Barbie Doll’d Up Nails Digital Nail Printer

We use affiliate links. If you buy something through the links on this page, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Learn more.

barbie-nailprinter

When I was a little kid, the most technological thing I ever got for Christmas was a Blip game. These days almost every toy is techie in some way. Mattel has even taken the completely non-techie activity of nail painting and turned it into a geek toy for girls. The Barbie Doll’d Up Nails Digital Nail Printer interfaces with a PC to let your 8yr or older little girl create her own custom nail decals that paint right on her fingers. She can even import her own images. You can one for $149.99 from Toys “R” Us.

97 thoughts on “Barbie Doll’d Up Nails Digital Nail Printer”




  1. Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
  2. This is a very cool item, but Toys R Us is sold out. Only available on eBay now. One thing I cannot find is the ink refills cartridges for the printer. Don’t need it yet of course, but still – cannot find them anywhere. Mattel / Toys R Us needs to make that available. If you find them – please let me know!

  3. In your manual, it will tell you where to purchase the ink and nail polish. They are actually on Mattel’s service site as replacement parts as oppose to refills.

  4. This is a total waste of money!!! My daughter got one for Christmas and the camera button does not work. It tells u to take a pic of your nail before designing it and u r suppose to hit the blinking camera button, but guess what?? Doesn’t blink!!! Also the software downloaded onto my daughter’s computer who has Windows 7, but it states that it is not compatible with my computer which has Windows XP. The manual states that it is only compatible with Window XP and Windows Vista…WRONG AGAIN!! This is the biggest headache ever and my daughter is so disappointed because “Santa” brought her a bad gift. I plan on calling Mattel tomorrow and letting them know what a sorry product this is!!!

  5. We just tried this out for the first time tonite and we were very impressed. The printer works as described if not even better, we had to work out a few kinks getting trained, but the finished product is amazing and fun!!! Kids will love it as well as mom!

  6. I’m having trouble hooking my printer up. I need some suggestions or help. The error is telling invalid response from the printer. I have tried this on 2 of our computer that a new. Just bought within the last month. Has anyone had this problem? If so have you resolved it and how?

    1. I do it didn’t turn on for me and hoping I can figure that out soon it kept saying busy honestly I think it’s the power cord for sure

  7. We tried installing on my daughter’s Windows 7 PC, but also had problems with the printer (light doesn’t flash to allow it to print). Searching on Google found a statement from Mattel that it only supports XP and Vista. So, I rebuilt the the computer using Vista, and sure enough, it seems to be working now. I hope Mattel is planning an upgrade for 7 (I can’t really imagine the average user downgrading their computer). However, my daughter could care less whether she’s using 7 or Vista, as long as her nails are pretty!

  8. we have the product and love it. We had no problems. Hooked up to printer fine, camera is working great and have painted nails on several hands. Love the design options. Frustration we have is finding replacement ink cartridges and polish onlie where they said it would be.

  9. I’m kind of disappointed in this product, as my daughter received this as a Christmas present. I had to reload the software 3 times and after I finally got it running- the damned camera moves right to left on it’s own and won’t let my daughter take a picture of her fingernail. Very dissatisfied….

  10. please help keeps saying printer is busy, or printer is blocked. we are using windows vista. my dayghter is so disapointed

  11. I had the same problem. First I tried on Windows 7, didn’t work light wouldn’t flash to print. Then I tried on my laptop, windows xp, I could take a picture, but when it was time to print, it said printer was busy. I was very frustrated and wanted to throw the stupid thing against the wall (several hours into this…)
    Last resort, tried my daughters newer laptop, has Windows Vista FIRST it was giving me invalid printer error, but once I turned off the printer and disconnected it from the laptop I rebooted the computer, and plugged the printer back in, turned it on and PERFECTO! I’m so happy I didn’t throw it against the wall! LOL It is loads of fun! and the designs are very nice! A+ all the way – my daughter is 9 and I’m in my mid 30s very fun very cute! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

  12. Grr. Very unhappy with this. My daughter uses Windows 7 64-bit on her machine and I just couldn’t get the software/drivers to sit well on it. My day-job is debugging such driver issues on x86 machines: using my professional probe and dev tools I can only conclude this software was written by the proverbial million monkeys because there was no rational logic to the code and it only works on XP/Vista by good fortune more than good design. Truly horrible.

