this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025
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Hot take: 3D printing toys kinda sucks (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by squaresinger@lemmy.world to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world
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I used to print quite a lot of toys for my kids, but I stopped doing that, since it feels mostly like a waste of plastic.

3D printed toys are rarely enjoyable. The toys are usually either not interesting enough (think static, non-movable, single-color figurines like the low-poly-pokemon series), or not durable enough or both at the same time.

My kids liked the printed toys when they got them, but they barely looked at them after like 10 minutes and then they ended up rolling around the house until they broke, usually very soon.

I love 3D printing, I use it a lot for all sorts of things, but toys are just not a very good application for 3D prints, in my opinion. It's just not worth the plastic.

Edit: Just for context: I've been around the block with 3D printing. I started about 7 years ago and I've been the 3D printer repair guy for my circle of friends ever since, fixing up everyone else's printers. I design most of the things I print myself. The reason I am posting this is because pretty much everyone I know who has a printer and kids prints toys all the time, and any time I'm at any event where someone can shoehorn a box of give-away low-poly-pokemon in, there is one there.

IMO, this is all plastic waste and nothing else.

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[–] SufferingSteve@feddit.nu 2 points 1 week ago

To be fair though, if almost anyone had a 3D printer, only plastics would be distributed, and only the plastic that is needed.

What I mean is that you don't have to manufacture in advance and actually ship plastic products to every corner in the world so that these plastic garbage cab sit on shelf and then end up in a landfill after not being sold for tens of years.

Basically on-demand plastic garbage production would in most cases where the amount required is not well understood be beneficial if most people did it.

Because almost everything is made in excess, and the wasteful production is just offset in cost.