InstaMorph Reusable Moldable Plastic | Thermoplastic Beads, Meltable Polymorph Pellets | Lightweight Modeling Compound for DIY Crafts, Sculpting, Cosplay Accessories | Temporarily Repair | White, 3oz

I purchased this on a whim as I was restocking some hardware and glue and it came up with great reviews. When it first arrived I thought I would just try it out to see how it worked -- since it is supposed to re-useable it wouldn't be a waste and if it didn't really work as well as everyone said then I could return it. It was VERY easy to use. I put 1 cup of water in the microwave for 1 minute and my digital thermometer read almost exactly 140 degrees (I have tried it since at even higher temps and it still works great -- just test the water temp before plunging your hand in!). Once hot I dumped in 2 tablespoons of the little beads waited 2 minutes then picked up the rubbery lump right out of the water and started forming it. It was very moldable (and fun) and set up hard and strong in about 3 minutes. But that was just testing it out... The "Very Handy and Surprisingly Effective" part came later when my wife asked me to fix her toilet? The plastic nut that holds the handle had cracked and while the company graciously said they would ship a new one for free, they also said it will take several weeks. Several weeks without a flushable toilet in the Master Bedroom isn't an option so, I heated up a cup of water and dropped in about a table spoon of InstaMorph. Even 1 tablespoon was more than I needed, but one of the great parts about this stuff is you just put the unused stuff back - no waste. After 2 minutes in the warm water I took it out and formed it into something like a gummy worm, about as thick as a straw and 2 inches long then simply wrapped it around the threads and squished and formed it a bit to make sure it got in deep. A couple of minutes later it was HARD PLASTIC and holding on very tight. I used pliers to un-screw it and looked in amazement at this perfectly formed replacement nut (I could easily have used a crescent wrench to make flat parts for tightening too). Looking at it installed I realized I probably won't even need to put the replacement nut on when it comes. I will try to use that moment as a reminder to come back and update this, but know that if I haven't updated this yet, then it is probably still working. Clean up... none. No mess or fuss, just dump the water (it is all non-toxic) and put any leftover bits away to reheat and reuse later. I did decide to form them into several long strands instead of one big lump, though, just because they will heat up faster and it seems like a useful shape to start with. Net conclusion is that I'm really impressed with this stuff and recommend that everyone have a little bit around for quick fixes.

InstaMorph is an interesting, if slightly finicky accomplice for all sorts of unexpected uses. The container yields BB-sized balls of mostly opaque white plastic, similar to the appearance of the robot skin in I, Robot. When dropped in a bowl of hot water, they'll turn transparent within fifteen seconds and stick together (and to the bowl). You can then drain the water and prod the resulting soft and sticky mass onto any wet surface to mold. The plastic doesn't retain enough heat to burn. Molding properties are similar to modeling clay. It's very easy to join and smooth edges with your hands or flatten a piece as if it were cookie dough. You can manipulate the shape for about three minutes until it begins to harden. It'll take another ten minutes to reach final hardness, or you can speed the process by putting it in the freezer for a few minutes or running it under cold water. Beware: InstaMorph gets extremely tacky once it begins to set. If you're molding it on surface that it's not supposed to stick to (e.g., the batteries under the battery door cover I just made) and you make a mistake, don't attempt to pull it off while it's still partially pliable. You'll just leave a plastic residue that'll be almost impossible to remove later. If you wait until it hardens, it'll come off in one piece and you can start again. When totally hard, strength is similar to standard, non-specialized toy plastic. It is not at all brittle and will bend under load. While you can cut very thin (under 1/16") sections with scissors, it's almost impossible to tear at any thickness. I created a simple tube about 1" in diameter and 1/8" thick and was able to stand on it with minimal deflection. You can't weaken the material with handling. Even concerted rubbing doesn't put enough heat into it, though a fingernail can scratch it. If desired, the final product can be painted or epoxied to other surfaces. It's best not to store remnant pieces in thick shapes because they'll take much longer to heat through. Just make a thin pancake and cut it later with a pair of scissors. The only negative of this product is that it has a noticeable, albeit subtle, scent. Handling will convey this scent to your fingers. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a residue, but any smell at all implies at least some material transfer. Given that the FDA approves medical grades for use in the human body, I'm not terribly concerned about health consequences, though I probably wouldn't attempt to microwave this product.

