14 DAY TRIAL // We've been following the 3Doodler ever since it was posted on Kickstarter back in February 2013, but soon I won't have a reason to do that anymore because the days of its being just a project of questionable future are over.
Which is to say, the company behind the 3D printing pen, WobbleWorks, has begun to ship the item to everyone who backed its idea.
That's a lot of people. The pledge was of $99 / €73, and the funds accumulated are of around $2.3/€1.7 million.
I suppose that means around 23,000 people will be drawing plastic buildings in thin air soon.
For those unfamiliar with the 3Doodler, it is a unique type of 3D printer, one that showed up not long after normal 3D printers began to pick up Steam.
Unlike the others, it is very, very small. About the size of a larger-than-usual marker actually.
Instead of ink, however, it “draws” things with plastic. Thin sticks of plastic of various colors are introduced through the back end of the pen and then a special motor/melting component renders it malleable.
The thickness of the “lines” is determined by how slowly you move the tip. And you can draw on paper or in the air, provided that you have made some supporting “poles” first.
We were there when WobbleWorks brought the 3Doodler to the Showstoppers conference at IFA 2013, in early September, and even played with it a bit.
It took a few minutes to figure out the finer points, and by that time, an attempt at a miniature skyscraper had been completely ruined, but it was enough to establish that the gadget delivers on all its promises.
In addition to the pen and a pack of plastic sticks, WobbleWorks should ship some papers with schematics, to help you get started out on more complex models. Alas, only in 2014 will retail availability finally come.