3D Printing isn’t a new technology, but in recent years it’s become far more attainable. No longer the size of entire buildings and so expensive that only the 5 richest kings of Europe could afford them, now they can be found at your local electronics store, bookstore, even library. But what’s this got to do with designer toys?
Take a look at the price of a 3D printer. If you need the whole thing assembled for you, figure on spending $300 and up. If you’re willing to build it yourself, which is essentially as easy as following the instructions in a video, you can enter the world of 3D printing for as low as $150, and I know this from experience. And before I built my 3D printer, I was not what you would consider “electronically savvy”. Hell, even now I know just enough to get by, but I can print virtually anything. You can print anything you design, or download free from several insanely huge repositories of 3D files. And that’s where designer toys come in.
At this current moment, a quick search on one of these free repositories for the term “Dunny” turns up several hits. I’m talking about free files you can plug into a $150 printer and make as many Dunny blanks as you want. Maybe they won’t be perfect, but they can be sanded and cleaned up, and if you were going to sculpt onto a blank anyway, who cares? This is where it cuts to the very heart of designer toys. What part of the designer toy holds the value for you?
Take for instance any “Blown Away” Dunny custom by Josh Mayhem. They look awesome! They’re also pretty expensive. $650 for an 8” custom. Is it the platform that makes it worth that much? If Josh customized a 3D printed unofficial Dunny, would it be worth that much? Would you know the difference? Would you care? If he customized 3 fakes and 20 officials, would the 3D printed fakes hold more value?
I’m going to end on that note for now, but there are plenty of other ways 3D printing is affecting designer toys, and it is a topic well worth revisiting. I’m Jim Ford, reminding you to get with the prog. Prog is short for program.
PS: Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo in New York, next week.