First Thoughts: Barbie Digital Fingernail Printer

Written on Jan 20, 2009 by Brian and filed under Mattel, Reviews

Mattel announced the new Barbie digital fingernail printer at CES, which will be released this fall. We got to spend some hands-on time, well, fingernails-on time, with the printer. It’s surprisingly cool and actually our favorite toy from CES.

The printer is paired with software that gives kids, and potentially adults, total control over printing designs on their fingernails. As you can seen from the screen shot below, a digital camera takes a live shot of the nail and shows where the design will print. There are 1000′s of designs that include Barbie branded imagery, along with patterns, flowers and seasonal designs, like pumpkins and ghosts for Halloween. Kids will also be able to upload their own images to use with the printer as well, which adds tremendous depth to the offering.

Once you’ve selected the design, and even customized it some with orientation, darkness and so on, the printer sets to work printing on your nail. The print job runs about 15-20 seconds per nail and the end result is impressive. It takes some getting used to though. The first nail was a little misaligned, and it feels a little funny when it’s printing, but it won’t be long before kids are making fantastic nails. If you love the design, put a layer of top coat on and the design should stay on for many days. If not, a little rubbing wipes off the design and you can try again.

The printer uses thermal inkjet technology and specially-formulated cosmetic grade ink to print directly on the nail surface in full color. Pricing for the printer and ink haven’t been announced yet; that’s the only potential killer for this product. It’s quite impressive and will be great for parties. We already suspect Mom will jump in on the fun too, especially around holidays when she might want something whimsical on her nails for a little while.

Mattel has a surefire winner here when the Barbie nail printer is released this fall. We’ll bring you a detailed review as soon as the printer gets closer to production.

Update 10/21/09 – Barbie Doll’d Up Nails Review Posted

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