Hi Reddit! I’m the CEO of Toybox - The 3D printer for toys. Here to answer questions about our bottomless toybox, 3D Printers for toys, and 3D printers in general! AMAA

Will you give me a 3D Printer?

Probably not, but if you can manage to get this comment to be one of the top 2 highest voted comments in this thread we'll give you a free snoo!

Edit: Oh boy, didn't actually expect this to happen :P

Hah. I don't actually live in the US, so... if you have nothing better to do (I'm sure you do), send it to:

Kanye West United Talent Agency | 9336 Civic Center Drive | Beverly Hills, CA 90210-3604 | USA

;)

Who should I make it out to?

What inspired you to make this?

As kids, all of our founders all loved to play with building toys. Toys like Lego, erector sets, lincoln logs. There's something about the sense of being able to create anything with your hands that we've always found extremely engaging. As adults we've kept the same mentality becoming engineers and designers at some of the top tech and engineering companies in the US. We also started getting involved with 3D printing for our own projects about 4 years ago. After that we started wondering what it would have been like to have these 3D printers when we were kids.

Our imagination started running wild thinking of all the applications of being able to print toys, sets with modular pieces, contraptions, and whole environments at your fingertips. We thought it was an amazing concept too cool to NOT exist. So we set out to make this idea into a reality. What excites us more than just building the printer is the anticipation of seeing what type of unique, wacky, and amazing things that kids will conceive in the future when this technology is in their hands.

My biggest question... How much will it cost?

Sorry about the hug of death, though.

We're aiming for a $550 price point, this is the cheapest price we could get our printer without sacrificing quality.

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You seem pretty confident that Tiko is a phenomenal experience but it doesn't seem to have been built yet, if you have insider knowledge I would love to hear about it :). It seems that Tiko doesn't include some components that are pretty necessary for high quality toys such as a heated bed and auto calibration. We find that it's critical that the printer is very precise and the prints don't warp.

They're using a delta system. How would you calibrate a delta system? Top down no? Pretty sure there would be no need with the system they have as it would calibrate off the top and step down.

I'm personally super into 3D printing and I know it's the future especially for children and education.

Why would I buy your product over a printr bot or wanhao.

We cater towards different markets. I actually love printrbot and use one myself sometimes, and just ordered a wanhao. However these are hobbyist level printers, meaning so they don't have kid friendly features built into them like a wireless interface to a tablet, curated selection of toys, locking door to prevent kids from touching the hot end, etc.

Is there going to be a 3d model store of toys ready to be printed? Can I design my own toys using maya or blender or some other tools? Independent artist would be able to start a business creating this kind of models?

Yes sir! We will have a catalog of toys that will enable children to print toys on the fly with the push of one button on any pc, phone, or tablet. We'll open the catalog so people can submit their own toys for the collection, we'll most likely do a profit sharing program similar to what YouTube does with their community to give back to the best contributors.

You can design your own toys using Maya or Blender or whatever tools you want, in that case our printer would function as a normal 3D printer where you can use all the tools available for standard 3D printers to print from such as repeteirhost and slicer.

would you be able to use this machine to make Lego blocks?

Yes, our 3D printer will be able to print Lego compatible blocks. Lego is interesting because they have a very high clutch factor meaning the grip of the toys sticking together is really strong. We'll admit that right now Lego's blocks have a higher clutch factor, but we've been able to print toys that work very well with Lego, and the opportunity to customize your own bricks to combine with your toys is pretty amazing.

You can see examples of some of our 3d printed brick-compatible toys here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BBJMLf8vQw5/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BA-JyUOPQ4_/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BBBxpvFPQ1d/

How does this differ from M3D Micro? (Toybox? / M3D Micro)

We're using the M3D Micro for our early prototypes, but we quickly found out that the M3D's experience wasn't good enough. We're actually developing another in house printer with all the features that we need but that isn't ready to display yet, should have some presentable figures by the end of the month.

Awesome. Having a M3D (which is kinda broken now :<) this is exactly what I wanted to hear. Good judgement from you guys on that! This is exactly the kind of project I want to see succeed! =)

Are you by any chance going to make it so that it works also with open source slicer & other software?

I've tried my luck creating Lego compatible bricks but ran into troubles because got somewhat bad quality extrusion. (Which gets worse apparently..)

My kid absolutely loves when I print her anything. Oh, and if you ship with filament, be sure to include pink! =D

Glad to hear you agree with our business decisions :). We do a ton of testing and prototyping to make sure everything is the highest quality possible, M3D sounded good, but we learned quickly that we could do much better.

