MakerBot Industries is excited to have been presented with Popular Mechanics’ Achievement Award yesterday at CES! Awards were given to companies with innovative products, and MakerBot shares the honor with the likes of Sony, Samsung, Roku and more!

It’s been one day since the official launch of The Replicator! Some lucky people have even met the new machine in person at CES (Come say hello, in South hall 4, Booth 36839)! Check out the links below for coverage straight from the CES floor.

SPIKE TV: MakerBot Makes Your Ideas Come True

Gizmodo: Hands On With MakerBot’s Bigger, Better, Two Color 3D Printer

The Atlantic: The Wonderful World of Thingiverse

 New York Times: MakerBot Introduces Larger, Two Color 3-D Printer

Make: MakerBot Replicator Announced

Gizmodo Australia: MakerBot’s Replicator Prints Larger 3D Creations In Two Spectacular Colors

The Verge: MakerBot Replicator first hands-on (update: video)

Geeky Gadgets: MakerBot Replicator 3D Printer Launched

PCWorld: MakerBot Replicator 3D-Prints Everything Except ‘Coffe, Black’

Wired: The MakerBot Replicator (TM)

Hack a Day: Print Huge Stuff With the MakerBot Replicator

Fabbaloo: MakerBot Announces the Replicator

Geek.com: MakerBot announces latest model that is capable of two color 3D printin

Halloo.com: How a MakerBot Replicator Can Make Your Small Business

LiveScience.com: MakerBot Replicator Prints Bigger, More Colorful Objects

A few days ago my daughter began to ask me about toothbrush holders.  Toothbrush holders are the kinds of things to which adults rarely give much thought.  99.9% of the time they just sit in a drawer waiting for that 0.1% of the time when you go on a trip and it gets tossed into your travel case.

But, to a 5-year-old, a toothbrush holder is a thing of magic, beauty, and ceremony.  Its appearance heralds adventure – since it is only brought out when they’re about to go on some exciting trip.  So, I suppose, it shouldn’t be all that surprising that she wanted one of her own.  However, there were specifications…

The toothbrush holder must have a bulbous end.  The toothbrush holder must have a handle.  And, above all else, the toothbrush holder must be pink.  PINK!

I pointed out that there was no reason for a toothbrush holder to have a bulbous end or for it to have a handle.  toWhile she understood there was no reason for such things to be, she understood equally well that there were no particular reasons for them not-to-be either.

With the issue resolved, she drew the above schematics.  The most amusing part of this for me is that it never occurred to her that she couldn’t have such an impossible toothbrush holder.  From the moment the idea of a bespoke toothbrush holder popped into her head, she knew full well that her father need only be properly instructed in the design for the toothbrush that he might, in turn, so instruct the household robot.

And with that, we embarked upon the adventure of the toothbrush case.

…to be continued