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E.U. to Regulate 3D Printed Toys & Supply Chain

The European Union has taken a serious interest in regulating 3D printed toys. As additive manufacturing processes only continue to pick up steam, affecting nearly every industry in some way, safety is becoming more of a concern. In the 80s of course, with the inception of SLA 3D printing, most digital fabrication was used for rapid prototyping with a limited range of software and materials (generally photopolymers) available to users.

There are countless new materials on the market now, as ambitious users and researchers around the world continue to forge ahead, overcoming obstacles, and creating new ways to fabricate complex geometries, whether for prototypes or functional parts. This doesn’t mean all 3D printing materials are safe to use—or that structures and wiring may not cause a potential hazard. Children have the potential to be very hard on toys, and especially over time. They may ingest small pieces and choke, or experience poisoning from toxic chemicals.

Concern over toy safety encompasses the entire industry, however, with basic measures in place regarding “general risks” for children and anyone who may be exposed to toys, along with “particular risks” surrounding fire, chemicals, radioactivity, electrical issues, and more. The EU offers recommendations to 27 countries, and also oversees the Innovation Radar Platform—recently naming WAZP as a Key Innovator. And while safety is a major focus, here, the goal is to create a solid innovative industry with a strong supply chain—meaning that quality products need to be at the center.

The platform is used to highlight new concepts and the inventors behind them, and is funded by the EU as well as other framework programs centered around research and innovation—often including applications like consumer goods, manufacturing, distribution of products, and retail goods. WAZP is certainly well-acquainted with most of those areas of industry, acting as a global supply chain company for additive manufacturing. The Tralee, Ireland-headquartered company gained notice during the Horizon 2020 iBus Project, known for focusing on internet business models for toys, as well as furniture, and commissioned by the University of Limerick.

The WAZP team follows through from optimization to manufacturing and delivery. (Image: WAZP)

(Image: WAZP)

Germany’s University of Paderborn has also been recognized as a key innovator, and the two companies will be overseeing the creation of an “innovative high confidence quotation model for AM toys safety.”

Four levels, created by Innovation Radar, will be explored:

Value creation opportunities
Technology readiness
Business readiness
Market readiness

WAZP will offer their experience in creating successful models for 3D printing supply chains, including “value” for stakeholders like the suppliers of toys, manufacturers, distribution companies, stores selling toys, and consumers too. Sustainability is a key goal in these business models, bolstering supply chains within the 3D printed toy industry.

Innovation Radar operates on four different maturity levels (Image: Innovation Radar)

WAZP’s success has been in providing business models that offer customized supply chain strategies. Their team believes in producing complex, quality designs, but within a “no-waste culture.” Research and development will continue with the University of Limerick, University of Paderborn, and the European Union. Check out information about Innovation Radar and EU funded projects here.

3D printing within the toy industry has brought many new concepts and products to life for kids, and consumers of all ages, from spinning tops to parts for train sets, LEGO constructions and even go-karts, and more.

[Source / Images: WAZP]

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Let Kids Design With Toybox’s 3D Printer

Image via Toybox Labs

Toybox is a 3D printer that allows you and your kids to print toys. It’s an easy-to-use printer with a user-friendly interface that has a wide variety of toys to choose from. Toybox Labs was created by Ben Baltes and Jenn Chin from Oakland, California. Both founders raised more than $155,000 on Indiegogo, which has helped them to turn their 3D printer prototype into a mass-produced product. Reportedly the Toybox is a Creatbot Super Mini that was altered and made more kid-friendly.

To make Toybox do its magic, you simply have to download the app on AppStore or Google Play, depending on whether you have iOS or Android, and connect your phone and Toybox’s 3D printer to WiFi. Models can also be selected and printed from any computer connected to internet as well from Toybox’s official website.

Although there are many other ways to 3D print toys for your kids, such as Toy Maker or Moose Toys, on Toybox’s website, parents and kids can browse a great selection of toys, as well as importing, creating a Block Buddy, or drawing their own. The catalog of toys they offer has different types of swords, cars, animals, character, buildings, creatures, and more. I wanted to test all they offered out so I made my own Block Buddy, a feature developed by Toybox to create your own character, and I was able to select different types of hairstyles, eye shapes, nose shapes, outfits, colors, and more.

