There are some rockin new Citizens of Thingiverse: The Hives! Read below to hear why we think this is cool, but for now here’s the skinny.

This Swedish band has been making energetic, makes-you-jump-around rock music (yes, the first sentence was a pun) since 1993, and in many people’s view keeping rock music alive. When the guys took some time out of their crazy schedule to visit our headquarters in Brooklyn, we did not miss the opportunity to scan their heads and upload them to Thingiverse.

The amazing people at Baeble Music documented the whole thing on their site and in the video below, which is basically a day in the life with The Hives. Enjoy the whole interview or jump to the 9:40 mark to see the MakerBot section. It’s a little sped up, yes, but the scanning really is that simple. We do a lot of this at our office and on the road because all we need to bring is a laptop, a Microsoft Kinect, and a spinny chair. Check here for more info about this method of scanning people’s heads.

On their brand new Thingiverse page, just launched today, these world famous rockstars have shared their heads with you to use them as you please. And if you’re a big fan, remember that our Todd Blatt also uploaded a Hives version of one of his sweet custom guitar picks! Find it here.

To reiterate how cool this is: this is super cool. The Hives have listed all of their upcoming tour dates on their Thingiverse page, and now you can download scans of the guys themselves before you go to a show. Maybe you’ll turn the scans into a set of Pez dispensers, or keychains, or some other brilliant thing to show off to other concert goers. Maybe you’ll be the first to make these scans into dualstrusion files, so you can showcase this band in their trademark black-and-white getups.

Stay tuned for more sweet Thingiverse action from The Hives!

A very, very rainy Friday afternoon in Brooklyn yesterday exploded into awesome here at MakerBot with a visit from The Hives!

This band has been rolling out legit rock music in four major studio releases since 1997, and this year they released a fifth, Lex Hives. Here’s a single from that album, Go Right Ahead, featuring the guys in their black and white suits as always, but this time riding a giant dirigible…into space.

A bunch of us love The Hives, so it was a big treat to have them around during their time in New York, especially just a couple hours before their show at Terminal 5! Luckily we had a little practice with having musicians in the house, and were able to give the guys custom guitar picks, designed by Zenix. Bassist Dr. Matt Destruction said the pick felt good and sturdy for playing. Here’s guitarist Nicholaus Arson holding his.

Guitarist for The Hives Nicholaus Arson holds his custom guitar pick, made on a MakerBot

We were smart this time: before we let The Hives leave, we had each of them spin in a chair real quick while Nick (one of our events crew members) scanned them with a Kinect. We’ll turn these into 3D models with ReconstructMe, and pretty soon we’ll have the whole band in 3D on Thingiverse, for anyone to download for free. Drummer Chris Dangerous said he could use his own head as a custom gear shift in his car. Not a bad idea.

Drummer for The Hives Chris Dangerous gets scanned in 3D using a Kinect

What we always want to know from artists we talk to is what they would do with a MakerBot. If they had the power to make anything they wanted, how would they use it? Would they download and make art? Would they upload jewelry for their fans? Or would they use it the way so many people do, to download and make things for home?

Lead singer for The Hives Howlin' Pelle Almqvist holds MakerBotted sculpture by nervoussystem

The Hives are definitely a creative group (and a bunch of freakin nice guys, by the way), and everything about them from their stage names to their website to their videos reflects that. We can’t wait to see what they’ll get into once their Thingiverse page goes up next week. If you want to know when that happens, follow us on twitter @makerbot, and be sure to check in at Thingiverse. In the meantime, you can start thinking what you might like to mash their heads up with.