Crayola ReColoritz

[ $5 - $10 | 30 minutes or less | easy clean-up ]

Crayola Recoloritz is yet another product designed by Crayola to give kids another way to fill in line drawings of licensed characters from Disney.  As is common these days, it comes in a “boy” version (Cars) and a “girl” version (Princesses).  It is not, as you might think at first glance, a mess-free Color Wonder clone.  Rather, it essentially consists of six overhead projector markers, five preprinted opaque plastic sheets, and a sponge.  You could put together a similar kit with a couple of overhead transparencies laid over the image of your choice and a dozen transparency pens.  (And with a black sharpie and a basic understanding of how animation cels work, you could give a lesson in how cartoons are made while you’re at it.)

While the markers will mark on surfaces other than the coloring sheets — including clothing, faces, hands, and carpeting — they seemed to wash off at least as easily as Crayola’s regular washable markers.  And the re-usable nature of the product is a definite plus, assuming, of course, that your child doesn’t get tired of coloring the same pictures over and over.  (Mine doesn’t.)  The wet-erase nature of the pens ensures that your child won’t be frustrated by smearing the portions she has already colored, as is sometimes a problem with dry-erase pens.  And at  just $10 per set, it would be difficult to find a cheaper re-usable alternative.  Yet, in the end, ReColoritz offer no experiences or skills that can’t be learned just as easily through traditional crayon-and-paper coloring sets.

Verdict: Nothing inherently wrong with the product, but doesn’t adequately encourage expression, creativity, or sensory play.

Score: 5/10.