Cricut Imagine Machine

I had an expression and was ready for something new and exciting. First off, the Imagine is GIGANTIC, it is a lot heavier than the expression and larger than my home printer; this will make storing the Imagine interesting. If you don't have a lot of space consider the Expression mainly due to size. I did a lot of research before purchasing the Cricut Imagine and was familiar with using it before I received it. I really recommend watching YouTube videos because it makes using the machine easier. The machine is easy to set up and I was making projects right away. You do have to update it through the Cricut Sync software (downloadable for free) in order to access the full functions of the cartridges. Since it is almost all digital it can be updated as Cricut puts out new features which is a HUGE plus. All in all I am very pleased with my purchased and the only real con I see is the size.

My husband purchased this machine for me as a Mother's Day gift. We had it overnighted. When the machine arrived it would not calibrate. After several attempts I called ProvoCraft only to find out that there are many of these machines on the market that are bad. You have to go to the "about" screen on the machine and if the version number ends in 201C the machine is bad and will not work. I contacted Amazon who immediately overnighted another machine only to have the EXACT same problem! I contacted Provocraft who told me it would take at least two weeks to get me another because they wanted my machine back first. I was insulted because I HAD paid for a good machine and received bad ones! They were cheating me not the other way around! Amazon stopped selling the machine for a day but then went right back to it! If it would take me two weeks to get one how did they replace an entire inventory in a day? Provocraft and their distributors are making the customers do the work for them...Rather than them finding out which machines are bad the customer gets the machine and then has to go through the process of returning it and waiting for another. A recall should have been done on these machines. How horrible to treat customers in this way! I would absolutely NOT buy this machine unless they could prove it was not the "bad" version 201C.

Seller was great, however, the product is lacking. The imagine DOES NOT read all of the previously sold cartridges as it promises. It is a glitch that Provocraft hasn't resolved yet. The printing is slightly lined, which is not impressive. I tried to contact Provocraft customer service and they never answered the phone after I held on the line for more than 20 minutes.

When I first got my Cricut Imagine around 2010/2011 I was very excited about it. What was not to be excited about it cut and printed images! When I first used it the excitement was still there. While the idea behind the image is a great one I have found many inconveniences about this cricut making me question if I should have just stuck to an expression. While I got a great deal on my cricut imagine I know that it has a very steep price tag.As a cricut it does what it is designed to do, and does that well.Provocraft gives excellent customer service and stand by their product 100% from the experience I have had with them as well as others I know. However, that does not mean a replacement cricut is going to be quickly delivered to your door step, just that they will do everything in their power to make things right. For that I love the cricut brand.The printing quality has never disappointed me. Which despite the fact the ink is a little expensive, I have found that it is fairly conservative with usage of the ink per print job, and it does not make a mess with the ink when printing. When I have printed 12x12 sheets, they come out dry so I don't mess up the image if I touch it as it's coming out of the cricut.By problems as to why I can't give the imagine 5 stars are the following:you can only use a 12x12 mat and it has to have the thick black lines around it otherwise the imagine will not recognize the mat.This has become a huge inconvenience for me since no one locally sells the cricut mats for the imagine I also have to order them. Also being limited to the 12x12 mat was frustrating because when I had read about it I was under the impression that it could also cut a 12x24 mat. While that is not a size I would need vary often, knowing that the older cricut and newer version of the expression can do that, makes me feel as though I am missing something.Reading some cricut cartridges. Despite working with provocraft, and re installing the files there are some older cricut cartridges that it does not like to play with. **Solution** I got around this by purchasing a gypsy. This also allowed me to manipulate where on the mat the cricut imagine would start cutting. With out using the gypsy or cricut craft room the imagine will ALWAYS start in the left corner to cut.Manipulating your image. On the expression you can easily change the size with a dial on the cricut expression. As far as re-sizing it can be done, and it is not that difficult. You have to tap on the numbers to adjust the size but I can say that the taping takes a little longer than perhaps desired.This though I chalk up to having a completely digital interface on the cricut. It's not bad just not preferred by all.With the digital screen when looking at the "buttons" it is hard to see the images, so I find that it is necessary to keep the book to your cartridge close at hand so you can count the buttons ect to figure out which one it is you are wanting.Lastly, if you don't use the ink after a LONG direction it is possible for them to dry out, which is normal for any ink. The problem with this is your cricut will no longer let you cut. While in the settings you can use cut only to bypass the printing section which makes cutting any image take longer, when the cricut can no longer detect ink it starts to refuse to cut.( I did have this happen personally, and I found out if you weight the ink cartridge and it still weights close to full like a new one provocraft will send you a set of inks for free. Again though this is a possible inconvenience due to shipping time, especially if you rarely print.)My over all thoughts:This cricut like all other cricuts has something that makes it shine compared to other cricuts. In this case it is the ability to print and cut. I would suggest to anyone getting an imagine to seriously look in to also getting a gypsy to make your life easier, or invest in digital copies of older cricut cartridges and use the cricut craft room. This allows you more manipulation of your images and forcing your imagine to cut on the mat where YOU want it to cut. Also I would first look at the imagine cartridges and see what they have to offer, since it is a waste of purchase if you never use the printing part of this cricut. Knowing what I know now about this particular cricut I think I would have to take a close look at the printing cartridges before I would purchase this cricut, but being able to find ways around most of my problems I do love it and I rarely have problems with it.

The machine overall is great. Print quality is good and the print catridges really last so it's pretty economical. However not sellers fault but provocraft had just issued the recent update for this machine the only update available) and you have to update your machine in the beginning before using it. The update rendered all the old Cricut die cut cartridges (not usable!) I had 2 big party's I had planned on decorating with my machine and doing invites and such and my machine though I paid a pretty penny is now useless until provocraft fixes their mistake.

I used my imagine, to make some decorations for my daughter's 3rd fairy birthday party, and i had NO problems cutting out, or removing my paper or images. this machine cut better than my expression does. thicker paper, works best, which is kind of a bummer, since i have a lot of cute, thin paper. and the only bad thing i'd say about it, is that my expression matts don't work on this. that SUCKS, cuase I just bought 4 new ones, and hate that i won't be able to use them on this new machine. other than that, i LOVE this machine, and have no complaints about it's functions or awesomeness!!!!