I also created my own design. On the Draw option, I tried the text feature out but you can also draw anything you want and add a background to it. There are a few shapes to choose from and to play around with that helps you create the design you are looking for.

Once you’ve finished creating your Block Buddy, drawing or importing a design, you will see the time it will take to print each piece. You can select which piece to print first, and the website or app will ask you to connect with the 3D printer via Wi-Fi.

Toybox’s 3D printer is kid-friendly. It’s easy to teach your kids on how it works and how to use it without worrying about their safety. It’s also an alternate and affordable way of creating toys without leaving creativity behind. Kids can design and modify their creations at any time, and use their imagination fully. The 3D printer is environmentally friendly and produces little to no waste. At only nine inches tall and 6 lbs, the 3D printer doesn’t require too much space, which means it can be easily stored or can fit on your home desk perfectly.

Joel tested the Toybox and you can see that video below. An earlier review from last year by 3D Maker Noob is below that.

The website also includes a Shop section where you can acquire the 3D printer and the “Printer Food”, which is the name Toybox uses to call their filament as to make it more fun for kids. There are fifteen colors to choose from. The shop also includes bed surfaces for the 3D printer, stickers, a pin, and a gift card.

Toybox’s 3D printer costs $349 plus $9.95 shipping, resulting in a total price of $358.95. The 3D printer made it to Shark Tank on March 10, a show where entrepreneurs make their business presentations to a panel of five investors (or “Sharks) who choose whether to invest in their company as business partners. As a final negotiation, one of the Sharks offered to invest $150k for 13% equity and 2% in advisory shares. This is not the first time the idea of 3D printing toys made it to Shark Tank. In 2015, You Kick Ass (now called Hero Builders) presented their 3D printed action figures to the Sharks.

Sources: [2 Paragraphs, Know Techie, All Shark Tank Products, Forbes]

Maker Publishes Instructables About 3D Printing Favorite Vintage Games

Whenever I visit Target to pick up something in the toy department, whether it’s a present for my nieces or one of my friends’ kids, I also enjoy stopping in the tiny section at the end that features retro toys, such as the old Fisher Price record player and the classic sock monkey doll. I don’t know what it is…there’s just something about seeing retro toys and other vintage items showcased in a more modern setting.

Maker and Instructables member Mike Gardi gets it – he recently used 3D printing to recreate two of his favorite educational games from the 1960s that are so rare, not to mention expensive, that there’s no way you’d find them anywhere remotely near a mainstream store like Target. His labor of love was detailed in a recent Hackaday post by Tom Nardi.

“Seeing that the educational games which helped put him on a long and rewarding career in software development are now nearly unobtainable, he decided to try his hand at recreating them on his 3D printer,” Nardi wrote. “With his keen eye for detail and personal love of these incredible toys, he’s preserved them in digital form for future generations to enjoy.”

The first game Gardi recreated was “The Amazing Dr. Nim,” which was invented by John Thomas Godfrey and manufactured by Education Science Research (E.S.R., Inc.). According to his Instructable on 3D printing the game, a plastic, injection-molded mechanical Digi-Comp II digital computer is used as a game board, which chooses its moves through “the action of the marbles falling through the levers of the machine.”

“I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I was inspired by the excellent Digi-Comp I replica created by Mark Ziemer,” Gardi commented on the Hackaday post.

Bits of data are held in memory switches, and several levers, which are affected by released marbles, program the unit. The starting position is set by three levers, and the fourth is an equalizer: if it’s set and the player doesn’t make any mistakes, they win. The final lever shows whose turn it is.

Gardi modeled his replica game using both Fusion 360 and Tinkercad, and while he needed to scale down his version so it would fit on a desktop 3D printer, it was otherwise pretty faithful; however, he did use 10 mm steel ball bearings instead of marbles.

“One other concession was to 3D print the folding stand rather than attempting to employ the wire stand of the original,” Gardi wrote.

He 3D printed all of the parts at a resolution of 0.2 mm out of PLA. While the base unit was printed with 20% infill, everything else was printed at 100%, and Gardi included the STL files for all of the parts in his Instructable. Tools needed to put the game together include tweezers, glue, fine grit sandpaper, and a hobby knife.

Gardi also made a 3D printed version of the “Think-a-Dot” puzzle game, which was invented by Joseph A. Weisbecker and also uses mechanical flip-flops. These levers are used to change the color of the eight dots on the game’s front panel.

