
MYNT3D Super 3D Pen
Pros
- Thinner and more like a ballpoint pen
- Sliding speed control for a more precise flow
Cons
- Comes with very little filament and only three colors
"This was harder to get working at first because it only came with a tiny instruction manual," said a tester who tried the MYNT3D and the SCRIB3D. "I got panicked because I wasn't sure how to make it stop and I ended up with a lot of string. However, once I got the hang of it, it was actually easier to make things with this one." We found this pen to be thinner and able to work more like a ballpoint pen with a bit more precision.
This also has a sliding speed control, like the SCRIB3D, which gives crafters more control over the flow of plastic. But this kit includes very little filament. There's less than two feet, and only three colors, compared to our best overall choice with 80 feet and eight colors. You'll need to buy more filament almost immediately.
If you're already a seasoned crafter or have worked a 3D pen before you might be ready for a more professional 3D pen. Amazon's choice is the MYNT3D Pro, a little under $100, which comes with a design pad and a lot more filament.
Filaments included: 3 colors, 1.5 feet of filament | Power: Attach the USB cable, included. Also includes a power adapter.
How we chose the best 3D pens
These four 3D pens were not tested by professional crafters but were tested by two home testers, a member of the Good Housekeeping Institute and a member of Good Housekeeping magazine. We wanted to test them as beginners to understand the learning curve and to assess how easy each pen is to use even if you've never tried crafting in plastic before. In each case we only worked with the filament each pen came with.
What to consider when shopping for the best 3D pen
You'll want to consider:
✔️ Whether your kit comes with stencils: As beginners, we found stencils, like the ones shown for the SCRIB3D, to be key for getting us started. Otherwise it was easy to end up with just a nest of plastic strands!
✔️ Are you buying for a kid?: In that case, the 3Doodler Start+ is our recommendation as it's built with safety features. A 3D pen works with hot plastic and can get hot to the touch; the Start+ is made for children and the nozzle doesn't heat up, the heating elements are all tucked inside.
✔️ Filament refills: No kit comes with enough filament to last beyond a couple of crafting sessions. And one brand's filament does not necessarily work in other pens, so buy carefully. Although we love the 3Doodler pens, its filament is more expensive, so that's something to consider.
Why trust Good Housekeeping?
For more than 100 years the Good Housekeeping Institute has been testing consumer products against brand claims. We post new product reviews nearly every day and, for crafters specifically, have reviewed the best crafting kits for adults and the best LEGO kits for adults and collectors.
This article was written by Contributing Editor Jessica Hartshorn who covers a wide range of home products but mainly focuses on things that parents are looking for, from teething toys to gifts for 21-year-olds. She's a former senior editor of Parents magazine and a judge for the Good Housekeeping Parenting Awards and Best Toys Awards.
Jessica (she/her) is a freelance writer with several decades of experience writing lifestyle content and evaluating home and parenting products. A mom of two teens and two cats, her previous work can be seen in American Baby and Parents.
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