http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/15/10995 ... thingmaker

Hadn't noticed much love for 3d here, but Mattel has an updated ThingMaker (remember those?) and it has some dinosaurs, skulls and samurai helmet templates and such to show that it is all cutting and whatnot.

Anybody here doing anything from proto to short runs with this? At 300$ the Mattel thing is cheap but prolly too limited for most of you, but there's something there...

I was wondering when they were going to resurrect this toy of a bygone era.

My understanding is that consumer 3-d printing has been a pretty big flop. Makerbot has even closed down their retail store here in NY. At the end of the day wether you are sculpting in clay, sculptris or CAD it is still a skill that requires a lot of time to develop.

And there have been a few printers now that fall in that 300 price range. Of course the quality you will get out of a printer at that range will be kind of poor, definitely something that would require a ton of hand clean up to get anything near a prototype quality.

It is cool that these online market places are popping up that allow you to print other peoples models. Of course then you are left with a rough finished open ended toy, that probably cost in download and material what an action figure at Toys R Us would cost. But Skeletons with Battle axes will always be cool. If I had a 3-d printer it's the first thing I'd print.

Does it come with gid filament material? Does it give off toxic gas like the old hot plates? Those original thingmakers would last about a minute if they hit the shelves now due to lawsuits and recalls.

I think that fact it will not require proprietary filament is worth noting. I can't wait for the Epson 100 buck 3-D printer than charges us an arm and a leg for EPSON DELUXE 3-D filament.

I kind of liked their marketing line; "Hit print before you go to bed and wake up with a BRAND NEW TOY!"

Goes right for the kids gut and the parental credit card.

Still, anything that promotes DIY toys, indie toys, kaiju, and so on seems to be worth turning over just to see whether something interesting crawls out...

The best is hearing what the 'brainers have to say, of course!

I'll forever be a stickler for detail, and until 3D printing doesn't have that bumpy layer-by-layer look anymore I'm just not interested. Cool in theory, but that printed surface texture gives me the heebie jeebies.

can't you use solvents to smooth that out?

Anyway, I am pretty intrigued by this. The App is supposedly very robust and easy to use.