Broken crayons are ubiquitous in most households with children or grandchildren. Why throw them out when you can reuse them? That's the idea behind the Crayola Crayon Maker. Combine broken crayons into a tray, heat with a light bulb (Easy Bake Oven-style), and pour the melted wax into a mold. That's pretty much all there is to it.

The entire process takes about 30 minutes from beginning to end. Place crayons, lock shut for 20-24 minutes, watching the crayons melt and swirl together. After 10-12 minutes, the dial will point to a pouring symbol, which means it's time to pour the melted crayons into the molds. The pouring tray stays propped up to drip remaining wax. The lid unlocks after sufficient cooling so nobody gets burned, another 10 minutes. Crayons must sit in the mold for another 10 minutes to harden, but during that time, the melt tray can be cleaned. Quick application of a paper towel can get most of the residue out, scraping the rest with a plastic knife, followed by hot soapy water. A dishwasher can take care of the rest before storage. We found that a few remnants of wax left in the corners had no noticeable effect on future crayons, so if you're making a series of crayons, you won't need to wait for the dishwasher each time.

The resulting crayons are only half-size, but the maker includes two crayon holders to put crayons back-to-back. The tray allows for two color combinations to be made at once, each pouring into two molds, making a total of four half-crayons at a time.

The maker does require a 60-watt clear candelabra bulb (small base), not included, but it includes 8 crayons in case you have no broken crayons around.

While it includes nice safety features, this is definitely an "adult supervision" toy. Parents will need to help pour the wax and make sure the molds don't spill when removing from the maker to cool.

The maker recommends only using Crayola crayons to insure uniform melting, although most crayons should work, as long as users don't combine different brands. The melt timer can also be extended if crayons haven't fully melted in time, which may solve this issue. That said, we've always recommended Crayola crayons for their superior color over most other brands.

The timer lacks a bell to alert users to pouring time and the lid unlocking, which requires someone watching the timer or guessing (since the dial has no numbers) how long until it's done, and since the wax on the tray hardens quickly, parents will want to start cleaning it as quickly as possible. Hopefully, Crayola will add a bell or two to the next version, but while annoying, this lack is not a deal breaker.

My 8 and 11-year-old had a great time with this and look forward to making more specialized crayons. They're learning not only artistic creativity, but also color mixing. They've even started on a recipe book to keep track of their various color combinations.

Besides reducing waste, the Crayola Crayon Maker offers hours of creative expression, which creates more crayons for even more creative expression. If you have time to spend helping your kids with this, it's worth a buy.