Yes we'll allow people to use open source software like slicer and repeteir host with the printer. Our software is created to allow kids to interact with the printer easily. But we believe that people should have the freedom to choose whatever works best for them. We're not into the idea of forcing our software on anyone :)

I sure hope the kid UI is going to include touch interface so even my 3 year old could use it.. =)

Best of luck to you guys!

For you and your kid, we'll make sure it includes touch capabilities :). As long as you promise adult supervision.

Thanks @dist!

How do you feel about Mattel's new 3d printer? Will it affect you in a major way? Thanks.

eez?

You know, after working for 7 months as a team on this printer, at first we we're a little dissapointed. But we can't say that we weren't expecting a company to do it--The idea is too cool NOT to exist. We noticed the Autodesk bought an app called TinkerPlay around the same time that they released their own 3d printer so we felt like they would be a player in the game. It surprised us that Mattel got involved.

It doesn't effect our strategy too much, what we're focusing on is creating the very best printing experience, so that goal doesn't change. We've taken a good hard look at their printers, and believe ours will be of higher quality. We've invested in a few key features that we don't think Mattel will be able to provide at a $300 price point. In fact, after Mattell's announcement we've seen a huge wave of traffic to our website, and a large amount of interested subscribers. Their announcement may have done us more good than bad :)

edit: don't know why the quote turned into "eez?"-- oh well

I'll subscribe to you list thingy, Wish you good luck good sir.

Thank you, we'll be sure to update you with progress, always looking for good feedback :)

Follow up question. What sets your printer out from the rest of the beginner printers out there?

So the only other 3D printer for toys that has been announced is Mattel's. We did early market research which showed that people would be most willing to spend around $300 on toy 3D printer.

However, when we tried building a 3D printer for $300, we noticed that we wouldn't be able to include some key features that we deemed necessary for a well engineered printer (Things like auto-leveling calibration and heated beds). Since these are necessary for a great 3D experience, we decided that we would be better off going for quality rather than the masses. We don't want to sell a gimmick, our 3D printer will be much higher quality than the competitions.

I thought 3d printers were not safe for kids. How are you guys fixing that?

3D printers are relatively safe except for a few key issues.

1. Is the moving parts - it is a machine after all
2. The extruder gets to about 200C

What we're building is a locking mechanism and door on the printer so that a child will not be able to operate the printer while the extruder is hot, or the printer is printing.

May I add another question to the one of u/apavia?

As a layperson, I have no idea how safe or unsafe the material is that a 3D-Printer would print with. Children tend to chew, bite, and unfortunately sometimes swallow stuff they play with. Do you have a recommended age limit for the toys produced with your product and are they safe for young children?

We recommend that children older than 5 use it so that it isn't a choking hazard. In terms of material, the most common plastic is biodegradable, non-toxic, fumeless, and made out of corn. However I wouldn't recommend this to any child that would swallow chunks of plastic.

Would I be able to use this toy to create an actual sized toy golden retriever? I've always wanted a dog but I can't have one in my apartment complex so this sounds like it would be the next best thing. I was thinking of naming my golden retriever Clara. :)

You could, but it probably would need to be assembled and won't love you back as much of a real dog.

But hey, you wont have to feed this dog :)

Could I print another one of these printers, with this printer?

It would be pretty hard to make motors and electronics out of this printer, but you can try!

I 3D printed a motor! :D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRvb31Ycigw

I love this! Perhaps in the future we'll be able to print magnets and wires as well.

Can I 3D print a new 3D printer?

What like printception? Woah....

How do you think 3D printers will change the way children play in the future?

With 3D Printers, kids no longer will have to bug their parents to buy them toys, they have the power to download their own toys. We think this is really amazing, I remember how awesome it was when downloading music was a thing, now kids will be able to download toys, whichever ones they want!

It's like owning a whole toystore :)

I think the technology is amazing and will really change how we view products. As a parent though it makes me slightly disappointed that things like shopping for a gift for my child may become unnecessary because he's already downloaded it. I don't think owning a whole toystore is a positive thing.

That's interesting, may I ask why you think that might be a bad thing?

I think that 3D printers will be a great opportunity for children to really build with their imagination. Kid's will be able to print whole environments and worlds, or be able to print pieces to build great contraptions and machines.

Oh I completely agree with you that's it's something to fuel kids imaginations. It will be brilliant for school projects, making their ideas come to life, for science and inventions. I'm a total geek and things like this really interest me.

