3D Printers Take Over The World!

What?…it could happen! 

In the meantime, however, these printers may very well be printing the future:

“If you are a MacGyver, a Doc Brown or have a little mad scientist in you, and want to experiment with one of the fullest-featured desktop 3D printers and see where it can take you, the MakerBot Replicator 2X Experimental Desktop 3D Printer is for you,” said Makerbot co-founder and CEO Bre Pettis.

We blogged about the merger between Objet and Stratasys back in December and how part of the stated reason  was that 3D Printing was going mainstream. Well, 40 days ago MakerBot’s Replicator 2 was retailing for $2,200.00, a cost we thought was still a tad prohibitive for the “mainstream.”

At this year’s CES, MakerBot unveiled the Replicator 2X…defined by MakerBot, and reported to us by Taylor Hatmaker at ReadWrite as an “experimental’ version of the company’s landmark 3D printer that offers some twists on the Replicator 2’s design.” Among these twists are “dual extruding nozzles that allow printing in multiple colors” and the use of “thermoplastic ABS instead of the material known as PLA.” 

The Replicator 2X checks in at a hefty $2,799.00 though, heading in the wrong direction from the mainstream. So while MakerBot may have marched into CES with an Army of Replicator 2X’s ready to do battle, the rest of us soldiers in the trenches need the weaponry to come down in cost just a bit before we’re truly able to explore our inner Doc Brown’s.

Nonetheless, we are completely fascinated with the infinite possibilities afforded by 3D Printing. But we’ll be ready when the Replicators start replicating…

Watch Taylor Hatmaker’s video from CES:

Makerbot Replicator 2 at CES 2013 from taylor hatmaker on Vimeo.