From the drawing desk
Turn here first
The questions that reach the desk most often, answered once and pinned here.
Where does the buying actually happen?
At our retail partner. Every knob-shaped button opens the matching listing there in a new tab; the cart, checkout and delivery are all theirs. This site is our catalog and notebook, not a checkout.
Why does a price here differ from the listing?
The figure on our cards is the last one our desk saw, and listings move their numbers whenever they like. The listing you land on decides, always. Treat our number as a sketch and theirs as the ink.
Which frame for which age?
Where a listing states an age, our card repeats it word for word, and the card never invents one. As a rule of thumb from the desk: the Classic and Pocket suit most hands, the Doodle suits the youngest, and the World’s Smallest is marked 8 and up because its knobs are the size of shirt buttons.
Do any of the toys need batteries?
No. There is nothing electric anywhere in the frame: powder, stylus, wires and two knobs. That has been the whole machine since 1960.
Can a drawing be kept?
Photographed, yes, easily. Kept on the screen, yes, if the frame sits still. Made permanent, only by the one-way trick described on our doodleboard, which retires the toy in exchange for the picture.