Color Wonder Activity Kit

If your kid loves to color but cannot be trusted to keep the markers away from tables, walls, chairs, clothing, or themselves, this is the coloring set you want. Color Wonder markers only produce color on the specially treated pages in the included book, giving kids the freedom to color without requiring a parent to monitor the activity.

The Gabby’s Dollhouse kit – other options include Bluey and Spidey and Friends – includes eight markers, 27 coloring pages, four metallic sticker sheets, two pop-out character pages, and a trifold background scene.

The mess-free system works as advertised. The marker ink appears clear on ordinary surfaces but changes color when it reacts with the Color Wonder paper. There is, however, a slight delay between making a mark and seeing the full color appear. Younger kids may initially assume the marker is not working and press harder than necessary, so we found it helpful to coach them through how it works before handing everything over.

Whether this belongs in your travel bag depends on your child. Keeping track of eight loose markers on a road trip or airplane can create its own form of parental stress. For some, The loose pages, stickers, and pop-out pieces also make this better suited to the destination than the trip. But for others the entertainment value will win the day. 

For kids who can lose themselves in a coloring project, however, the combination of sustained entertainment and minimal cleanup is hard to beat. You can let them work without repeatedly checking whether the furniture has also been redecorated.

The biggest limitation is that the markers only work with Color Wonder paper. Once the included pages are gone, regular printer paper and conventional coloring books will not work as substitutes. You will need to buy Color Wonder refills or another compatible activity set. The upside is that Color Wonder markers work across the entire product line, so markers left over from a Bluey, Spidey, or other themed set can be used with these pages.