    I had a second drive to experiment with and had success with the software with XP SP2 and Vista Ultimate SP2 (both 32-bit). So: after a rough Christmas I’ll be able to keep my 7-year old happy with Santa’s gift tomorrow. Phew.

    In conclusion: works as advertised on XP and Vista (32-bit anyway). Would not hold out much hope of them fixing it anytime soon for Windows 7 as the underlying code has been written so poorly I cannot see a way forward without a major rewrite to conform to customary practices more rigidly enforced by Windows 7. Shame.

  13. Jana & Kim,
    We had the same problem when first setting up…but then I switched our default printer setting on our main computer to the “Barbie printer” and it worked like a charm. I hope this helps for you because you’ll love the results.

  14. Update from my post yesterday.

    Used a Vista (32-bit) machine today to introduce my daughter to her printer properly. Within a hand’s worth of fingers she was doing it all herself and making a good job of it. Once she’d found the ‘zoom’ control to resize the pictures for her small fingers it is a great little gadget. She is elated with the whole thing and spent way too much time on a sunny afternoon indoors playing with it. My earlier late-night dad frustrations have abated and now my daughter’s happiness is winning. Strongly recommended if you have a XP or Vista machine to use it with.

  15. Tried loading the software on 2 different laptops, both running Windows XP. On both laptops, the message “Camera timed out” comes up. Reloaded software numerous times (with and without the updated software) and get the same results. (Note: I know the camera works fine because I can take pictures using it with other software.)
    Even tried making the Barbie printer the default printer, but that doesn’t help.
    If anyone has a solution, please let me know.

  16. I purchased this product for my daughter for christmas. We are very disappointed. We can’t get the picture to align properly on our finger nails. The picture is printing on the skin above our nails. I have followed the alignment instructions repeatedly!! Has anyone else had this problem or know how to fix it. I am regretting spending so much money on a big pink paper weight.

  17. Somebody just shoot me! Since Dec 25th, I have spent/wasted countless hours trying to get this to work! Installed, removed, reinstalled, contacted mattel, they sent the info to their support team who were of no help. My problem is I keep getting “camera timed out”. Everything else is now working properly, but I have three girls who are really mad that Santa sent them a gift they can’t use. Can someone please help? I am patient, but this is a true test.

  18. I got mine working today with Windows 7, I can’t remember exactly how I found it but there is a “Program Compatibility” program in Windows 7 and it did something to the printer driver to allow it to work properly. If you go into the “Action Center” in Windows 7 it is the bottom option on the left of the screen. My kids have spent the last 2 hours printing their nails, hope that helps someone.

  19. Larry, can you describe in detail what you did? Lucky for me I have an old laptop with XP I can run the printer off of but my daughter has a netbook with Windows 7 and I have been trying to get this to work to no avail. I selected the Barbie Nail Design software to run in XP SP2 compatability mode but the printer still won’t flash to indicate it’s ready to print.

    Any help would be most appreciated.

  20. I am having the same problem as Scott – camera timed out message.
    I loaded this on 3 different systems, all running Windows XP. Only 1 system worked but it is not the system I need this to work on. If someone has a solution for this specific problem, please let us know.

  21. I am 14 and i love the barbie nail printer. If you read the manual, it said it does NOT work on windows 7!!!!!!!!!!!!! duh!!!!!!!! lol(:

  22. A very high percentage of children (probably more than half) use a Mac. Why in the world wouldn’t Mattell port this to mac, or make it work on Windoze 7?

    I’m at 7 hours, still can’t get it to work on XP.

  23. I think they owe all the little kids free toys because 90% of kids never got a chance to use this gunk invalid response ,printer busy wat?????????? i wish i could get my money back for buying this junk ;/

  24. I have installed and uninstalled 3 different times. It says printer is busy every time I try to use it. What is going on? What or where did I go wrong? Any tips??!!!

