My little girls are three and five, and there are few things they love more than stickers and Band-Aids. Their clothes, water bottles, and occasionally our furniture are constantly decorated with them. And for the last nine months they’ve had an unlimited supply of stickers at their disposal because of their Stickerbox, a voice-powered AI sticker generator. Last time I checked, they’d made a whopping 1273 stickers with it.
When we got the Stickerbox, I assumed it would follow the same trajectory as a lot of our toys. The girls would be obsessed briefly and then move on to something else. But I was so wrong. Read on to learn more about one of the most, if not the most, played-with toys in our house, how it works, and what to consider before buying your kid one.
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Stickerbox: Key Takeaways
- Stickerbox works by using a voice prompt, AI model, and thermal printing to create custom black-and-white stickers.
- An AI model powers Stickerbox. There are strong security measures in place to prevent inappropriate stickers from printing.
- Stickerbox has a screen but provides an interactive opportunity for your child to imagine different stickers.
- Children 5+ are the intended users for Stickerbox.
- The Stickerbox retails for $129.99 and includes four rolls of sticker paper. Additional three-packs of sticker paper can be purchased for $5.99-$14.99.
- You’ll only find Stickerbox available for purchase online on Amazon and the Stickerbox website.
What is the Stickerbox?
Stickerbox is a small cube that lets kids create their own stickers. You press a button, give the Stickerbox a voice prompt, and moments later a sticker prints.
Company co-founder Bob Whitney says the idea for the Stickerbox came to him while playing with his young son on a rainy day. They were coloring, and his son wanted a coloring page of dogs eating ice cream. Whitney asked an existing AI engine for the design, dusted off his home printer, and made the coloring sheet. His son was ecstatic, and Whitney says they spent the rest of the afternoon creating new design ideas.
“I saw the look on his face and it was like this magic look,” Whitney says. “He made the connection that he had this crazy idea that was in his head and then saw it come to life.”
The box uses thermal printing, a method that relies on heat to print vs ink, and the paper is BPA/BPS-free. The stickers are all black and white and designed so that kids can color them after they’re printed. My girls, however, have always been more interested in just the sticker itself.
A corresponding app lets parents see all of their kids’ creations, manage their device, and do things like reprint their favorites. My kids aren’t the only ones who love it—the toy has sold out 13 times, and the Brooklyn-based start-up will soon be acquired by toy company Spin Master.
Is Stickerbox safe for kids?
I’ll admit, I was nervous when we first got the Stickerbox about what types of images it might print. I was also worried about an AI tool potentially listening in on our lives.
Is Stickerbox always listening?
No, the Stickerbox only listens when you press the button. Outside of that, it doesn’t gather any information from users and doesn’t store voice data. It’s KidSafe and COPPA certified, too, meaning the technology has been vetted specifically for kids.
Will Stickerbox print anything kids say?
Making sure my girls weren’t going to be able to print inappropriate or vulgar stickers was higher up on my concern list. Stickerbox has safety protocols in place for this, too.
“When you say your prompt, we don’t just pass it directly to the generator and pass that image back to you,” Whitney explains. “There’s a lot that happens behind the scenes, both to make sure that it’s safe and to guide the output to make sure that it’s appropriate.”
“There’s a lot that happens behind the scenes, both to make sure that it’s safe and to guide the output to make sure that it’s appropriate.”
My husband and I have spent time testing the Stickerbox, too, to see what will print and what won’t. Categorically, any mention of guns or weapons isn’t allowed (even “watergun” as a prompt didn’t work), nor sexual images or swear words. Attempts to work around restrictions didn’t print, either, like prompting Stickberbox with “pen15” and “h-e-double hockey sticks.” In instances where a child asks for something that sounds out of bounds, the box will either print a surprise, appropriate sticker, or it will simply say “try again.”
One of the other things I like about Stickerbox from a safety perspective is that it has a cord versus being battery operated. This means my kids can’t run off with it and make stickers in secret, and generally means I’m always within earshot when they use it.
How my kids use the Stickerbox
My girls watch TV, but we haven’t ventured into any tablet use so far. While Stickerbox has a screen, I really like that it forces my girls to think creatively and relies on interaction from them to work. I also don’t feel like I have to worry about them stumbling onto content they shouldn’t have access to, and I don’t consider them using Stickerbox to be “screen time.”
Sometimes their prompts are simple, like “a baby unicorn with a baby mama unicorn” while other times they’re complicated: “a chicken on top of a surfboard, with a dinosaur attacking him in a big ball, with a tsunami on top and there’s a big pirate ship and a cow jumping over the moon, with a big lion chasing the cow and a shark trying to eat the pirate.”
It’s fun to see what they come up with, and they’ll typically create stickers until I tell them they need to do something else.
“I also don’t feel like I have to worry about them stumbling onto content they shouldn’t have access to, and don’t consider them using Stickerbox to be ‘screen time’”
What else to know if considering the Stickerbox
Stickerbox knows other languages
Stickerbox recognizes over 20 languages, so if your child doesn’t speak English, they can still use the box. I had two 8-year-olds enrolled in a Spanish immersion school test out Stickerbox, and it worked beautifully.
You’ll need Wi-Fi and an outlet
Stickerbox relies on Wi-Fi to work, and it has to be plugged in whenever you’re using it, so it won’t work in the car. Set-up isn’t difficult, but when you move locations you’ll have to re-connect to a different Wi-Fi network.
It’s meant for 5+ but still works for younger kids
Sometimes Stickerbox has trouble understanding my 3-year-old, as she doesn’t have super clear speech all the time. Sometimes her stickers aren’t what she expected as a result, but she still really enjoys using the Stickerbox. It’s intended for kids 5 and older, though.
What do you do with so many stickers?
One of the things I’ve loved about the Stickerbox is that it’s prompted my daughters to take a batch to their friends at daycare. For St. Patrick’s Day this year, my oldest gave Stickerbox prompts about leprechauns, four-leaf clovers and pots of gold and was so excited to share them with all her friends.
But yes, we still do have a lot of stickers floating around the house.
The $129.99 price point isn’t cheap, but paper refills are
The upfront investment for a Stickerbox is $130. That includes the box as well as four rolls of paper, which will be about 265 stickers. It’s not an inexpensive toy, but once you’ve made the initial investment, standard paper refills are only $5.99 per three-pack, which feels very reasonable.
My final verdict: Is Stickerbox worth it?
Stickerbox is fun and engaging and has provided endless smiles for my girls. It’s been thoroughly vetted for safety and is well worth the investment for the amount of entertainment it provides.
Elliott Harrell, Contributing Writer
Elliott is a mom of two little girls and is based in Raleigh, NC. She spends her days running a sales team and doing laundry and her nights writing about the things that she loves. She’s passionate about all things motherhood and women’s health. When she’s not working, writing or parenting you can find her trying a new restaurant in town or working on her latest needlepoint project.
