Makies custom 3D-printed toys, now in color!

Makies are the custom, 3D printed dolls that come from MakieLab, the company my wife Alice founded. The first couple revs of the doll were all bone white, due to limitations of the high-wearing, kid-safe plastics. But after a lot of R&D, the Makies have figured out how to do color, starting from today:

Fantastic: four! We present to you: Ice Frosting, Strawberry Milk, Cocoa Bean and Pale Pistachio. You can now order hand dip-dyed Makies, and the results are this delicious body-blush of colour. Note the variation, the “organic” effect, and the unique finish: your hand-dyed Makie won’t look like a uniform-plastic doll, but a feisty little piece of art.

COLOURS ARE GO...

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: 3d printing • Gadgets • gift guide • toys

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http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Eckardt/100001323221635 Mike Eckardt

Good first generation… but wait until cheap(er) scanners make it onto the market… then parents can scan their or their kid’s faces to be 3D printed onto these things.
http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki

Those things are nightmare fuel. I need a unicorn chaser.
- Bucket
  
  I see these things, scurrying around in the darkness, darting in and out of the edges of my flashlight’s beam.
  - http://www.matthewpetty.com/ Matthew Petty
    
    …with your child’s face on them (see Mike Eckhardt’s comment above)
5onthe5

Why does it feel weird to describe certain skin tones as “cocoa bean”.
- Jonathan Roberts
  
  I also wonder what they’re really selling when I read:
  
  A shadowy encounter with Pale Pistachio will satisfy your nutty needs. Hmm…
  - http://twitter.com/KevinCarson1 Kevin Carson
    
    It’s for people who can’t afford a Realdoll.
http://twitter.com/jondean jondean

They’re actually getting less terrifying as time goes on, which I suppose is good.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Amorette-Allison/1163340223 Amorette Allison

Not so much ‘feisty’ as ‘creepy.’
gorfulator

Dollies of the Damned… they need glowing eyes
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001857338412 David Evans

I can’t fathom who would want these in the house. It’s like creepy clown dialled up to 11.
- http://twitter.com/cjporkchop cjporkchop
  
  Just be glad Cory’s wife isn’t into “reborn” baby dolls. (Do an image search and you won’t be able to sleep for a week.)
http://twitter.com/metal_max Max Allan

I look forward to the “3d printed dolls, now with bodies at the same scale as the heads” headline. Then the scary ones can be put to sleep, 6 feet under, in a lead lined coffin with garlic plants growing in the ground above.
Editz

Preparing children for the future alien/human hybrid breeding programs?
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones
  
  “Future” breeding programs? #duhDuhDUHHHHHM
http://www.facebook.com/XrayAgent J Michael Carter

Why stop at fairly regular human coloring? Perhaps ice blue, Orion slave girl green, lobster red…
Ambiguity

Why aren’t any of them wearing pants?
- apoxia
  
  So you can see their sexy legs of course
gaiapunk

Okay,

I figured out why these instinctly creep people out, it’s not the big heads, nor the lack of pants, it’s that they don’t have any eyebrows or eyelashes likely just do to the limitations of the current printer. Perhaps the kids can just draw those on…
http://twitter.com/Susskins Susskins

They remind me a LOT of the giant girl from Royal De Luxe’s The Sultan’s Elephant.
Steve Taylor

God damn those dolls are creepy! I’d be scared to have one in the room with me.
spacedoggy

Just in time for the flood of colour 3D printers about to hit the market. RepRap have just released the beta kits of their new 3 extruder Mendel. it’s going to cost a third of the Makerbot Replicator 2X, have equal resolution and 1 additional colour.

http://reprap.org/wiki/RepRapPro_Multimaterials

For those with a single extruder printer, I find it useful and cost effective to print in plain white PLA, then color parts using sharpie permanent pens. this saves keeping all colours of filament, and makes for easier recycling of objects using machines like the filabot.
blueandroid

I can’t be the only one who was expecting Maakies. http://www.maakies.com/
Frank Diekman

Looks like they have their 3D printer stuck on the “creepy” setting.
tubacat

Hey… I have one, and she’s not creepy at all. She’s a nerd like me, only cuter…
Nate

Can someone explain why 3D printing for these dolls is superior to regular mass production? They look like identical forms, and it would appear that the eyes are separately inset, rather than printed along with the rest of the doll.