3D printers and transformers

[Almighty Unicron]

Ever since I started thinking about getting back into toy collecting (seriously, my palms would sweat like I was an addict whenever I passed the toy aisle in a store), I've been thinking about ways it could change in the 21st century. Having worked in both video games and print publishing, digital distribution has completely revolutionized those respective industries, my steam library probably outnumbers my physical game collection now, and my kindle's definitely beginning to approach the same amount of titles as my bookshelf. Now, toys... they, unlike books and games, are an intrinsically physical product, so purely digital distribution won't work with them, but still...

Back in highschool (around the last time I posted on this board), I was on a robotics team, and in my senior year we got a big hulking 3D printer installed in our metalshop, which we used to rapidly fabricate plastic parts. It took about a day and around a few bucks' worth of raw material to make a part roughly the size as a voyager figure these days- granted, it was a solid piece. Still, the technology for 3d printers has only gotten cheaper and cheaper and we finally have a small subculture of early adopters who have started using them in their homes. The current "holy grail" of 3d printers is to have a printer that can print all the parts to make ANOTHER 3d printer, which many people speculate will happen in the next 5 years.

We may not be able to print a whole figure- not a large one, at least, but I think that if Hasbro gets in on this market we could easily see them offering small parts like weapons and minicons this way. I can't tell you how many times I've lost a missile and spent hours looking for it... what if I could just print one? Or what if a toy is shown with a fancy weapon in pre-production shots at Botcon but it's cut from the final toy. Sure, maybe some 3rd party retailer will eventually end up charging $10 for a sword and you'll have to ship it from China... or Hasbro could offer the file for cheap or even free and you can print it up in an afternoon. And think of the kitbashing! Buy a base toy but want it to be another character? You may not be able to build it from scratch but some guy may upload, say, an ultra magnus head you could quickly swap onto an optimus prime toy.

I could definitely see 3d printers revolutionizing the way people collect and play with toys in the 2020s, and I think the collector's market will be the first to see experiments. What do you guys think?

[Gomess]

It's the kind of thing I can't really imagine Hasbro doing, but that they clearly should do... I mean, anything which gives fans more of a chance to be a 'part' of the franchise gets my support.

I actually don't see why Hasbro doesn't try to give kitbashing a more public profile. Does it really promote toy destruction, or potentially damage sales...?

[Almighty Unicron]

It's the kind of thing I can't really imagine Hasbro doing, but that they clearly should do... I mean, anything which gives fans more of a chance to be a 'part' of the franchise gets my support.

I actually don't see why Hasbro doesn't try to give kitbashing a more public profile. Does it really promote toy destruction, or potentially damage sales...?

I've never really kitbashed (bashed kits?) but I can't imagine it'd hurt sales, the opposite: fans might have to buy multiple figures just for the spare parts.

[Gomess]

Or sell individual body parts for unnoticeably increased prices. Create Your Own Transformer! Pretty sure I wasn't the only kid who took advantage of BW's ball joints to create my own chimeric freaks.

Of course, this is all dangerously close to Kre-O's MO. I know we know it's not the same, but Hasbro probably wouldn't.

[Shockwave]

I think it's probably an inevitability. As the technology becomes cheaper, better and more common and available, inevitably it will be cost effective for Hasbro to do this. I do think that day is a long way off but we probably will see it in our lifetime. As it is, molding technology is pretty cheap and relatively available (I myself have used silicone rubber molding techniques to replicate TF parts) so it's not impossible.

[Onslaught Six]

There's already Shapeways, the website where you can upload CAD files for anybody to print off stuff using 3D printers and they'll just send you the thing. So it's already sort of out there. (A few people have even done new heads and stuff with it already.)

[Dominic]

I actually don't see why Hasbro doesn't try to give kitbashing a more public profile. Does it really promote toy destruction, or potentially damage sales...?

Part of me wonders if there is a liability question. I have heard that Hasbro effectively turns a blind eye to the customizing class at BotCon. Many of the obvious changes one could make to a figure involve potential safety hazards from tools or other materials such as paints and solvents. (Figures have disintergrated in my hands while I tried to use diluted acetone to buff off paint.) And, what if somebody makes a change to a figure that is "dangerous", such as creating a sharp edge intended to make a figure look more page/screen accurate? In recent years, Hasbro has been using more pins and rivets than (more easily removed) screws. And, in many cases, pieces are sealed together, making it more difficult to break a figure down in to components. (This is a big part of the reason that 2010 Tracks and Wheeljack are so difficult to customize.)

I've never really kitbashed (bashed kits?) but I can't imagine it'd hurt sales, the opposite: fans might have to buy multiple figures just for the spare parts.

Ah, but 3D printing would negate the need for this. Even if the the 3D files that Hasbro sells are specifically registered to a single computer/printer (or even single use), there would be people who would hack the code. At a more basic level, it would be easy enough to buy a single legitimate copy of a piece (or schematic) and create a master copy that could be duplicated, similar to what KOToys was doing before being shut down about two years back. Of course, in this case, the potential for boot-legging would be spread out within reach of Hasbro's core customer base. (KO only really marketed to collectors. But, imagine 12 to 14 year olds knocking off toys to sell to neighborhood kids, or showing their little brothers how to do it?)


I have heard scuttlebutt (from a friend who tracks this sort of thing more closely) that Games Workshop is *very* worried about 3D printing. GW has a customer base that tends to be a (once desirable) mix of young, technically/intellectually adroit and deep-pocketed (or at least having access to the deep pockets of parents). Once a figure is painted, it will be nearly impossible to tell if it is legitimate or not. Metal may be heavier than the plastic used in 3D printing. But, it will not be practical for GW to inspect individual pieces, even at sanctioned tournaments. (And, relatively few players attend said tournaments.) This is part of why GW is trying (albeit clumsily) to re-position themselves as a publisher. (Of course, even if they did a better job of this, there is a thriving sub-set of book-readers who will knock-off books for free......)


Part of me wonders if this played a role in Hasbro's drive towards making more complex figures up until recently. The harder it is to break a figure down in to components (due to heat-sealing and the like), the harder it is to reverse engineer and duplicate a figure. (I know that Hasbro has been using variable head/neck gauges on "Star Wars" figures for years, allegedly to discourage kit-bashing and force collectors to buy official figures of things that should have been easy to kit-bash.) Even some of the newer (more poorly designed) figures have parts that seem designed to break if somebody tries to section them up.



Dom
-would love to be be able to do custom parts, but is not expecting any help from Hasbro.