What do these three items have in common: a gun, a pair of shoes, and a guitar?
They are items that can be made on a 3-D printer. In fact, there doesn’t seem to be much that can’t be 3-D printed these days. Over the weekend toymaker Mattel announced they would be offering a $300 3D printer they called the “Thingmaker” – which will allow your little tykes print out their very own toys.
Here to talk a little bit about 3-D printers is digital savant of the Austin American-Statesman, Omar Gallaga.
Gallaga says it seems counter-intuitive to have kids make their own toys, but the printer will be limited in what it can do.
“This is actually based on a 1960s toy called the Thingmaker that was die-cast molds that you would put stuff into, that were edible,” he says. “It was Mattel’s Easybake Oven of 3-D printer.”
What you’ll hear in this segment:
– What kinds of materials it can “print” with and what toys kids can make
– The quality of the kinds of toys it will be able to make
– Why 3-D printing hasn’t taken off as quickly as some had first predicted
