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Vtech - KidiArt Studio | 
 enlarge | Brand: VTech
Category: Toy
List Price: $79.99
Buy New: $76.00
You Save: $3.99 (5%)
New (9) from $76.00
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 2029
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 9.8
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 15.9 x 24.2
MPN: 80-035000
Model: 80-035000
UPC: 050803350000
EAN: 0050803350000
ASIN: B00153CVYE
Release Date: May 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Real digital camera | | • | TV connect (not just PC) | | • | Save and print creations | | • | Drawing lessons | | • | Add art to any digital picture they take |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Broadcast your brush strokes and your digital artistic skills with the KidiArt Studio. KidiArt Studio easily connects to your television so little artists can project their creative projects for all to see. The KidiArt Studio comes with a real digital camera that allows kids to have wacky photo fun. Add digital stamps or funky picture frames, and use the digital camera to make stop-motion animations to really bring the art to life. Kids can also take basic drawing and art lessons and create a full array of printable arts and crafts creations. Make a family tree using real pictures. Or create a picture from scratch in free play mode. Also, when in PC connect mode, little artists can save their creations, create custom e-cards for friends and print anything they've made. Connect your kids to creativity with the KidiArt Studio. Requires 4 "AA" batteries, included.
Amazon.com Review
Make it easy for young artists to create digital masterpieces with the award-winning VTech KidiArt Studio. Featuring a working digital camera and a colorful studio desk with a matching stool, the KidiArt Studio helps kids aged four to seven explore their natural creativity by letting them create and share artwork using a TV or PC.  | What We Think
Fun Factor: 
Durability:
(what this means)
The Good: Features real digital camera
The Bad: Switching between connection to TV and connection to PC can be awkward
In a Nutshell: This fun studio setup promotes creativity and hand-eye coordination | At a Glance Ages: 4 to 7 years
Requires: 8 AA batteries and a TV; PC for some effects
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The award-winning VTech KidiArt Studio is easy to set up. | 
This toy provides lots of opportunity for creative growth and the touchpad helps with hand-eye coordination. View larger. | 
Included software lets your child create digital art to send to friends and family. View larger. |
Getting Little Artists Settled in the Studio
The base of the KidiArt Studio is a sturdy desk stand made of brightly colored plastic. This stand comes in five pieces, which are easy to assemble. There's a picture in the user's manual that shows which pieces go where, and plastic caps that screw in place hold the unit together. The main unit, which rests on this stand, includes a touch pad, a pen for use with the touch pad, and a real digital camera on a movable arm. There's even a sturdy plastic stool that's sized to fit little artists. You'll need eight "AA" batteries and a Phillips head screwdriver to get started. When the batteries need replacing, you should only need to replace four at a time. The studio uses the additional four batteries as a backup system to ensure that your child never loses artwork due to battery failure. Once the unit is ready, simply plug it into your TV using the included A/V cable, and make sure the TV is set to show video input. On many televisions this is as easy as pressing the button labeled TV/VIDEO. When the KidiArt Studio is turned on, audio commands will help your child pick a fun activity. Help Kids View the World Through a Creative Lens
It's easy to see why this studio set earned the National Parenting Center's Seal of Approval and the Creative Child Toy of the Year Award. Beyond providing lots of different opportunities for creative growth, this setup is durable, compact, and its touchpad helps kids practice hand-eye coordination. The pen and touch pad can be a little awkward at first, but it's easy to get used to. And since it's attached to the main unit by a cable, you won't have to worry about misplacing it. Fun activities include using frames to put your face on a monkey, using the pen to add colorful clip art and freehand drawings to photos, and creating cool stop-motion animations. A cheerful voice offers tips to encourage kids in their creative development. We found that once we were familiar with all the great features of the KidiArt studio, the voice was a bit distracting. But this is a minor concern, and you can always turn the volume on your TV down. As an added bonus, parents will appreciate the way this unit shuts off automatically after several minutes of inactivity to save batteries. Beyond the TV-studio interface, a USB cable is included so you can connect the KidiArt Studio to your PC. In PC connect mode, your child can save their artwork, create custom e-cards to send to friends and family, and print their favorite creations. Your child can also follow a studio template to create a craft project, like paper dolls featuring photos and colorful embellishments, then print out the project and complete it. In order to use the included software, you will need a computer running Windows 2000, XP, or Vista with 256 MB of memory. We had no trouble moving the sturdy unit around, but if your TV is set in a big entertainment center and your computer is in a cramped home office, you may find that it's a little cumbersome to disconnect from one and connect to the other frequently. The included camera takes great shots, and since it is attached to the unit you won't have to worry about it being lost or dropped. Your child is sure to enjoy taking a zillion self portraits and shots of his or her best friends. What's in the Box
Main unit with rotating camera and touch pad, desk stand, stool, USB cable, A/V cable, game cartridge, CD-ROM with PC application, and two user manuals.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Grandson has fun January 6, 2009
Kathleen E. Bevelacqua
Purchased for 5 year old grandson who loves arts and crafts. He has had fun with it. I did not realize that it had to be connected to TV
 Invaluable entertainment - Quality Vtech product! December 30, 2008
spiceoflife (Ohio, USA)
My kids LOVE this toy. We gave it to my 4 year old for Christmas and the first hour we let just him have time to play with it. He learned very quickly how to use it and spent the entire hour shrieking with delight that he could take pictures of himself. Then, he discovered he could take video footage. He took mini-movie after mini-movie of himself falling off the little chair it comes with.