When the player drops marbles into the three holes at the top of game board, they can create different patterns by changing the colors of the dots. The winner is the person who can determine the fewest amount of marbles that are necessary to create specific patterns found in the game manual.

“I tell people that I did the modelling with digital calipers, Tinkercad, and patience,” Gardi wrote in his Instructable for the Think-a-Dot replica. “I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process. Tinkercad is a very organic experience and it felt more like sculpting to me than 3D design.”

While most of the pieces were 3D printed in PLA, Gardi used PETG to print the eight flip-flops. He also digitized the experience of owning these classic games by creating scans of the manuals, and then had them professionally printed and bound just like they would have been in the ’60s.

“This is really a fascinating way of preserving physical objects, and we’re interested to see if it catches on with other toys and games which otherwise might be lost to time,” Nardi concluded. “As storage capacities get higher and our ability to digitize the world around us improve, we suspect more and more of our physical world will get “backed up” onto the Internet.”

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IC3D and Maker Community Introduce 3D Printing to Toys for Tots

For a few decades now, Toys for Tots has been collecting and delivering toys to underprivileged children around the holidays. The kids who benefit from the program don’t get much in the way of presents, but thanks to Toys for Tots they can receive new stuffed animals, dolls, action figures, games, etc. This year, however Toys for Tots is getting a little bit more high-tech – at least in Central Ohio. Columbus company IC3D is a 3D printing service provider, consulting company, and 3D printing equipment and filament manufacturer with a large community of makers and 3D printing enthusiasts. This holiday season, the company turned to that network to help make the season brighter for local children.

For the first time, 150 beneficiaries of Toys for Tots will be receiving 3D printed toys – specifically, toy robots with arms and legs that move. IC3D enlisted its maker community to 3D print the toys for the organization, using its own donated filament.

“IC3D donated 3D printing filament to a handful of our loyal community members from across the U.S. who were willing to use their machines to make 150 toys. The toys were shipped to IC3D’s factory and then delivered to Toys for Tots central donation location at Rickenbacker,” said Matt Organiscak, VP of Operations at IC3D. “We love sharing the promise of 3D printing technology with everyone, especially kids.”

The volunteers who 3D printed the toy robots for Toys for Tots include Chris Poleski, Clayton Parker, Jim Leemuis, Michael Pimentel, Glenn and Xander Shelton, Shane La Haye, Amie Dansby and Stephani Sharp.

“In the day to day of shaping a new industry, it’s easy to forget the simple joy of sharing a 3D printed object with someone,” Organiscak told 3DPrint.com. “Collaborating with Toys For Tots has been our dream for the past five years. With the growth and awareness of 3D printing, it was a natural fit to tap into our network of 3D Printing colleagues around the country and work with our local U.S. Marines leadership to deliver 150 toys. Manufacturing smiles, one toy at a time, is a great way to share IC3D expertise with others. I look for this effort to grow even bigger next year.”

Volunteer Michael Pimentel with one of the toys he 3D printed.

IC3D is known for its innovation in 3D printer filament, having teamed up with Aleph Objects to create the first-ever open source filament. The company is much more than a filament manufacturer, though; it describes itself as “an on-demand manufacturing applications workshop converging traditional manufacturing process with digital 3D printing technologies.” IC3D custom-builds 3D printing equipment, offers low-volume production, and overall champions open source philosophy and maker culture. The small company’s enthusiasm for 3D printing is evident in that way that only small companies can really display. Community and sharing 3D printing technology are extremely important to IC3D, and this latest initiative will, in addition to making 150 children happy, also introduce those children to a technology that may be new to them.

“We are excited to be a part of this new opportunity for children to experience 3D printed toys,” said US Marines Sgt. Abner Corona, Toys for Tots Coordinator, Lima Company. “We think Santa’s elves would approve of IC3D helping out.”

The kids who receive 3D printed toys this holiday season will, in addition to getting presents, learn that toys can be created by anyone – including themselves. Perhaps this will spark an interest in 3D printing for some of them. While they may not be able to afford 3D printers of their own, schools, libraries and makerspaces can provide them with the equipment they need to begin experimenting with their own creations, starting what could be a lifelong passion for 3D printing.

Below, you can get a quick look at IC3D’s newest 3D printer, “Rosie,” churning out several toys simultaneously:

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