As a new father, I have become acutely aware about my sudden consumption of all things bright, shiny, ugly and plastic. An avalanche of very non eco-friendly gifts sit on my son’s bookcase awaiting him to grow old enough so that he can use them for five minutes until he moves on to the next item. I shudder at the waste but somehow they keep turning up. Of course, we could just pass these on but we could also say no thanks, we’ll make our own: An article in Wired magazine gives me a little hope: they suggest that toys in the future will be made on demand at home through 3D printers. Wired says:
As 3D printers become desktop tech rather than factory tech, we’re starting to see exciting new products come into play — products which may have been overlooked in the old pipeline, where design and prototyping costs kept the little guy out, and marketing costs were prohibitive. But Minneapolis’ Andrew Comfort can tell you, it’s a new world now.
A couple years ago he created Q-BA-MAZE, a building block set with holes and channels that can direct a ball bearing throughout the block structure. Now the toy is stocked at retailers around the country and has been featured on Gizmodo and ID Magazine’s New and Notable ‘07 issue. And just to show excited people are getting, the Walker Art Center recently commissioned Comfort to create a gigantic Q-BA-MAZE fish slash marble run for their atrium.
The article continues with an interview with Comfort.
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All you need is Lego.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:39 am
For some years I assumed the car parts business might be the first industry to be potentially turned on its head by additive fabrication technology, but recently came to a similar conclusion regarding the toy industry. Additionally, I also realized that the first kirkyan (an object that has both a real and virtual representation, each of which interact with the other) may very well be a toy. However, it’s a little early yet for that. As I reminded someone recently, the big issue with spimes (and by default, kirkyans) isn’t the technology; it’s finding companies willing to encode their blueprints into the objects *themselves*.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Can’t agree I’m afraid. The tools don’t make the craftsman. 3D Printing might lead to imitation, but realistically can you see parents sitting around and coming up with toy ideas that will capture their children’s imagination? Perhaps for kids aged 0 - 4 where all they’re doing is copying existing ideas - lego blocks or spinning tops. But particularly for older audiences when the influence of mass marketing comes into play - a la Barbie or GI Joe - you can’t expect parents to compete with brands.
March 24th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Who’s saying parents will do this by themselves??? I’m an industrial designer with 14 years professional experience developing the stuff people now buy at retail. Among other things, I’ve done toy design. And people like me will be doing more of what other designers like Martin Konrad Gloeckle (interviewed on the Mass Customization blog: http://tinyurl.com/yvwpwm ) are already are already exploring.
In addition, you’ve got “Spore” and it’s amazing (free) little modeling tool coming this Summer. And the game will either have a direct port to 3D fabbers or people will “rip” the data and make them anyway (I expect Fabjectory will be among those offering the service).
“Tools don’t make the craftsman”. Funny. Tell that to Ryobi, Craftsman, DeWalt and all the other tool manufacturers that sell to amateurs. Tell it to O’Reilly and the folks at “Make:”. Tell it the journalists who once claimed that blogs would never impact their livelihood or break important stories. How arrogant.
No. This won’t *replace* the toy industry. But it will impact it over time, because the ugliest creation can be the most beautiful thing in the world… to the person who created it.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:42 am