A toy replicator for kids!
Mattel is bringing back an old toy, Thingmaker, but the new version will be a 3D printer for kids.
After wirelessly linking the 3D printer to a mobile device running the ThingMaker Design App for iOS or Android, users decide whether they want to create a toy figure or jewelry, with the option to print ready-designed toys, or mix and match from hundreds of parts which can be popped together after printing thanks to ball and socket joints. After designing their creation, users simply push a button to start printing.
Features of the ThingMaker 3D printer which make it more suitable for children than your typical 3D printer include it being simple to use, and having an auto-locking door. This will stay shut until your toy is at a safe temperature and the hot print head has retracted into a recess, so that it can’t burn eager little fingers.
Simplicity is applicable to adults as well. This gives us a hint where all 3D printing is heading.
And though the article describes as a negative the fact that it will routinely take 12 hours for each toy to print, I consider this irrelevant. I would have loved to have this thing as a kid, and would have gladly tried out a new design each day, just for fun. The toys themselves are what is irrelevant, not the creation process.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Mattel is bringing back an old toy, Thingmaker, but the new version will be a 3D printer for kids.
After wirelessly linking the 3D printer to a mobile device running the ThingMaker Design App for iOS or Android, users decide whether they want to create a toy figure or jewelry, with the option to print ready-designed toys, or mix and match from hundreds of parts which can be popped together after printing thanks to ball and socket joints. After designing their creation, users simply push a button to start printing.
Features of the ThingMaker 3D printer which make it more suitable for children than your typical 3D printer include it being simple to use, and having an auto-locking door. This will stay shut until your toy is at a safe temperature and the hot print head has retracted into a recess, so that it can’t burn eager little fingers.
Simplicity is applicable to adults as well. This gives us a hint where all 3D printing is heading.
And though the article describes as a negative the fact that it will routinely take 12 hours for each toy to print, I consider this irrelevant. I would have loved to have this thing as a kid, and would have gladly tried out a new design each day, just for fun. The toys themselves are what is irrelevant, not the creation process.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Excellent point! -“The toys themselves are what is irrelevant, not the creation process.”
I as well, would have loved this as a kid, although I would have been tempted to take it apart, to see how it worked. (har! I can’t be the only one, who took apart speakers, radio’s, & tape-recorders, to see how they worked??)
–Never had a Thingmaker but loved my Erector-Set & Gilbert Chemistry set, circa 1969.
At Christmas, I showed my grand-daughter how to play vinyl records with a pin & a paper-cone, she was absolutely amazed! (She’s very tech-savvy but when she’s with me, it’s 100% “analog” toys.)
Wayne
At that price point I can see a lot of nefarious activity being done with it.
Wayne wrote: “I can’t be the only one, who took apart speakers, radio’s, & tape-recorders, to see how they worked?”
You aren’t. It helps when you have a father who can put them back together when you are too young to figure it out.
BTW: don’t cut the wires at the transformer; leave some wire length for later re-connection. Some lessons are harder learned than others.
Plug in a crockpot and come home twelve hours later to a delicious meal. Both worth the wait.
Edward-
Har– You also need to be very careful with that large capacitor in the old school, tube driven television-sets. They can hold a jolt for decades!
Jack– excellent! Ever use the plastic liners? Perfect combination of low tech stoneware & polymer-science. (Now, if only the Federal Government would keep their hands off my local coal-burning electric power plant.)
W–