3-D Metal 'Printers' Launch DIY Action Figure Service

Obsessed sci-fi fans with disposable income and a lust for metallic action figures of their own design can rest easy. Starting Wednesday, stainless steel modeling service Shapeways will print 3-D prototypes by DIY designers using powdered metal as the "ink."

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Zap! A Gallery of Customized Action Figures

Shapeways bills the initiative as "the first commercially available consumer metal printing technology."

Here's how the rapid prototyping service works: Customers design an 8-inch-tall figure using animation software like Autodesk Maya or the free application Render and submit their designs. Stainless steel powder is then deposited in thin layers and combined with a binding material, building the figure to the designer's specifications. The final product is infused with bronze and oven-cured.

For a cost of $40 to 50 per piece, Shapeways produces a sculpture made of solid metal along the lines of Walter "Maxsmoke" Sharrow's devilish “Nose Picker” (pictured).

"The average consumer now gets access to production technology that was once available only to big companies," Shapeways CEO Peter Weijmarshausen tells Wired.com. "It used to be you could only go to a shop and buy someone else's design. Now you can buy what you design. That's a powerful concept."

Obvious contender for do-it-yourself sculptors using the metal printing service: Iron Man.

Image courtesy Shapeways

See also:

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• Worship Your Plastic Heroes in The DC Comics Action Figure Archive
• 3-D Printers Redefine Industrial Design