Note: This post may contain affiliate links. You can read my disclosure by clicking here. We were gifted this toy for free for this review.
My family was recently gifted a Ugee Funbox 3D Printer for kids. It’s our first 3D printer, so we were all so excited to test it out! We had been planning to get a 3D printer for years, but I didn’t know which printer to choose or how to get started. This was the perfect choice for my family, and made everything so easy for us!
We had fun unboxing our new 3D printer, check out this Instagram video (it’s also on my YouTube Shorts here if you don’t have Instagram) of our unboxing to see what comes with the printer in the box.
What makes the Funbox special is it is a 3D printer designed specifically for kids. It’s colored a light blue with orange trim, colors that are fun and vibrant to appeal to kids, and it comes with stickers kids can use to personalize their Funbox. It is fully enclosed and has carbon and HEPA filters to make it UL GreenGuard Certified and safe to use in your home.
The Ugee Funbox is available now on Ugee’s webite, and you can get 10% off using my code: Emily10.
Setting up the Funbox and our First Print
My kids loved the colorful look of the printer, and were so excited that it came with cute stickers they could use to personalize the look of their printer. My girls spent some time applying stickers to every side of the printer.
The Funbox was very easy for me to setup. It came with detailed instructions that enabled me to help the kids set up the printer and start printing within minutes. I plugged in the printer, connected it to our wifi and then the app, followed the instructions to load filament and we were ready to print!
I downloaded the ugee Ufun app on my phone. The app has a huge variety of free print designs to choose from, as well as the option to upload your own or create your own using AI.
My older daughter was immediately drawn to a penguin slinky design in the app. We selected it and hit print. A little over two hours later our print was completed. We pulled the base plate out of the printer with the print attached. We started to bend the base plate a bit, and the whole model easily snapped right off the base plate.
It automatically printed with a “raft” which is an extra disposable filament layer between your print and the base plate. We were able to snap this raft right off the model. Along withe the model, it also printed a tool to separate the layers of the slinky. We slid this tool between the layers and our slinky worked! My kids were thrilled that we were able to create this fun toy ourselves.
Watch a video about our first print on Instagram (you can also find it in my YouTube Shorts here):
We basically have been printing non-stop since our first print! Most prints have been successful, but we have had a few problems along the way.
In one week, we’ve printed 12 different models. A few of them we liked so much that we printed two or three of the same thing so each of my kids can have one!
This Instagram video shows quick highlights of our 12 prints (you can also find it on my YouTube Shorts here)!
What we printed the first week
Our overall takeaway from completing these prints is the prints designed by ugee Ufun usually worked out well and as expected for us. The designs we printed uploaded by other users were hit or miss. If it requires assembly, see if it provides instructions (most of ours did not, and it can tricky to figure out what to do). For each of our prints, I list our perceived difficulty, if we recommend, time to print, and who designed it.
Springy Penguin – Easy print, we recommend. Time to print: 2h 51min, Design by: Ugee Ufun
This was our first print (as detailed above). My daughters love this springy penguin, and we recommend this cute and easy print!
Twisty Soccer Ball – Easy, we recommend. Time to print: 13h 5m, Design by: Ugue Ufun
My daughters wanted this soccer ball as soon as we saw it on the app. When we saw the print time was over 13 hours, we decided to print it overnight. It worked perfectly when we set it to print after dinner, and then it was finished and waiting for my kids in the morning. They have been enjoying playing with this fun, moveable fidget toy.
Diamond Sword to pickaxe – Difficult, we do not recommend. 2 parts: part 1: 2h 0m, part 2: 2h 11m, Design by: Namco
My youngest daughter saw this design in the app and requested it. I didn’t look at it to carefully, so I said sure. Well, it turns out this is a complicated build. It is not simply a sword: it also converts to a pickaxe, which is cool, but makes it extremely complicated to assemble. There was a picture to guide assembly, but even so, it took two engineers over an hour to assemble with lots of frustration along the way. My daughter loves her finished sword/pickaxe, and it’s pretty cool that it can change form! However, I would not recommend this build unless you are experienced with building small, detailed models.
WASD Key Fidget – Easy, we recommend. Time to print: 3h 37m, Design by: ugee Ufun
One of my kids’ first requests for a 3D print was a “clicker”. This was the only clicker we could find in the app. It actually has it’s own spring included, which gives a springing feeling like clicking a keyboard, but doesn’t give the satisfying “click” sound my kids were looking for when you insert a clicker part into the print. I did buy the clicker inserts on Amazon, but it did not fit in this model. This model was easy to assemble and is fun to use.
Jet Propelled Rocket – Easy, we recommend. 3 parts: part 1: 4h 34m, part 2: 1h 46m, part 3: 1h 18m, Design by: Ugee Ufun
This was a fun and easy multipart print. I printed the different parts in different colors to make it more fun to look at for my kids, but it would be just as good in all one color, and you’d save time not having to unload and load filament for each part. My kids have all enjoyed playing with this and it works well!