  25. elisane silveira

    eu ja tentei instala umas quinhentas vezes mas qdo chega quase no final diz que n conseguiu achar alguns arquivos o que faço entrem em contato comigo

  26. I AM SOOO FRUSTRATED AT THIS STUPID “BARBIE DOLL’D UP NAIL PRINTER” !! The thing will not let me paint pictures on my nails – I try to take a snapshot, with it does not take one. Ive got the printer sttings set to the Barbie Printer and EVERYTHING!! I got it to work once, but the printing quality SUCKS !! any help please !! ?? 🙁

  27. I got the Barbie Nail Printer to work in windows 7. Short story is you run an xp virtual machine (vm) within v7.

    Download and installed windows xp mode and windows virtual pc for windows 7. You must have windows 7 version professional or above to download from Microsoft. After win 7 configures an xp virtual machine, perform the following actions. (Side note I did a windows update (54+ patches) and installed antivirus on XP before going forward)
    1. Unplug printer
    2. Install Barbie Nail Printer software in windows xp mode
    3. In windows xp mode top menu select “Tools” then “Disable Integration features”
    4. Make sure your video is now at 32 bit color quality. Right click on blue empty background in xp. Select properties, settings tab, color quality 32 bit. I also upped screen resolution to 1024×768.
    5. Plug in and power on printer (usb and power)
    6. In windows xp mode top menu select “USB” then “Unidentified Device” , “Barbie Dolled Up Nails” , and “USB Reader”. This will go through the install process for the hardware the first time go yes to everything.
    7. Run Barbie Dolled Up Nails Program. The first run will download and update the software. I recommend doing so before using the first time.
    8. Your nail printer should now work.

    Some side notes.
    – When using printer in xp mode going forward, you will need to “Disable Integration features” and reattach USB devices on each use of xp mode. There is a way to disable integration features in xp mode settings. I have not found a way to reattach USB devices automatically.
    – I imagine other vm software will work. I just tried the above and it worked first.

    I hope this helps, and good luck. My daughter and her friends love this printer.

  28. Ciao a tutti, io sono italiana e mi piacerebbe molto acquistare questo prodotto. Volevo sapere il costo in america e se qualcuno di voi è disposto ad acquistare e spedire qui a me in italia.
    Io pago con paypal.
    Ciao
    rox

    email: [email protected]

    Hello everyone, I’m Italian and I would love to purchase this product. I wanted to know the cost in America and if anyone is willing to buy and ship to me here in Italy.
    I pay with paypal.

  29. @ rox100 i can’t buy this for you but you can get it on ebay for $199.99 and $30 international shipping. Good Luck!!

  30. i tried EVERYTHING and this isnt the parent this is a 10 year old speaking …so then i went on my xp laptop and there it worked so its kinda easy so do everyting you did first but on an xp!!!!

  31. if it says printer busy make sure the firewall is not blocking it then restart computer. thats what i did and now it works perfectly thanks(:

  32. i just got this at 12 o’clock for christmas and its getting on my nerves already. it keeps on saying “printer busy” -____-
    i’ve tried everythingg and its still not workingg .. welp time for bedd iguess .. merry christmas -_-

  33. Was getting printer busy. The printer was in Unknown devices in Device manager until rerunning D:\ISSetupPrerequisites\Barbie Doll’d Up Nails Printer Driver (x86)\Barbie Doll’d Up Nails Printer Driver (x86).exe which is the printer driver from the CD. Worked after that.

  34. POS, Bought, says will work with Windows 7, Liars, Now will Mattel give a refund, doubt it. This was the one present my girls wanted most, Piece of CRAP.

  35. i have windows seven, i am pulling my hair out!!!! i was getting the priner is busy, so i went to my control panel and clicked printers and devices. right click on ther barbie printer and then click trouble shoot. it will tell you there is no driver for device… click fix now button. and it downloaded my driver divice… it must have not downloaded origonaly when i installed it the first time. now im to the point were it tells me to click blinking button to take picture. no blinky button. i got my boy a new pellet gun for christmas. im about ready to just use this damn thing for a back stop. lol any suggestions?

  36. OMG!!! I am having the SAME ISSUES as every OTHER POSTER here. I am immediately sending a complaint email to Mattel & will follow up with a phone call. I suggest you all do the same thing!! I have spent the last THREE flipping HOURS working on this POS & I absolutely confident after reading all these posts that it is NOT ME that is the problem. I am PISSED & have pulled every single piece of packing out of the bag of wrapping paper to RETURN THIS POS TOMORROW!! My daughters are SO VERY DISAPPOINTED.

  37. I kept having a “invalid printer blah blah”. I called Mattel. They suggested I update my service pack from 2 to 3. IT WORKED. My daughter has awesome nails now!

  38. What a piece of crap! Should have known better. MADE IN CHINA! Straight out of the box, the power would not even come on! Plan on calling Mattel on Monday! When are we going to learn that all this cheap crap Made in China should stay there!

