I just got a question from DA user billy-superskullz on whether I believed 3-D printing could replace the mold casting techniques in the toy industry, and I thought the answer would be interesting enough to share in a journal. Both techniques have strengths and weaknesses, molds are of course faster, have fewer moving parts, and produce smoother results, typically only a single seam and maybe a bit of flash where the injection point was. 3-D printers are fairly complex devices with a lot of moving components that can be prone to failure, since they build something from the bottom up they take more time, and the process of building it layer by layer can leave it with that bumpy look and be somewhat more fragile. However 3-D printers are improving every day, getting faster, making things more seamless and durable, and indeed many toy industries DO use them in some capacity, at least for making prototypes or a master mold. As of right now, mold casting has too many advantages in speed and reliability to be replaced in mass production anytime soon, but there IS one thing 3-D printing can do that mold casting can't. A mold can only make one part, if you want to alter the part you need to make a new mold, a 3-D printer can make anything if you feed it the right program. There are already communities out there that distribute 3-D models (sometimes free, sometimes for a fee) that anyone can download and feed into their 3-D printer. They can even be edited by the user before printing to make an entirely unique thing. Imagine if a major toy manufacturer did that! You could buy a 3-D model of a my little pony character in a custom pose with it's own unique mane style from hasbro, or download a transformer "kit" which could be used to either re-shell one of your existing figures into a new character (which has already been done by fans with Nautica: http://fav.me/d8xuu46) or just make a full on transformer by itself (you may need to provide your own screws or springs, but I imagine any characters distributed this way would be designed not to need stuff like that, imagine if hasbro embraced this as part of their business model!) Of course this isn't mass production, it would most likely be embraced by the customizer community, and we'd probably have to come up with whole new trademark laws if we start trading these 3-D models for profit; for example, hasbro would own the model to make Starscream, and anyone caught selling or sharing the model would be like a movie pirate or something, BUT if they altered the model significantly then it could become a HUGE grey area, like the model is no longer Starscream, but it wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the base model that hasbro made...so who claims ownership? I dunno, perhaps the altered model could be shared as long as it isn't for profit, and it was programmed to not be converted back into the base model...it gets really complicated if you want to get money into it, but isn't that just the way of the world anyway?