Mixee Labs is one of our favorite 3D printing startups. With new announcements every few months, this company is one of the fastest innovating in the industry. Mixee has launched  jewelry, cufflinks, dog bone tags, slim wallets, and figurines.

Today, Mixee Labs announces a new product: 3D printed bobblers. Yes, bobble head dolls with your own face.

Mixee Bobblers are the world’s first customizable, fully 3D printed bobble heads. Unlike other custom bobble head services, with Mixee Labs everything is automatic via their online creator. You select hair styles, facial expressions, and see the results immediately in 3D before you purchase. If you don’t see some graphic you want, contact Mixee Labs and they add it to their design tool for free.

We caught up with Nancy Yi Liang, co-founder of Mixee Labs for an interview.

On 3D Printing: It looks like you are reviving the original figurines. Was this based on customer demand?

Nancy Yi Liang: Yes! A lot of customers have commented that the Mixee Me original figurines look like bobble heads. It’s actually a very good description. They are fun, cute, cartoon caricatures with big heads. However, we’d always have to add on almost apologetically.. “except the Mixee Mes don’t bobble.” Well, one day we thought, “why shouldn’t they bobble?” So we got to work designing a bobble head version.

On 3D Printing: Was it a challenge to design bobblers that could be customized? How much more complicated are they to 3D print than the original figurines?

Nancy Yi Liang: This was indeed more challenging than the original figurines, or really any static, non-moving models. There were a few things that were tricky:
1) Springiness: we wanted just the right amount of springiness. It had to have a bounce that lasts for a few seconds at least. So getting the right about of bounce took a few iterations. I attached a picture of the range of springs we tried. We thought about using pre-made, mass produced springs. But, we love the simplicity of 3d printing (print on demand, no inventory, etc.) and we believe this can show just some other applications for 3d printed materials.

2) Getting everything to fit together. We wanted to design a spring that could just insert into the bobble head, no screwdrivers, no glue, just plug and play. So we had to get the tolerances right and account for the slight variations from one print to another. We actually had some help from a community member, Asher, who is only a freshmen in high school! He gave us a few ideas that eventually led to the current design.

3) Balance. When you make a bobble head go, you’re applying external pressure on the object. So the object has to be stable. We added a bigger base to the figurines and made the head a little smaller. Our original Mixee Me had a bigger head, which ended up toppling over when you perched it on a spring and flicked it. The new head works amazingly well!

Below is a photo gallery showcasing the Mixee Bobblers.

Mixee Labs is selling bobblers for $25 each, as compared with prices ranging from $70 to $200 on other sites. These figurines are 2.5 inches (6.5 cm) tall and are fully 3D printed in sandstone and nylon plastic.

Visit Mixee Labs to create your own 3D printed bobbler.

Share your bobbler designs with us on Twitter @On3DPrinting and Facebook.

EOS laser-sintering technology brings complex creations to the runway

Chicago-based artist and longtime proponent of 3D-printed art and sculpture Joshua Harker made his runway debut at this year’s 3D Printshow in London and Paris. The event heads to New York in mid-February.

Harker’s first piece of “wearable art,” a headdress laser sintered on an EOSINT P 760 additive manufacturing (AM) system, served as the anchor of 3D Printshow’s fashion show, held at the Business Design Centre in London’s Islington borough and Carrousel Du Louvre in Paris.

The all-plastic headgear, which pays homage to traditional ceremonial headdresses of Native American and African tribes, consists of a variety of interwoven and suspended components. After Harker dedicated almost 200 hours of design time,EOS was able to print the entire piece in less than 26 hours.

Harker also debuted a nearly 2000-piece kinetic sculpture manufactured using EOS laser-sintering technology and displayed other items from his creative portfolio at the show.

“I have used EOS’ technology considerably in my pieces because I have to. It’s one of the very few that allows me to produce my creations without problematic issues of cleanup, rigid support and other technicalities after the build is finished,” Harker says. “It helps me do what I do without being burdened by manufacturing considerations.”

Harker identifies himself as an artist trying to push the boundaries of 3D printing. His portfolio is full of complex designs and intricate geometries, many of which could only be manufactured through AM. He believes that others in both the art and fashion industries will soon realize the capabilities of 3D printing and begin to take advantage of them.

