3-D printing is still pretty far from the mainstream, but Makerbot, the New York firm which has done the most to bring it to the attention of the masses, just scored a $10 million round of funding from some big names. They aren’t wasting any time putting that cheddar to work, launching a spiffy new web series, Makerbot TV, that profiles people, places and things in the world of 3-D printing.
The series kicks of with a “head scanning” party Makerbot threw in collaboration with Brooklyn’s Afro-Punk festival. Some sample reactions from the crowd when asked the question:
What do you think of 3-D printing?
I don’t think its 3-D printing, I think it’s teleporation
It’s all new to me. Who comes up with stuff like this?
What would you make with your own 3-D printer?
That’s pretty easy, a BMX bicycle.
Custom, model parts, for sure.
Lego for my son.
Makerbot got a few celebs to submit to the head scanning process, which has already produced a model of Stephen Colbert’s dome that ended up in outer space. Angelo Moore of Fishbone got a head and hand scan and comedian/singer Reggie Watts got his amazing fro scanned and printed.
The series is well shot with some nice electronic music. It shares content from Thingaverse, the community site for digital design also founded by Makerbot’s Bre Pettis and Zach Hoenken. The show ends with some slo-mo nerd-gasm, as crush worth host Annelise Jesky does swordfights with a Makerbot made life size replica of the Sword of Omen from Thundercats. All we can really say about that is a repeat of the Makerbot TV catchphrase, “Keep it Awesome!”
