Could this be the future of print and play?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaWPFk4W4nM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EWWt93F ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltYeNuOv ... re=related

I'm excited by it

Looks like an architects model. You could do that with WWG product, but it looks like he did everything with foamboard.

Plastic Printing. You can build a printer at home to do that. The basic Make printer runs a couple thousand. It is cool and I need to play with the printer one of our professors has.

I would love a 3D printer, but the thousands of dollars is still way out my price range. It would be awesome to print Terrain and minis though.

The 3rd Video I linked has alot more info ...

for starters they use a machine called "Reprap". A home made 3D printer that if you google you will find some sites offering the kit to build one for as little as £600 pounds. I dunno about you but since its new tech its generally always overpriced and once the demand increases so the cost of mass producing is reduced. I remember when DVD Players cost £500-£600 but now you can pick them up for as little as £20-£30!

http://www.reprapcentral.com/vmchk.html

Until they get the speed, strength, color and the granularity right, the tech won't hit mass market saturation...but it's getting there.

I don't think you'll see this stuff in your local Staples or Office Depot for another 7 years or so (maybe 5 if a major player really devotes itself to the tech). But when that does happen, MAN, so many markets will change fundamentally. I mean, 90% of tangible markets will feel an impact on some level when this really becomes as pervasive as inkjet printers.

I recall someone on Kickstarter has a project going for one of these...

There are a lot of Kickstarter projects for 3D printers, it seems a lot of people are interested in the technology.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/153 ... r?ref=live

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/qu- ... t?ref=live

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/b9c ... r?ref=live

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vis ... m?ref=live

They all seem very interesting, and very similar, :S.

Wow, this DLP light projection model is super cool! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/b9c ... r?ref=live .

I'll get excited when they start making full color 3D printers that are cost effective for hobbyists.

There is a cheaper 3d printer, $500. But its white printing and only 6" so far. But its encouraging progress. Works with google sketchup too.

http://www.solidoodle.com/

If I had a small 3D printer I'd put it to work making lots of post and heaps of tongue & grove tiles for TLX sets. No need to worry about the color ... best in black though.

I think there might be cheaper and quicker ways to make those though. I need to go shopping.