It has taken many months of development and preparation, and it has brought even more challenges than we’d thought, but we are pleased to announce that The MakerBot Replicator has started shipping.

Since winning Best-in-Show for Emerging Tech at CES this past January, we’ve received even more orders than we’d been able to anticipate in our most cheerful scenarios. Also, this is the first time we have faced the challenge of launching one of our line of bots as a fully-assembled kit.  It has taken longer than we expected, but bots are finally starting to go out the door!

So if you are an early-adopter who has yet to receive notice that your bot has shipped, we ask for your patience. Despair not: our lean, mean, bot-factory machine is definitely powering forward, building momentum each and every day.

With all of this extra shipping volume, one thing has become clear: how much we appreciate our shipping/receiving staff. This hardworking team are among the busiest humans at MakerBot right now, and their hard-won expertise in getting things in and out the door — getting MakerBots to customers on six continents — is what makes it possible for MakerBots to live in so many homes, schools, and businesses across the planet.