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Unfortunately, with the 3D printers on the raise, the faith of a LEGO(r) brick is doomed. In the near future, there will be printers especially designed to pri
by joering2 14y ago
Unfortunately, with the 3D printers on the raise, the faith of a LEGO(r) brick is doomed.
In the near future, there will be printers especially designed to print small LEGO pieces. Of course none of those 3DP will market as "print your own LEGO bricks", but kids will figure this one quickly.
It will work a bit like a baking machine. Turn it on, leave it overnight and bunch of blocks roll out when you wake up in the morning. theLegoBrickBay.se will arise where kids will be able to download any STL file for any brick, LEGO set, minifig, etc, and LEGO with their tiny revenues (comparing to MAFIAA) will not be able to shut down the site.
Even if, arguendo, price of that printer will be $2,000 or more, its a cost of couple StarWars sets and any parent understanding the basics of financials will go with "print your own" instead of "keep buying new sets" thought.
Material will be cheap and reusable. After you are done with playing or simply dont need so many 1x4 bricks in grey color, you will put them all in a "melter" and within couple of hours all your grey bricks will become one solid cartridge ready to be used in printing new bricks, trees, horses, flowers, or whatever you want to.
You will see this coming in <> 5 years. Whatever the future holds, its probably wise NOT TO buy LEGO stock nowadays.
- kejadlen 14y agoThat seems unlikely to me, given the precision required to make a LEGO brick that's actually fun to play with. I bet it will be quite a while before we get commodity 3D printers that can produce bricks that consistently hold together and come apart.
- emddudley 14y agoI'm not holding my breath. There is no way that home 3D printers will be able to maintain the same manufacturing tolerances as the LEGO factories, definitely not within the next 5 years.
- tlrobinson 14y agoI agree. On the other hand, 3D printing itself could displace LEGO as a creativity outlet for kids. But there's something about physically snapping blocks together and experimenting that couldn't be replaced by CAD software.
- sliverstorm 14y ago3D design and assembling LEGOs are different levels of learning/play. Perhaps we could compare it to oil paints vs. watercolors. A very young child is perfectly capable of smearing oil paint on a canvas, but watercolors are a better starting point. Not to mention I found the inherently limited nature of LEGOs was a great exercise in working within a set of constraints & thinking "outside the box" to beat them.
- gwern 14y agoThe stability of real prices per piece over the last decade or so even after substantial work on reducing costs suggests that Lego is pretty close to the limits on cheap manufacturing of Legos.
- nevster 14y agoHave you ever tried some of the competing brands - the quality is terrible!