Say hello to our newest operator!

Mommy, are all my future toys in here? They are?! Awesome!

Me & My daughter are very happy that the Makerbot arrived (Sweden)! Promised to print some toys Thanks @Makerbot via.me/-1n5upsq

— Ticko (@Ticko) June 1, 2012

If that doesn’t help you start your day off with a smile… I just don’t know how to help you.

Life's a Beach

Woohooooo! Memorial Day Weekend is upon us and hot dang are we excited to blow off some steam! It’s been an absolute whirlwind here at MakerBot HQ. The Wall Street Journal scooped our big move to to the Brooklyn Tech Triangle,  but we still managed to put the final bolts on our traveling Robot Petting Zoo and pack them off to the first Maker Faire of the year in San Mateo! We hooked up with our old pal Schuyler and talked to thousands of people about changing the world with desktop manufacturing, and more importantly, customizing our own LEGO blocks. We captured some magical moments  in our photo booth and went hunting for bots in the wild. We exchanged much needed hugs with our west coast family. We made @hugs idea come to life and helped a really cool kid fix his Go-Kart in 45 minutes flat. It was AWESOME. We got home just in time to cause a disruption at TechCrunch and say a bittersweet farewell to our second season of MakerBot TV. What should we do next season?

Oh! We also  helped a team of engineers light up the Bay Bridge in San Francisco and gave Jared Leto a giant PLA frog.

How to Start The Summer Off Right:

Head to the beach.

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Crack open a cold one.

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Catapult.

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Get patriotic.

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Mother’s Day: Say It With Flowers

Mother’s Day is fast approaching and MakerBot wants you to say it with flowers — 3D printed flowers!

Mother Nature has decorated our planet with an endless variety of flowers, trees, ferns, and vines. Let’s model some original, printable flowers for the awesome Mamas in our lives– maybe even some that can sing, dance, or squirt water in her face — and share them on Thingiverse.com!

We’ve asked our own Mothers to *pick* their favorites, so c’mon, MakerBotters! Let’s make ‘em proud.  Read the rest of this entry »

Thingiverse and Tinkercad.com have been exploding with awesome this week. The source? Some of the wildest, wackiest, most wonderful chess sets we’ve ever seen. Bonbons? Check. Bob-ombs? Double check. Connecting pieces and moveable parts? Check yeah!

Let’s review some of the contenders, shall we? And remember, there’s still plenty of time to get on board. Just don’t wait too long, the contest ends April 1st.

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As our fellow citizens at Thingiverse have proven time and time and time and time again, printing your own custom chess set can be one of the greatest joys of owning a MakerBot. Have you got a brilliant design for a chess set that you want to share? Want a MakerBot Replicator?

Ready, set, CHALLENGE!  

Model all six characters in Tinkercad: pawn, king, queen, knight, bishop and rook. Start from scratch or use the chess set template to build your characters. The best entry will win a brand new Makerbot Replicator! Just upload your design to Thingiverse tagged with #chess and #tinkercad.

Contest ends midnight, April 1st PST.

Jury: designers from both Makerbot and Tinkercad.

Prizes: Winner receives one MakerBot Replicator.

Honorary mentions: glory and fame in the Maker community. Read the rest of this entry »

Are you guys on Pinterest? It’s kind of awesome. It’s like virtual collage – you ‘pin’ images from the web onto themed ‘boards’ and share them with your friends – you can like, repin, and comment on images, too. It’s a great resource for finding inspiration, and it’s also a really useful tool for organizing your ideas and planning your designs.

Check us out! So far, we’ve made some handy #thing roundups like this collection of Jewelry from Thingiverse and this collection of printed puzzles. We’ve also got boards for inspiration like this Product Design collection. While you’re at it, be sure to visit Moebius: In Memorium for our ode to the late, great artist’s most wonderful work.

What do you think?

Do yourself a favor and check out this fantastic episode of Al Jazeera’s social-sourced web show ‘The Stream.’ Bre joins Maker Faire Africa Co-founder Emeka Okafor and host Derrick Ashong in a lively and inspiring discussion of all things #maker, #hacker, and #DIY – all in the time it takes The Replicator to build the Empire State Building. The panel explores how and why maker culture is shaping the future of industry, development, and humanity itself.

Read the rest of this entry »

Fountain Art Fair 2012 opens this Friday at the historic 69th Regiment Armory in New York City, and MakerBot superstar The Replicator will make a special guest appearance at Looseworld’s Absinthe Lounge! A massive exhibition of independent, cutting-edge contemporary art, the Fountain Art Fair is “known for its delightfully rebellious tendencies and inclination to challenge the status quo.” We can dig it. 

Contemporary art gurus Artlog will kick off an unforgettable celebration at Fountain’s Public Opening Night Reception, Friday March 9 from 7-11pm, guest DJ’d by New York legend Fab 5 Freddy. On Saturday Fountain extends its hours until 11pm for a Saturday night party curated by our nonprofit partner Art for Progress!

Site-specific installations and other surprises will abound at Fountain, including a sprawling 200-foot collaborative street art installation and a special series of performance art. For respite from the art fair frenzy, attendees can head to Fountain’s Looseworld Lounge, where Pernod Absinthe will hydrate the crowd while Looseworld, a multi-media creative agency, sets the scene with special video projects.

Fountain Art Fair New York at the 69th Regiment Armory
March 9–11, 2012 | 68 Lexington Avenue at 25th Street

Advance Tickets

Hours & Special Events:

Friday 3/9
VIP & Press Preview: 1pm–7pm
Artlog presents Public Opening Reception: 7pm-11pm

Saturday 3/10
General public hours: 1pm–7pm
Art For Progress Saturday Party: 7pm–11pm

Sunday 3/11
General public hours: 1pm–7pm

Visit FountainArtFair.com for more details
Follow Fountain on Facebook and Twitter

SXSW 2012 is still days away, but the MakerBot Replicator has already taken Austin by storm with this crazy humungous mural, designed by the inimitable Micah Ganske. Pretty sweet, huh?

We are pumped as all get out to present The Replicator to the assembled awesomes at SXSW Interactive this year. We’re also pumped for taco trucks. And BBQ trucks. And chicken and waffle trucks. Mostly though, we’re pumped to see you guys. Here’s where you can find us:

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Bre talks to BoingBoing about the community-created clock he demoed at TED 2012. 

Earlier this week, Bre and 24 of his fellow-TED-Fellows inspired and delighted attendees of the TED Conference 2012, where the world’s boldest and brightest gathered in Long Beach, California. “This year–there’s a spirit of solutions in the air,” wrote Forbes’ Steven Rosenbaum, who listed Bre’s talk on the power of collaborative innovation as one of four ‘earthshaking’ moments from this year’s event.

“We may really be printing out everything we need in the future,” gushed Mariella Moon of Tecca. Moon’s list of 11 Radical Ideas Worth Spreading From Ted 2012 also includes autonomous flying robots, electronic toy kits, a brain recording kit, and a ‘clip from TED2023′  imagined by Ridley Scott in the much-anticipated Prometheus.

Finally, GOOD: education asks, If Schools Kill Creativity, Can Toys Bring it Back to Life? Heck yeah! Here at MakerBot, we’re firm believers in the learning power of play-time. Give a kid a Replicator, and she can make the stuff of her imagination come to life. She can learn science, mechanics, and problem-solving while creating awesome toys of her own invention. Most importantly, she can discover  that nothing is impossible – all she needs is her mind, her MakerBot, and a little help from her friends.