  39. Unbelievalbe. Problem after problem, First, it said “printer is busy” -got past that. Then- no drivers downloaded…Then invalid printer, and so on….and now, we are at the point where it says take picture with blinking light and the camera comes on, u can see your finger on the screen and line it up… but when you hit print, it does nothing and it says push flashing light, but there is nothing flashing. Did they really just charge almost $200.00 for a toy that isn’t even compatible with the new version of Windows7 being sold in every computer now? My kids so disappointed, I worked my butt off in overtime to afford this expensive gift for my daughter and she ends up disappointed with an awesome gift in her face that she can’t even use. Matel needs to release a patch for the software problem or issue some gift certificates for these poor kids… . This pos sucks! What a waste!

  40. After a year of having this in my closet, the latest driver seems to work on Windows 7 and finally 64 bit.!!! http://service.mattel.com/us/technicalproductdetail.aspx?prodno=V5152&siteid=27
    This is what I did…
    Download the latest software from the site above …before doing anything, plug in your printer via USB, you should be prompted to download the x64 bit driver for the printer follow on screen instructions.//. Then install the software you downloaded above, it works great…seems to work even better than when I had it hooked up to XP. Great product their resolution for printing on my 3 yr old’s nails is pretty good. I recommend avoiding putting on the white nail polish and sticking with graphics that don’t have a solid background…

  41. Left with a Crying Kid

    I’m so dissapointed and my daughter has been left crying. I’ve read all of the fixes. tried them all. tried my computer that uses windows xp. Nothing works. Mattel you suck! I would have thought that a company that is supposed to care about the feelings of little girls all over the world enough to not release a product that is as deficient as this one! Money wasted! I’ll think twice before purchasing anything Barbie again! And I’ll tell everyone I know what our experience is with this product. Sad thing is that for such an expensive product I expect to see these in the aisles of Big Lots soon!

  42. WOWWWWWWW ummmm… yeah dont get it !!!!!!
    just, just dont get it
    im 14 and about to throw it out the window the darn printer is busy…BUSY what does that busy word mean
    so what im saying is its not working and i dont know how to fix it
    so its not working because the printer is busy

  43. i hate this stupid thing it took me like 11 hours to set it up and get it working and the next day it didn’t want to open the program. omg im getting ready to thow this thing against the wall

  44. its pretty sad cuz i wanted this so baaaad and im 14 so yeah… it keeps saying PRINTER BUSY and nothing else works!!!! i just dont know what to do…. also lost my reciept so cant return it. uggggh someone help!!!

  45. um frst of all i like 2 say i got one of these dam things for my daughter and it was a piece of shit!…i took this thing bac 3 times and evrey time it said printer busy …i suggest not to get one of these…i would love to no how this thing works because none of them worked for me…another thing i like to point out as i was taking one of them back i had noticed another person returning one..k

  46. Nika: Thank you so much for the ink replacement suggestion. It was only $30.00 as opposed to $60.00+ on every other site. You are so awesome!!!

  47. Anyone know of anyone starting a class action suit against Mattel? I’ve been trying to get this toy to work since Christmas 2009. Through my research I’ve found what seems like thousands for people complaining about this toy. I just tried the windows 7 software and of course it didn’t work.

  48. OMG! It worked twice since Christmas…was the ONLY gift my daughter wanted…now, Printer busy, printer busy, printer busy?!?!?!?!? what ????? It worked…TWICE. This is SO frustrating, who ever pushed this through quality control is an IDIOT.

  49. listen u can get realy cheap ink 4 it when u type in cheap doll’d up nails ink then you can get it 4 5.99 free shipping on like the sixth add

  50. ok people i know tice that lots of yall are having problems with the priter bing busy heres what u do..
    1) exit the barbie© all dolled up nail printer program
    2)go to “my computer”
    3)go to “printers and fax”
    4)click on the “barbie© all dolled up nail printer”(i think thats what its called it might be mattel printer)
    5)remove ANY disigns in progress
    p.s) i dont own the printer but im looking into getting one and anytime i want something pricy .. i look at revews and and if theres a reocurring problem.. i look into how to fix it..