“3D printing is a process that allows you to create things that can’t be done any other way,” Harker says. “Whether it’s fashion or art or anything, really, when you’re imagining things and the constraints of what you can make are gone, it changes a lot of things. Designers are really going to have a lot of powerful new avenues to explore with this technology.”

Joshua Harker has been contributing to the 3D printing ecosystem for some time. He created unique covers for the Fuel3D  handheld 3D Scanner that raised over $300,000 on Kickstarter.

3D Printshow took place in London and Paris in November 2013 and will be in New York during February 13-15, 2014. In addition to the fashion show there are exhibits and presentations focused on medical, architectural, educational and other applications of 3D printing.

MyMiniFactory has launched their first 3D printing contest of 2014, a Valentine’s 3D printable design contest. The grand prize is an all expenses paid break for two at a 5 star spa retreat, including travel and dinner, with a value of £1000.

Launched in June 2013, My Mini Factory features a large range of free 3D printable objects that are original and unique, and all designs are test printed by the My Mini Factory team on affordable 3D Printers to ensure their quality.

“MyMiniFactory.com is the world’s 2nd largest platform of 3D printable files,” said Romain Kidd, Chief Marketing Officer, iMakr.com. “Downloads come from around the world. The designer base – both in-house and external – is in the several hundred, and very multinational as well.”

The company previously ran a Christmas design contest.

To enter the Valentine’s contest applicants need to 3D model and upload a design following one of the two design themes -

• Theme 1 – Gadgets- a 3D printable gadget
• Theme 2 – Keepsake/Gift- a 3D printable Valentine’s gift or keepsake for a loved one

Entries will be accepted from the January 13-27, and the competition is open to applicants worldwide.

After this a two week voting period starts, where entries will have their own personal page for design downloads. The design with the most downloads will be the grand prize winner.

Go to MyMiniFactory to submit your own design or check out other entrants.

With a Foothold in Eastern Europe, Threeding Challenges 3D Printing Marketplace Incumbents

Tony Kitipov is building a world-class marketplace for 3D printable files. It just so happens that Tony lives in Bulgaria and is creating his foothold in Eastern Europe rather than Silicon Valley or Manhattan.

“We were inspired by the 3D printing industry after several visits of the United States where we saw couple of 3D printing facilities,” said Threeding.com Founder Tony Kitipov in an exclusive interview with On 3D Printing.

Threeding is a Bulgarian startup founded Kitipov and students of the Bulgarian National Academy of Art, Cveta-Maria Partaleva and Stan Partalev.

“We are certainly not the first one globally in this niche but we are definitely the first platform for 3D file sharing in Central and Eastern Europe,” explained Kitipov.

Threeding has modeled itself after successful online marketplaces, such us eBay, by creating a two-sided network of sellers – in this case designers – and buyers.

The company gives designers the option of selling their models or distributing them for free. Since the marginal cost of these digital designs is zero, designers pick the free path to grow their fanbase and then sell their best designs for a profit.

Threeding currently charges a 40% commission to the seller, but they are planning to lower this commission in early 2014, says Kitipov.

Keeping it Like (Early) eBay

IP infringement was quite a hot topic over the last year in the 3D printing industry. With the emergence of 3D scanning technology, what is to stop a designer from ripping off a proprietary design protected by copyright law?

Threeding explained that it is not in the business of arbitrating IP infringement cases. “Threeding.com is not a direct seller of 3D files but only offers a sharing platform and charges a commission on a sold item, i.e. acts like as a broker,” explained Kitipov in an interview with On 3D Printing.

By not directly selling designs, Threeding is taking a page from the early days of eBay: connect buyers and sellers, don’t get involved in the transaction.

Related: Will 3D Scanners Usher in a New Era of Copyright Infringement?

Targeting the Global Design Workforce

There are several large 3D printable design marketplaces live today, from MakerBot’s Thingiverse to Shapeways to CGTrader and more.

Where Threeding may have an edge is in its geographic origins. There are many talented designers in Central and Eastern Europe who regularly work on contract for U.S. and Western European companies through marketplaces like 99designs and oDesk. Could Threeding tap into this design workforce and enable these people to sell designs to customers in their own part of the world?

Threeding.com was launched in December is growing its design database rapidly. Go to threeding.com to learn more about the 3D printing marketplace.

Thanks to Tony Kitipov for this interview!