I used these to make fangs over my natural teeth for cosplay, and they worked very well! Following a tutorial for whatever you're trying to make is what I would recommend :)

I bought this to make a plastic windscreen for a digital voice recorder (DVR) I sometimes use while riding a bicycle. I found it very easy to draw on a piece of sheet metal the outline of a flat sheet shape that I would eventually bend to fit my DVR. I then placed the pellets on the sheet metal, to fill the outline, and placed the sheet metal over the top of a pot of boiling water. In a few minutes the pellets became clear, indicating that they are soft enough to mold. I could then add pellets where I had any areas not well filled by the initial bunch of pellets. Once the flat shape was done, I put the sheet metal and InstaMorph shape into the freezer. A few minutes later I found that the InstaMorph released easily from the sheet metal. Next I heated a measuring cup with water to a temperature of 150F. I dipped the InstaMorph sheet into the hot water, waited for it to turn clear, and then wrapped it around the DVR (covered in plastic wrap, to avoid water damage and possible adherence by the InstaMorph). This all worked very easily. I later warmed the InstaMorph windshield to flex it enough to have the desired friction fit to the DVR. It has reduced the effect of wind noise on the voice-activated microphone of the DVR. The windshield in plenty sturdy, too. I recommend this product for such applications and look forward to other needs I may have for it in the future. When melted it is like modeling clay that will make a reasonably strong plastic part when it cools.

This product is great for small crafts or rolling out large sheets to create a smooth surface over props. Whenever things are touted as "easy to use" and safe for children, I doubt that the product is really THAT easy to use, but I'm happy to say, this is definitely as advertised. InstaMorph was fun and easy to work with. I heated the pellets in a pot of boiling water and pulled it out with tongs. The plastic was warm but not hot enough to burn. When heated, it has the consistency of Silly Putty and it will easily stick to itself. That said, you should have an idea of what you want to do as I clocked about 1.5 to 2 minutes of sculpting time before it gets too rigid and needs to be back in the water. It was very easy to smooth surfaces out by just dipping it back in the water and rolling the piece on a smooth surface or smoothing it out again with your hands. The hot water acts somewhat like slip with clay. One of the main things I liked was that you can keep reheating it so that mistakes and scraps are reusable! For my project, I rolled it into a sheet about 1/8" thick and it was easy to draw my design on and cut with regular scissors. This is a great material for making lightweight pieces whereas using Sculpey and similar products can get heavy even if you use a foil core. I also found that it accepts paint (both spray paints and craft paints) well without priming the surface. You can also glue directly onto the surface with something as basic as Elmer's School Glue. I am very pleased with my purchase and plan on using this for many projects to come. Definitely recommended!

I used it to make a replacement zipper sleeve for my backpack. It really is a very tough material. However, it's not as malleable as I expected during the molding phase. So, you won't be able to do any intricate work like making gears or such like I wanted to do. Also, it doesn't stay mold-able for very long. You have maybe 1 minute out of water before it firms up enough to prevent any further work. I tried to fix my a hole in my acrylic retainers with this after seeing how many people have used this to make teeth but that was a failure. It has no adhesive properties so the patch keeps falling off. Another thing I tried was to color this with a permanent market but that didn't work either because it's not porous. Tip: if you accidently heated up too much of this stuff, take the remainder and flatten it into a very thin sheet. If you ball up the extra, the heat of the water will have great difficulty penetrating to the center and you will be forced to throw that out.