When his 6 year old brother was allowed to come play they both spent the entire day with it exploring everything they could do with it. When they filled up the memory with pictures, it said something to the effect that there was not enough space to continue taking pictures. They thought it meant there wasn't enough room in the area they were taking pictures in and moved everything out of that corner of the room to make more "space" - lol. We found it's very simple to clear room on the studio's gallery or to unload the pics and movies to the computer.
The kids woke up at the crack of dawn wanting to play with the art studio the next day and my 4 year old has declared this toy his "favorite toy ever", which for him means a lot.
I believe the camera is designed to be able to take low light pictures, so naturally this is going to sacrifice color quality in those settings. This feature came in handy when it was connected to my bedroom tv and the boys wanted to play so early in the morning. To get better overall quality of the pictures, simply make sure there is plenty of light where your child has the studio set up.
It's very simple to assemble, couldn't be easier to connect to the tv, and with as much as my boys have done to it so far it is extremely durable. This toy really deserves six stars for the value, fun, and educational quality.
 Solid product with a few rough edges December 29, 2008
David Dockhorn (Denver, CO.)
I bought this for my 2 and 4 year old children for Xmas. Vtech does a good job at taking advantage of technology in allowing this toy to be used with either a TV or computer. It has activities that are used with email and the printer for example.
The photoshop/drawing application is fairly average when I compare it to other online kids games/drawing tools. Vtech could have spent a little more time making this part really really great and a little less time giving it 100 different applications.
The video and stop-motion picture apps aren't much different but are fun.
There is a puzzle game, picture to draw app, you can create picture-personalized origami to print out.
On the negative side, the camera is of really poor quality (I mean the worst I have ever seen including phone cameras, etc.), it doesn't come with a power cord, I get reminded every couple minutes to check the backup batteries and to click OK to acknowledge the message (SUPER annoying). On that note, there are a lot of confirmation messages that really get in the way of using this toy, "Are you sure you want to quit? Do you want to save the picture? Are you sure you want to delete the picture?" that are frustrating/boring for a little kid. On a 42 inch TV the graphics look pretty bad. It's just too big a size for the graphics and they end up looking fuzzy. The pen that you use to click the buttons isn't very accurate and sometimes even though the mouse pointer looks to be right on the button a click doesn't take and you get an annoying error sound. It would be good if the camera could rotate horizontally so you don't have to turn the whole table to take a picture too.
Overall, this toy is just darn cool. It's pretty amazing the stuff that it can do but you really get a first generation feel from the product. It definitely needs polishing in a lot of areas.
Unexpectedly terrific toy :) December 28, 2008
Steven D. Ayers (MI,USA)
We bought this art studio for our 6 year old grandson for Christmas this year. I have to admit I was a bit worried about the ease of use and the camera, but when he started using it, he had a blast! The program that it uses makes the art so fun for the child and the added camera was great. One thing I would like to say though is that the camera being a "low end" camera, needs a good amount of light on the subject that the pic is being taken of, so make sure you set the desk up in a room with a light close by. In a nutshell, it was more than worth the money we spent of it and I would highly suggest it to anyone who has a budding artist in their family. :)
Photoshop for kids August 25, 2008
SCR (Chicago, IL United States)
41 out of 41 found this review helpful
Great birthday or Christmas present!! Highly recommend this. I bought this for my 5 year old niece for her birthday. Great family time activity, still easy enough that she can create her own photos, or e-cards, to show off to mom. You take photos with a real digital camera, hook the art desk up to a TV, use an art pad to add decorations, stickers and fun backgrounds to photos. It hooks up to the computer, so you can then email and print the photos or whatever else was created.
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