Does anyone have a 3D Printer?

[minimadman]

I know that it's still a relativity new technology, and a little expensive, but I was wondering if anyone has one of these modern marvels yet? There are some awesome Minimate sized things I have seen on other sites that could be printed.

[Jatta Pake]

I believe Nervous and Ivan have used Shapeways.com to 3D print Minimate-sized things. I too am curious if anyone has a 3D printer.

I think the technology will eventually be ubiquitous as we are now entering the "dot-matrix" phase of the technology. But to really utilize the technology, we need fast, cheap, and super accurate 3D scanners. I don't think the current barrier for larger usage by toy customizers is the cost of printing, but rather the challenges in designing 3D items with software. In other words, why spend 20 hours learning to use and designing a cool Minimate cloak in 3D software when you can sculpt one with apoxie in one hour?

To me, the benefit of the 3D technology will be more perfect symmetry in items as I am not an artist. The workflow would look like this: sculpt half of a cool Minimate chest piece in clay, 3D scan, copy and reflect the image in the 3D software, join the two halves in the 3D software, and finally print the piece on a 3D printer. A skilled artist could sculpt the entire item with perfect symmetry but 3D technology has the potential to allow "average joes" to come up a level.

I think we are finally seeing vector illustration software hitting a level where "average joes" can make decals without much effort. (I LOVE YOU BIT MAP TRACE!)

[Jeff]

I had a buddy of mine who's also a huge fan of this. He told me once they do start becoming the norm. It's only a matter of time before people start file sharing and want/have lists could become a thing of the past. Or at least more stores like Luke's popping up selling individually pieces and parts.

[jcastick]

If this stuff became affordable and easily available, I would definitely get back into 3D design and get into making parts for customs.

[Jatta Pake]

I had a buddy of mine who's also a huge fan of this. He told me once they do start becoming the norm. It's only a matter of time before people start file sharing and want/have lists could become a thing of the past. Or at least more stores like Luke's popping up selling individually pieces and parts.

I think toy companies will evolve with this new technology. It will first seem like a terrible threat (Napster) and evolve into an iTunes like experience for collectors. Need a Kenner style classic Chewbacca? Print!