I was clued into this product by a Youtube video demonstrating how to make a retainer out of this stuff. Unlike most people looking to make retainers, I still have my original upper and lower Hawley retainers from 20+ years ago, and yes I still wear them every night, and yes my teeth still look great!! I've had new dentists stare at me like I'm a rainbow-colored unicorn sitting in their chair. I was interested in getting a second set of retainers for short-term travel purposes, so I wouldn't have to move my original retainers from container to container, possibly forget to pack them, and there's always the risk losing them. My original orthodontist has retired by now, so I looked into how much it would cost to get a second set from an unaffiliated dentist/orthodontist and found I was not willing to shell out hundreds of dollars for something that would mostly sit idle except for a couple days' worth of travel a year. Enter this InstaMorph plastic. I wasn't sure whether to get the 3oz or 6oz size, and eventually chose the smaller one. Turns out 3 ounces was more than enough. I made my retainers quite thin for comfort, but I also have tons of beads left, even after accidentally wasting the first small spoonful by putting it into water that wasn't hot enough. You'll know the water isn't hot enough if the beads don't turn from opaque white to clear. If they stay opaque, they don't bunch up together, and instead stay loose and unusable. What I should have done at that point was add more, hotter water to get them to turn clear and bunch up together, but I wasn't thinking at the time and just dumped the whole mixture into the trash, Luckily, I had plenty of the stuff left to try again. My next attempt was successful, as with hot enough water, the beads turned clear and bunched up together such that I could scoop them out of the water in one piece and start to mold them. I basically rolled them into a log shape, then used a small plastic rolling pin to flatten the log out into a really thin rectangular piece, and then tried to mold the piece to my teeth. This took a long time and a ton of trial and error, and I was constantly refilling hot water and re-dunking the piece to get it more pliable again so I could roll it out even thinner, shape it to my teeth better, or cut off excess with scissors (it's way easier to get smooth cuts when semi-pliable than when hardened). Creating the upper retainer was a huge chore. The lower retainer went way quicker and easier, but I'm not sure if that's because I created the upper one first, because I wasn't fighting gravity, or some combination of both. In the end, I now have an extra set of retainers for those rare travel days, it only cost me about $10, and despite how long and how much effort it took, I am very pleased with how they turned out. There is some pliability in the plastic since I made them so thin, but that makes them more comfortable and I can tell they are plenty rigid enough still to hold my teeth in place overnight. Very happy with my purchase, and wondering what other nifty uses I can put the remaining beads to.

The cap of my eye tooth fell off in November of 2017. I was told it would never be able to be capped again because there's simply just not enough tooth to cap anymore, sadly enough. Finally, I'd had enough of being toothless and never smiling again to my full potential after I lost that dang tooth! I went looking for a solution, besides the $3500 one my dentist had recommended. I looked into veneers because they cost less than the recommended procedure of screwing a tooth into my gum. But, my other teeth are still pretty and I didn't want to cover up my entire top row of teeth just because of one missing tooth. Not to mention the fact that veneers will change the way I look naturally a bit too much for me, and I don't want to look like I have dentures until I actually do have dentures. So after a bit more research, two days ago I found and purchased InstaMorph and tonight I'm very thankful that I did! This was my first and only attempt so far at making myself my new tooth and it hasn't budged yet. It even stayed in good after taking a long nap today and eating dinner tonight. Did I take precaution and try to eat more on the other side of my mouth tonight? Yes. But, I was hungry and didn't put a whole lot of energy into whether the food was staying on the other side the entire time or not. I am extremely impressed!! Don't get me wrong, it isn't fool proof. The color is a bit off because I don't have amazingly white teeth to begin with, BUT IT WORKS (see pics)!! Also, it wasn't completely unmovable from the beginning, there's a bit of a sway if you try to move it around. However, it stays in all by itself and it never became any more loosened after I ate or for the entire rest of the evening. I even chewed gum after dinner (on the other side of my mouth of course) and it worked like a charm for this gum lover!! It's been over 8 hours right now since I first made the tooth and it feels exactly the same as when I first did! I'm even going to sleep in it and see just how long until it discolors or falls out on it's own with normal wear and tear and even brushing it. As far as quantity of the product goes, I ordered the 6oz bag and will probably be enough for 100 teeth if need be, using about 15-20 beads to make one tooth. Next time I'll use dental floss to get of an more individualized looking tooth. The quality of the product melted easily in my microwaved coffee cup of water and it didn't get hard too quickly that I could do it right on my first attempt. AND IT'S NON-TOXIC!! One note is that I did not take it out and run it under cool water as recommended. I just swished some cold water around in my mouth and it worked just fine. I'll update again if anything changes. When I was looking to put together some before and after collages tonight, out of 1,951 photos on my camera roll, I only had 3 (THREE!!) photos of myself open mouth smiling like I had done my entire life before November of last year! And you can really tell just how guarded my smile was getting when I would even attempt to smile in photos now. I work in the cosmetics industry and I knew having a missing tooth right in the front of my mouth had affected me a lot after loosing it. But, I honestly had no idea just how much until I started trying to find comparison pics tonight. I honestly couldn't be any happier with this product right now! It's going to be an absolute life/smile saver for me!! If you're in the same boat as I was, BUY THIS PRODUCT NOW!! Don't go one more minute not smiling :) Life is too short!