With the Free Universal Construction Kit!
Basically, some enterprising artist collective with a fondness for dubious acronyms has created a set of 3D designs of components to connect a variety of kid's toys (most of which I haven't heard of, but which includes Lego, and that's the main thing). The aim is to allow people to print these out at home - you have to really go through the small print to find the admission that, unless you've got access to the really high end machines, the current crop of 3D printers can't print at a fine enough resolution to successfully connect your creation to, for example, Lego.
However, it is a brilliant idea.
I also particularly like the following rant from their website - particularly the idea of the commercial system enacted as an infinite series of micro-punishments for us, the humans:
"Consider the frustrating experience of purchasing a new computer (a Mac, say) and discovering that it will not play your aunt’s Windows Media video of your little cousins. Likewise, imagine your aunt’s corresponding annoyance when she finds that her PC will not play the Apple Quicktime video you sent her of your cats. This humiliating little episode isn’t an accident; it’s just a skirmish in a never-ending battle between giant commercial entities, played out, thousands of times every day, in exactly such micro-punishments to customers like you. If you’re well-informed, you may happen to know about VLC — a free, open-source video player, developed by independent hackers as a grassroots remedy for exactly this problem. Until the advent of ubiquitous 3D printing, software remedies like VLC weren’t readily available forhardware products, like toys. That’s changing."
Basically, some enterprising artist collective with a fondness for dubious acronyms has created a set of 3D designs of components to connect a variety of kid's toys (most of which I haven't heard of, but which includes Lego, and that's the main thing). The aim is to allow people to print these out at home - you have to really go through the small print to find the admission that, unless you've got access to the really high end machines, the current crop of 3D printers can't print at a fine enough resolution to successfully connect your creation to, for example, Lego.
However, it is a brilliant idea.
I also particularly like the following rant from their website - particularly the idea of the commercial system enacted as an infinite series of micro-punishments for us, the humans:
"Consider the frustrating experience of purchasing a new computer (a Mac, say) and discovering that it will not play your aunt’s Windows Media video of your little cousins. Likewise, imagine your aunt’s corresponding annoyance when she finds that her PC will not play the Apple Quicktime video you sent her of your cats. This humiliating little episode isn’t an accident; it’s just a skirmish in a never-ending battle between giant commercial entities, played out, thousands of times every day, in exactly such micro-punishments to customers like you. If you’re well-informed, you may happen to know about VLC — a free, open-source video player, developed by independent hackers as a grassroots remedy for exactly this problem. Until the advent of ubiquitous 3D printing, software remedies like VLC weren’t readily available forhardware products, like toys. That’s changing."
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