
Cheap, plastic toys—no manufacturer necessary. The 2020 toy and game market is projected to be $135 billion, and 3-D printing brings those profits home.
People have scoffed that 3-D printers are simply toys themselves. But they probably didn’t realize how much money is made off playthings. Do-it-yourself (DIY) manufacturing—making goods at home with a 3-D printer using open source designs from a free online repository—has a multimillion-dollar impact on the overall toy industry.
A team of engineers from Michigan Technological University and the London-based company MyMiniFactory published their results on the topic in Technologies (DOI:10.3390/technologies5030045) this week.
More than Monopoly Money
The research team, led by Joshua Pearce, a professor of materials science and electrical engineering at Michigan Tech, focused on how much a desktop 3-D printer could save consumers.
“The 3-D printing industry is now dominated by small, low-cost printers and as the industry grows we’re going to see a lot more DIY manufacturing,” Pearce says. “The evidence is just overwhelming that this makes sense from a consumers’ perspective.”
To dig deeper into the potential savings, the study investigates the 100 most popular downloaded designs from MyMiniFactory, which is one of dozens of repositories where people freely share 3-D printable designs online. They used three different printing materials to analyze the potential costs of printing on an open source Lulzbot 3-D printer—commercial filament (spaghetti-like strands easily purchased online), pellet-extruded filament (cheaper option to make filament at home), and post-consumer waste plastic (converted to filament using a recyclebot).
When a commercially available toy was available for comparison, all filament types saved consumers more than 75 percent of the cost and the recyclebot filament saved more than 90 percent. In total—and just using the data from 100 toys (less than one percent ofMyMiniFactory’s repository)—people offset $60 million dollars per year in toy purchases.
To Pearce, an important added value emerged as well: the ability to make novel toys and games that are not commercially available.
“It’s one thing to buy a toy from a store or get a commodity toy for your children. It’s perhaps more valuable to get that exact, specific toy that your kid really wants that you can either design yourself or download and customize on your computer and print at home.”
The Legos, the Printed, and the Generic
Pearce and his team also used case studies to delve more into the potential impacts of 3-D printing and what might drive consumers to use DIY manufacturing. They built up one example using one of the world’s most famous and beloved plastic toys.
“Speaking as a parent, Legos are expensive. All parents know you can’t find them at garage sales; everyone hoards them like they’re gold,” Pearce says. “Now you can make custom compatible blocks and have that same kind of fun while playing with something you make yourself.”
A key aspect of DIY manufacturing is judging how well the home-printed version matches the store-bought. With building blocks, an acetone-smoothing went a long way to make recycled ABS plastic look like the brand name and generic versions—with a steep cut in price. A standard Lego block costs six cents; the generic, three cents; and a recyclebot-sourced, 3-D printed block is half a cent.
And as the Lego Movie would have us all believe, playing with building blocks is not about following directions, it’s about invention and creativity. Already there are hundreds of user-designed different types of children’s blocks alone. Although as most parents are probably thinking, it doesn’t hurt to save a few pennies along the way.
Pearce’s team showed significant savings—typically between 40 to 90 percent—even with complex toys like chess sets, math puzzles, toy trucks, action figures and board games. The only cases in which 3-D printing didn’t save money happened when the quality of the 3-D print significantly surpassed the quality of commercial options; this was particularly true for printing large and intricate costumes and accessories that people use in cosplay to dress up as characters from movies, TV shows and videogames.
Toy and Game Hacks
Pearce says the data indicates that 3-D printing is already having an impact on the industry and it will only grow as 3-D printers become more widespread. He suggests that the best route for toy and game companies is embracing 3-D printing much like Ikea encouraged “Ikea hacks” with its furniture.
“One way toy companies might adapt is open-sourcing some of the designs of the toys themselves and focusing on currently unprintable components or openly encouraging the maker community and open-source community to design accessories or add-ons to commercial toys to make their toys more valuable,” Pearce says. “This is already happening – there are literally millions of free designs. Distributed home manufacturing isthe future for toys but also many other products. It would be a big mistake to assume 3-D printers are just toys.”
Learn more: 3-D Printing Sweeping Toy Industry Off the Shelves
The Latest on: 3-D printed toys
[google_news title=”” keyword=”3-D printed toys” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]- FUREVER HOMES: Pets of the Weekon July 26, 2024 at 2:00 am
If you are interested in adopting one of these animals, please check with the shelter or rescue to be sure the animal is still available.
- ‘Twisters’ Star Maura Tierney’s Five Favorite Things at Homeon July 23, 2024 at 10:31 am
To be an actor is to always have one foot out the door. And Maura Tierney’s career—from her early days on ER to her current role opposite Jeff Daniels on Amazon Prime’s gritty drama American Rust —has ...
- Kidoodle MiniBox A1 kids 3D printeron July 16, 2024 at 5:01 pm
Are you ready to ignite your child's imagination and foster a love for STEM learning? The Kidoodle MiniBox A1 3D Printer is here to transform the way your ...
- Paradigm 3D makes products that both entertain and help those with autism, ADHDon July 12, 2024 at 12:04 am
Jeanne Ulvaan and Chad McDougald started Paradigm 3D less than three years ago, and it wasn't long before their business was giving back to the community.
- The Best 3D Printers for 2024on July 2, 2024 at 4:59 pm
Formlabs' flagship 3D printer, the Form 3+, is an industrial-quality desktop 3D printer capable of excellent print quality ... and use to output some nifty toys. A parent will be needed for ...
- From Toy Models to Lethal Weapons: The Controversy of 3D Printed Gunson June 18, 2024 at 5:00 pm
3D printed firearms are an extremely controversial topic and for good reason too. The idea of anyone making their own guns at home without sufficient registration and background checks is a new thing.
- This single dad creates one-of-a-kind 3D-printed toys for kids with disabilitieson June 14, 2024 at 3:32 pm
I can make a 3D model, I can 3D print it, and they seem to really help people." Not only do the toys provide a representative ... and after Hardman made one for a 3-year-old customer, he was ...
- Up Your Desk Toy Game With This 3D Printed Escalatoron August 9, 2022 at 5:05 am
But for our money (and 3D printing time), we’d definitely go with this new motorized variant. While the core mechanism is largely the same, the powered unit uses a N20 geared motor and an 18650 ...
- The Best Repositories of Free 3D Printing Models and Design Fileson July 23, 2022 at 11:51 pm
A curated selection of premium and free STL files for 3D printing from a community of 70,000+ makers and designers grouped into 7 categories: Toys & Games, Miniatures, Home Living, Jewelery & Fashion, ...
- Vintage Toys Live On Through 3D Printingon December 23, 2018 at 10:20 pm
he decided to try his hand at recreating them on his 3D printer. With his keen eye for detail and personal love of these incredible toys, he’s preserved them in digital form for future ...
via Google News and Bing News