We did have have issues with the parts sticking to the raft for this model. After this print, I learned how to turn off the raft and stopped using it for future prints.
Q-Tip Crossbow – Easy to print, moderate/difficult to shoot, we recommend. Time to print: 2h 12m, Design by: Rainbow3D
When we selected this we thought it would be a fun toy for the kids to use, kinda like a nerf gun. The print came out perfectly (I selected no raft). It didn’t have any instructions, so it took some time for us to figure out how to use it. We finally realized you need to remove the cotton from one end of the q-tip and this end is loaded in the the crossbow. Then you have to pull the middle bars back to hook it onto the trigger, which takes some strength. You have to pull the trigger with some force, and the q-tip shoots. It is sometimes difficult for my kids and I to do this, so it’s not the easiest to use, but it’s fun when it works!
Fibonacci Money Tree – Difficult, we do not recommend. 7 parts: part 1: 1h 56m, part 2: 1h 49m, part 3: 1h 43m, part 4: 1h 35m, part 5: 0h 46m, part 6: 0h 23m, part 7: 1h 21m, Design by: Jasmine
This print took as an entire day to finish printing because it had 7 parts, each taking between 1-2 hours. Once it was finished and assembled, it did not work due to all the pieces being too tight on the base. Overall, it was too time consuming with no payoff for us because it didn’t work, so we do not recommend you trying this unless you have advanced printing and assembling experience, and can troubleshoot better than us.
Toothpaste Squeezer – Easy, we recommend. Time to print: 0h 39min, Design by: DaisyJohn
This was a hit with my family. We made a toothpaste squeezer that fits on a top of a toothpaste tube and helps you neatly squeeze all the toothpaste to the bottom of the tube. We printed one for each of my kids and they are loving using it! We recommend printing this handy tool!
Palm Massager Fidget – Moderate, we recommend. Time to print: 2h 25min, Design by: Ugee Ufun
We ran into a few issues with this print, which is why it’s listed as moderate difficulty. The first time we printed it there was an must have been a problem while the massage pieces were printing. They came out of the printer with a crack in the middle, and the pieces broke in half. We printed it a second time (we didn’t change any settings) and it printed perfectly. We also had trouble figuring out how to attach the base to the massagers. Eventually we figured out that it screws on, but there were no instructions or pictures provided to guide us. I’d say it was worth all the trouble because all three of my kids love playing with this!
Balancing Pidgeotto – Moderate (it breaks easily), we recommend. Time to print: 2h 46min, Design by: DaisyJohn.
This is a cool toy that teaches kids about center of gravity. The wings are forward so that the center of gravity will be on the beak. Place the beak on the tip of your finger and it balances! My kids were amazed that it worked. The print actually came out a little rough and imperfect: the body was flat on top and the edges were rough. I think using a raft for this print would have helped it look more rounded on the body. Despite the imperfect print, my kids love playing with this. However, a few days later a few pieces have broken off the model, so it is fragile.
Penguin Pendant Keychain – Easy (it breaks easily), we recommend. Time to print: 1h 22min, Design by: Ugee Ufun
My daughters are currently obsessed with penguins, so we searched for all the penguin models in the app. We thought this keychain looked super cute. It was a fast print, and easy to remove from the base plate. But as I started to wiggle it to make the joints loose and movable, the hand broke off. It is extremely fragile, I think because its pretty thin. My daughter has broken off a foot already too. Since it is such a fast print we can easily reprint it, and my daughters still love it.
3 Key Clicker – *Not on the Ufun app, we downloaded from an external website, and then uploaded into the app. Time to print: 1h 50min.
My kids desperately wanted a “clicker” and there wasn’t one that uses the clickers inserts, so we searched the web for a model. I was able to find this free 3 key clicker model on a different website which I download, then uploaded into the Ufun app. This print was quick, came out perfectly, and my kids all loved it so much we printed it 3 times so each kid could have a clicker.
This Instagram video shows all of our favorite prints in action (or you can watch it on my YouTube shorts here):
I mentioned a few of these prints had issues. From the raft getting stuck to the model, to a model breaking in half, we encountered a few problems. But these problems helped me learn more about our printer as I had to troubleshoot what went wrong.
Check out my Instagram video about the failures below (or watch it on my YouTube shorts here):
You can shop the 3D printer on Ugee’s website here: Ugee Funbox Link. Don’t forget to use my code Emily10 for 10% off your purchase! I am an affiliate with Ugee, so when you shop with my link I may earn a small commission.
We still need to test out the AI features in the app, which helps kids quickly and easily create their own 3D print designs. My kids plan to use this to create more clickers.
Do you already have a 3D printer? What do you think of the Funbox, are you going to get one for your kids?
This 3D printer has been so much fun for my family, and we are so grateful we got it! We can’t wait to begin to design our own 3D prints next.