Okay, consider this a little brain-spin from yours truly, courtesy of checking the message boards right after watching a few Star Trek episodes on tape, and then reading about that "hulu.com" Web Site over in "Off-Topic" where you can watch episodes of various TV series, and it being mentioned that ones of the shows was Exo-Squad.

One of my bigger toy regrets is that I sold my Exo-Squad collection. There's a lot of things I regret selling. That one's pretty close to the top of the list.

So between that, the Star Trek shows, and my imagination, I started to think (always potentially dangerous) -- suppose matter replication and transporter technology existed? Imagine what that could do for toy collectors.

Picture a Web Site where you could call up almost any toy product, past or present, order it, and it would be beamed to you within seconds for a nominal charge. No different than the original, fully functional. Maybe just a subtle little mark on the bottom of a boot that this is a replicated item. Otherwise perfect.

Imagine (for instance) being able to rebuild your entire Exo-Squad collection for fifty bucks. Imagine getting a mint condition USS Flagg beamed into your living room for around a hundred.

Now, imagine taking it a step further. Imagine being able to custom-design your own toys. Finally want that Big Lob figure? You got him. Want a traditional-style Pythona? No problem. There's a full design program available.

I can see a few hurdles, even if the technology existed and was foolproof. Doubtless the toy companies would charge licensing fees, as would character owners. Nobody's going to build a Clone Trooper army without paying Lucas something for it. And I have little doubt that people trying to sell their "original format" toy collections would be raising hell over this. And doubtless there would be some who would see these toys as cheap copies and want nothing to do with them even though they're indistinguishable in quality. And there'd have to be some way to keep people from custom-designing and mass-marketing their own toys if they were based on an existing copyrighted property.

But I think most of those problems could be managed.

Personally, I think it'd be very cool. Now we just need the technology...

Whats more fascinating to me is that if you could call and recall them at will, which items would you REALLY keep around? What would be around all the time, instead of stored in tupperware?

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I used to dream about building a stormtrooper army in a similar way!

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It would be very cool, plus the down fall of scalpers will be over,

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Getting the memory and the blueprints right is the issue. If they lift the patent and release all this stuff into the open, you might get it, otherwise design IP is going to be the Gold Standard in the future.

The technology will be common and easily accessible around in 10 years, and people that know how to diagram in CAD will rule the earth.

- R

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Wierd, my post vanished. Oh well......



Nah, CAD jockies are a dime-a-dozen. I can't ever see those of us ever seeing that much love.

But, I do look forward to the day of AFFORDABLE stereo-lith machines. If I win the lottery, THAT will be one of my purchases. Also, the materials still need some work. For the most part, they are fine for display pieces, but still not quite there for toys to be played with.

Not if the mfg is getting their pound of flesh-

Order the Flagg - hasbro gets a cut of your purchase, the real question comes up when you want a Mego repo...as I a sure someone would want royalties

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Okay, so I'm not the closest follower of technological trends...

THE TECHNOLOGY TO PULL THIS OFF EXISTS!? OR NEARLY DOES!?

Yes it does, to a point. While I was still in school, the department bought a new 3D printer that uses resin instead of cornstarch like their previous one. The teacher showed us an sample of a adjustable wrench that was printed fully assembled and functional from a AutoCad Inventor file. The printer builds the parts in layers from bottom to top filling in any spaces with a support substance that is soluble in water. Making Joe-scale weapons is fun as well as you can see below.

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3dD printing and rapid prototyping

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

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I love inventor. there really is no end to the models you can make in it.

The only problem with making a Flagg would be finding a 3d printer that was big enough to make the deck plates.

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A few years back, on another web site, someone had posted a company that was tailoring their rapid prototype business towards collectors. If you had the money, they would build what you wanted. The example they showed was some Star Trek ship I wasn't familiar with. The one thing I do remember is the company used an older machine which made the parts out of the light-brown resin - bad idea. Although it makes excellant models - tight tolerances and all that - they are extremely brittle.

Ohhhh, the fun I could have with this. Sounds like the only significant issue is materials used.

OreoBuilder made his Thunder headset for his 25th Thunder viewtopic.php?f=14&t=7989&p=90775&hilit=thunder#p90775 with the rapid prototype machine at his work.

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Well the printer was in the neighborhood of 50,000 bucks, the resin is around 5 bucks an inch and depending as to what software you want to use, they start at about a 1,000 bucks.

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