Perler Bead Pen Review: Is It Worth The Money? 1

Take a look at what we got!   It’s a Perler Bead Pen!  We make a lot of Perler Bead creations in our house.  So, when we saw a Perler Bead pen for sale on Amazon I knew we’d have to have one.  I thought I’d do a quick Perler Bead pen review for you all so that you can decide for yourself if it’s worth the money.

Review of the Perler Bead Pen. Is it worth the money?

I know, It’s only a $6 item, but 6 bucks can buy 2 bags of beads.  We Perler people like beads.  I also know you like to save time.  A contraption that automatically puts your beads down sounds like it has a lot of potential.  So read on and decide if the Perler Bead pen is something you’d like to add to your Perler collection.  

Let me start by saying this…I so wanted to love it.   

I did not.  

I didn’t hate it either

When we first took them out of the package, they looked pretty awesome.   It’s a good size for kids to hold on to easily.   The button on the side is also large enough for any size hand to be able to push with relative ease.  

The instructions on the back of the package were simple.  

• Twist the cap open, then scoop in the beads.   Twist it closed.
• Shake the pen so beads drop into the channel.
• Put the bead pen over the pegboard.
• Push the button to release the beads.
• Repeat all the steps to keep on beading.  

Simple enough, right?  Don’t get me wrong, that’s exactly how you use it.   And it works; sort of.  

Is the Perler Bead Pen worth the money? Yes and no. Read the full review to find out why.

What the package doesn’t say is that unless you hold the Perler Bead Pen exactly over the peg in the pegboard your bead will end up sideways, or between the pegs on the board, or even sometimes on the completely wrong peg.  Talk about aggravating.  

You also have to shake it, a lot.   Sometimes shaking it doesn’t even bring the beads down the channel.  Only 4 or 5 beads fit into the channel at a time, so you are shaking it at the very least every 4 or 5 beads.  

It didn’t take long for Wonder Boy to give up on it.  He decided that doing them by hand was much easier than using the Perler Bead Pen.  His exact words were, “this isn’t worth it.”  Then he decided to see how far he could launch the beads using the Perler Bead pen before getting back to his project.  

I, on the other hand, thought that it must just take practice.    I really REALLY wanted to love the Perler Bead pen, so I decided I’d make one small creation with it to give it the full benefit of the doubt.  I made this Yoshi Egg and stand.   

I made this Yoshi Egg with stand with my Perler Bead pen.

Here’s what I determined

The Perler Bead pen is fantastic for edging and straight lines!   Once you get in a grove it’s goes really fast. I wasn’t even annoyed by having to shake it every 4 or 5 beads.   It was much faster than doing them by hand.   

It’s not so great when used near any other placed beads.   I think my success rate for placement was about 20% when using the pen next to other beads.   The worst part was that when a bead didn’t go into the right place the time it takes to remove it and place it by hand is much greater than if I just would have put it in by hand in the first place.   

I can see why Wonder Boy got frustrated so easily.   

When I was doing the light green color in the Yoshi Egg base the dark green was already on the pegboard.   I didn’t get one light green in the right place.  Not ONE!! They were all sideways or on top of a dark green bead.  

I’m a 40 something adult, no wonder my 9 year old son couldn’t do it.  

All the frustrations aside, I did finish the Yoshi egg with my Perler Bead pen.   I’ll use the pen again, but only for the edging of a pattern or for straight lines.  It worked great for those things.   

Perler Bead Pen Pros

• Easy to load
• Great size for all size hands to use easily
• A nifty pin at the tip of the pen to straighten out mistakes
• Inexpensive
• Works great for outlines

Perler Bead Pen Cons

• Takes time to get used to using it
• It must be shaken a lot to refill the chamber with beads
• Beads don’t always go where you place them
• It’s not very accurate so it does not work well when filling in spaces around other beads
• Difficult to make the beads go where you want.
• Frustrating for children to use (or at least for my child)

So the real question is…is it worth it?   I’m going to have to say yes if you are an adult doing Perler Bead projects.   And no, if you are buying it for a child.  It doesn’t cost much, so if you are interested, here’s an affiliate link to check out the Perler Bead Pen.  

My dream was that I could go out and buy 10 of them to fill with the most used colors in my Perler Bead arsenal.   Yeah, not doing THAT.   I will however fill mine up with black Perler Beads and use it for outlining patterns.  Since I bought two, I’ll just hope Wonder Boy gives it another chance, and he figures out how to use it better. It really was difficult for him to use, so I wouldn’t call it child friendly.   I’ll keep you updated if he finally figures out how to use it.  

Have you tried out the Perler Bead Pen?   Maybe I’m doing it wrong.   Let me know your impressions of it in the comments.