In some ways I feel that the idea they can download and print whatever they want takes the fun out of a trip to the toystore to spend pocket money, me choosing gifts for birthdays and Christmas etc. There's something quite satisfying about helping a child create something out of bits of recycling and seeing a homemade monster made from toilet roll and pva glue. I hope this sort of technology doesn't take away the bonding type experiences many parents have with their children. I guess also it's the mystery of toys also. To put a toy on your Christmas list to being able to just make and print your own. I assume it will have limitations for copyright etc though.

I imagine that the experience of building with a child with adhoc items found around the house will still be an awesome experience to have with your children regardless of owning a 3D printer or not. We like to often think of a 3D printer as a tool that not only creates experiences, but enhances existing experience. For example, you wont be able to print a complex object like a remote control drone anytime soon, but you could build custom parts to attach to a drone with your child, that kind of building experience could be phenomenal. Some people are doing cute toys by combining 3d printers with real fruits and vegatables, i thought this was cute: http://toyland.gizmodo.com/3d-printed-toy-parts-will-finally-make-kids-love-fruits-1662681566

Ok. I like the example given, that was cute and would certainly make food fun. Great for parents who make bento type lunch boxes for kids. Even better if the things created can be recycled? Assuming it's all plastic, can this be recycled with local recycling? We try to be as green as we can and it would be great if you could look at the environmentally friendly part of your product - gosh I sound like such a fun person!

The most common type of plastic that is used for 3D printing (Which we will certainly support) is PLA. This type of plastic is biodegradable, non-toxic, doesn't release fumes, and is made out of corn :)

Hi! what is the craziest or most innovative thing you have seen someone make using your printers?

Well, we haven't yet released our printers to the public yet. I think the coolest thing we've probably built was a modular pirate ship that is compatible with lego blocks. We have some pretty cool action figures as well :P

is there an app for children to customize what they want? or are the toy designs pre-made? are you receiving rights to make toys from certain companies such as Lego? This all very new to me.

Our app is a catalog of toys with some customization. You'll also be able to use third party apps like tinkerplay with our own 3D printer.

Technically, anyone can make lego-style bricks, that's why Megabloks exists. So we could include those on our app, but there are some things that we would need to be careful of putting onto our app such as franchised toys or even the lego minifigs

Can you print / control it with standard gcode commands? And just use it as a regular 3D printer?

Absolutely, under the hood our printers run Marlin

This idea is awesome and I'm glad 3D printers are starting to become a thing that people just have. I've heard that Mattel is doing a similar product but I'm honestly not sure why Lego hasnt. Question: Will you be able to put lego compatible blocks into your catalog without patent infringement problems? I know that lego has done some work to make other brands have trouble fitting together with lego blocks.

Yes, we have to be careful about adding Lego branded and trademarked items, but the court ruled in the past that the brick system that Lego uses isn't patent-able. This is why brands like Megabloks exists.

How much would the material / refills of the material that's used to create the objects in the printers cost?

The standard is pretty cheap, we'll allow people to buy their own filament to use with our printers. It usually goes for about $25 for 1kg or 2.2 lbs. That's about enough to build 15 full size action figures .

Thank-you for not making your filament proprietary.

No problem! In my opinion, building anything that makes people angry is a terrible use of engineering resources.

Hello. How much will your product retail for? My 7 year old loves to create things. He is currently trying to make a space uniform for our cat.

We're currently aiming for the retail price of $550 right now. A space uniform for your cat sounds awesome, kids are so creative.

how hard would it be for a no name to submit a toy to add to your 'box'?

We're working on a system so that the community can submit toys to the Toybox. Do you have an interest in creating 3D models?

Does this printer have restrictions put into it? Like, no printing tiny parts that kids would eat. Or no printing guns or something like that. Do you anticipate legal issues with this?

Great product by the way!

Wow this is an excellent question. The suggested age for this printer is 5+. Anything under 5, and we have to be careful for choking hazards so we don't suggest it. We also won't allow toys in our library that are deemed unsafe for children.

What we could do in the future is create a portion of our interface for younger children with adult supervision which would only show toys for the younger children, but that will probably be later down the road.

As for the legal issues, yes I do anticipate legal issues, but not for safety reasons. A huge portion of our time has spent into making sure this toy is safe for kids, and I am confident that the printer will be. But here will always someone out there that will try to sue you whether its for safety reasons or other reasons. Unfortunately that is just a sad reality of small business that we have to prepare for.

Oh I see, so there will be a special library of things that can be printed. Is this a place where anyone could input ideas? I was thinking that it would be cool if people could make designs and "sell" them on the marketplace. Like getting a commission whenever someone downloaded it.

We would love to make a marketplace where people can upload their own creations, and then profit share with top contributors very similar to how Youtube does it.

Have you ever seen deez?

Deez nuts!

I prefer Deeze