It seemed like such a good idea. In fact, it seemed like a GREAT idea. But alas, I tested the Westcott hot glue pen, and it was not to be!

When it comes to projects and paper engineering, we use quite a lot of hot glue here at Pop Goes the Page. In fact, during story time, Katie and I always run two hot glue stations, each with two glue guns at the ready. We use book carts, which are terrific as mobile glue stations – just the right height to work on, and wheeled if we need to move them out of the way quickly.

We use standard mini glue guns, but when I spotted the Wescott glue pen whilst shopping (retails for around $8), I wanted to give it a shot. Especially if it allowed a little more control when it comes to distributing glue. Sadly, it did not work. This one might end up on a blog fail list someday!

To give credit where credit is due, the glue pen heated up nicely and was easy to hold. The fatal flaw, however, was the loading mechanism. Ideally, you load the hot glue sticks in, slide the little tab (the instructions call it the “handle”) to the rear of the pen, plug it in, and once heated, it’s ready to use. As you compress the trigger button, the glue is supposed to distribute nicely as both dabs and a steady clean line.

Nope. When I pressed the trigger, the handle released down the entire length of the pen, causing it to snap down on my finger. The glue glopped out, and then just stopped. As you can see in the image below, I tried several time. It never worked. I even unlplugged it and tried again. Nooooope. A dozen times this thing snapped on my finger!

While this was a great product idea, the mechanism was unfortunately faulty. We’ll be sticking to our standard glue guns and the elusive hot glue pen will remain, for now, a mythical entity yet to be discovered.