  51. We had a lot of trouble getting it set up, and I’m an IT person. I spent no less than 7 hours straight troubleshooting this thing. I tried first to set it up on an old XP laptop. Got the blinking light, but the camera was unresponsive. I’m sure it had more to do with the fact that the system is over 10 years old and VERY slow. Tried our Windows 7 machine next. Couldn’t get the blinking light at all. Did lots of troubleshooting, including trying the compatibility mode, which didn’t work. Wish I had seen this site and tried downloading the Windows 7 drivers, which I didn’t, but may try later. Finally tried another Windows XP laptop, and it worked like a charm from the get-go. I suspect a lot of these problems are a result of incompatible systems. In any case, I have noticed that of the few people that are actually able to get it to work, they are happy with it, as are we. It’s a lot of fun and my 12yo daughter (who saved her own money for months to buy this) and I stayed up late doing our fingernails last night, once we got it working. At one point she said “I just wish I had more than 10 fingers!” Don’t give up on it. Once you get it working, it’s worth every penny.

  52. I have read each comment you have all posted I really want to get this but everyone says that it’s a piece of junk, how in the world am i suppose to know if i buy this or not? maybeit would work, maybe it wont. Who knows? Im buying it for thanksgiving day maybe it’s in sale. And if it dosent work ill return it. Didn’t you know you can go to the store and go to a person ho ask’s you some questions like: why would you like to return this toy? did it work? would you like another machine or your money?. Its eeasy to return things

  53. Okay so everything works but the light I can not print cause when it says push the blinking light nothing blinks…I of course tried pushing the button that should blink and it does nothing…Ugh this is frusterating…in all the forums all the solutions to this problem does not pertain to me cause I have windows vista which was a solution to one person with this problem I have tried restarting the computer three times this solved it for someone else I tried unplugging the device still nothing and downloaded the drivers from the mattell site cause that was a solution to another persons problem but gosh I can not get it to work! I am determined!

  54. We also are having the issue of the light not blinking when it is time to take the initial picture of your fingernail so we can’t get the camera to take a picture.

    Any suggestions?
    I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled software, unplugged the printer from the computer and put back on and still no help.

  55. hello I would ask a favor urgent need if someone could pass the driver of the machine barbie doll d up nails i lost the cd and download the page and not under mattel drivers

  56. I bought this printer on ebay for my daughter for Valentine’s Day. I’ve gotten all the software and the printer installed no problem. When I double click on the icon it comes to the alignment screen and says ‘Failed to find printer. Please make sure you’re printer’s connected’. I’ve been using the suggestions on here and other’s I’ve googled and none are working! I’ve been working on this for the past 5 hrs and I’m so frustrated! I have Windows 7 64 bit and I’ve downloaded the driver that was referenced earlier. Please help!

  57. HOLA, hoy compre esta famosa maquina para imprimir uñas y he estado toda la noche tratando que funcione y no resulta nada, me dice que la impresora esta ocupada que intente mas tarde… ya no se que hacer lo he instalado en 3 computadores un xp , un 7 starter y en un 7 profesional y no pasa nada

    ayudaaaa porfavor!!!

  58. it worked fine with me! at first it said printer is busy but i downloaded somthing i cant remember and wa la it finally worked!!!! 🙂

  59. oh and i have windows 7 and everything is fine exept that i ran out of ink of using it soooo much!!!! lol 🙂

  60. ALMOST LOST IT! had sooooo much trouble like all above! we have windows 7 I ran program in blue from above posted from “Jimmy” in Jan of 2011- I WORKED!!!! thanks

  61. Anybody know where I can buy ink cartridges? I love this thing and we’ve run out of ink. I emailed Mattel already and they’re sorry I’m “disappointed” but they don’t sell it. I see one on Amazon for $200?!??!!! Seriously? That’s more than I paid for the printer.

    Also, I’m curious how crucial the special clear coat is (that you apply before printing). Has anyone tried it without it or with plain top coat?

    Thanks.

  62. we try to use info that we get on computers but we still try it on xp and vista computers and nothing happens.we saved up money to buy the stupid printer and it turns out it was a watse.maybe thats why they stopped selling it because a lot of people complained about it. so DO NOT BUY IT FROM ANYWHERE!

  63. Just bought a doll’d up printer on ebay….it doesn’t include ink cartridges! I should have checked into this blog before I bought it. Has anyone figured out if other ink cartridges work? I see someone suggested Lexmark #1?
    Thank you

  64. Just pickup one second hand but it didn’t come with the software can someone direct me where to find the software please and thank you.

Leave a Reply to Emiy Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *