If you're planning to buy Barbie or other dolls as a Christmas gift why not try a custom design doll? Go online and have it 3D printed and shipped directly to you!
MakieLab now offers you to design an individual doll through a stylish yet child-friendly user interface.
According to PCmag's reports, Makies allows you to select its features, modify them (raise eyebrows, create elfish ears, rosebud pouts), change skin tone and eye color and even face shape. Then pick hairstyle, color and cut (which are then fashioned into amazingly tiny wigs), and order. The whole process takes about 10 minutes (longer if you're indecisive, which is understandable as there are so many product attributes to tweak).
Makies are the brainchild of MakieLab, a British startup headed up by Alice Taylor, a former BBC producer and education editor at Channel 4 in London.
In PCMag interview with Alice Taylor she explained how this make-your-own doll idea started:
"We set up MakieLab because we'd had a pretty straightforward idea: to make virtual goods (games) that create physical goods (toys). There seemed to be a customer desire for toy-game crossovers and 3D printing was all over the (nerd) news," she said.
"We thought about dolls, the biggest toy category. Plus it was time that the superskinny dolls had a challenge from a set of characters who represent and encourage real and confident 21st Century girls."
The dolls are printed on 3D Systems ProJet series and EOS p-series machines on which MakieLab rents time to stay nimble.
"We print the majority of the pieces - doll parts, and some accessories - on SLS machines, which is to say, powder deposition machines," MakieLab said.
"A laser melts the powder (we use nylon powder) on contact into a solid, and this happens in our case at a 100 micron (0.1mm) resolution: once the print run is finished, the final solid parts are dug out of the remaining powder, which can be recycled through into the next print. The final pieces are printed, then dyed and tumbled (smoothed). Each print run is different; it depends on how many dolls are ordered, whether they're boys or girls; how many accessories, and of course, each face is entirely unique. That's the joy of 3DP: freedom to print one-offs every time."
"2012 and 2013 were all about hard product R&D," explains Taylor.
"Do the material properties make a customer smile? Can prices be wrangled into customer-acceptable ranges? How can we do multiple colors with powdered nylon when it only comes in white? Will the materials, dyes, and process stand up to toy safety certification? How do we communicate and sell the idea of an on-demand customizable toy?," she added.
In addition, a cute touch is made in Instagram (@officialmakies), where the dolls are photographed and captioned with where they are heading ("I'm off to West Hollywood!") so buyers can track their progress (and share the love - there are a growing number of fan feeds from delighted children).
Two years later, Makies are the world's first 3D printed doll, now shipping around the globe. Moreover, there is also an app (iOS and Android) for the 3+ crowd, and a game, Makies FabLab, for the 8+ crowd, plus a website and mobile Web version of the dollbuilder.
