Halloween Professional Electric Pumpkin Carving Tools Kit with Stencils

Why it's worth it

This 27-piece set pairs a low-speed electric carving pen with a seven-piece manual tool set, ten stencils, and a marker. You rough out the shape by hand, then etch the fine lines with the pen. The vibration makes it adults-only, but nothing else here can shade a design.

The electric pen is the reason to buy this kit. It runs on a low-speed, low-heat mechanism, and it comes with seven replaceable blades plus two steel cores so you can hold different blade sizes. In Good Housekeeping's testing of carving kits, a powered rotary tool finished intricate multi-element designs in under 20 minutes; manual-saw kits took over an hour and left rougher lines. This isn't that exact tool, but the principle carries.

You don't have to start with the pen, either. The seven manual tools handle the lid, the guts, and the big cuts, and the included marker lets you trace a stencil straight onto the rind before you touch a blade. Ten templates come in the box. For a first design, that's plenty — pick a simple one, get the outline right, and save the pen for the eyes and the teeth.

From our review of 6 pumpkin carving kits

What we like

• +The electric pen is the reason to buy this kit
• +You don't have to start with the pen, either
• +It's built to come back out next October
• +The extras are odd on paper and useful in practice

What to know

• –The manufacturer says this one is for adults only because of the vibration, and we'd take that seriously
• –There's a learning curve
• –No LED tealights are included, and the listing doesn't specify a large-bowl scoop among the manual tools, so plan on a sturdy…