I used to print quite a lot of toys for my kids, but I stopped doing that, since it feels mostly like a waste of plastic.
3D printed toys are rarely enjoyable. The toys are usually either not interesting enough (think static, non-movable, single-color figurines like the low-poly-pokemon series), or not durable enough or both at the same time.
My kids liked the printed toys when they got them, but they barely looked at them after like 10 minutes and then they ended up rolling around the house until they broke, usually very soon.
I love 3D printing, I use it a lot for all sorts of things, but toys are just not a very good application for 3D prints, in my opinion. It’s just not worth the plastic.
Edit: Just for context: I’ve been around the block with 3D printing. I started about 7 years ago and I’ve been the 3D printer repair guy for my circle of friends ever since, fixing up everyone else’s printers. I design most of the things I print myself. The reason I am posting this is because pretty much everyone I know who has a printer and kids prints toys all the time, and any time I’m at any event where someone can shoehorn a box of give-away low-poly-pokemon in, there is one there.
IMO, this is all plastic waste and nothing else.
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I’ve learned this as well. But printing parts to supplement existing toys…now that’s been great. Hot Wheels accessories is a really good example…
I really like printing toys that are different sets work together, like duplo train track adapters.
My kiddo is 11 now, but I beleive the old bag of Brio in the toy box has at least one Duplo Adapter I printed on my old Monoprice Mini.
Yeah, brio style train tracks in my case. Or missing parts for existing toys - fixed a lot of my toddler’s toys that way: pieces of shape puzzles, etc
Oh yes… I’ve printed a bunch of train track parts that doesn’t exist otherwise…
For example this piece to go up and down from a carpet is indispensable: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4359335
And you can never have too many of these: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3325875
Nice! This collection of 50+ track types has some great items too: https://www.printables.com/model/117903-extended-set-of-wooden-train-track-with-50-unique
Yeah, I’ve designed and printed extra parts for the wooden Melissa and Doug train sets. No more wobbly bridges for us!
Like always in 3D printing you need to understand if something is worth printing. There are enough toys that work as 3D print, and enough stuff that either will not survive the load, or not be played with (like those figurines). For those categories (especially the figurines) commercial ones might have the same fate, though, so just printing one to shut the child up may have smaller footprint/costs.
A small list of toys that work very well 3D printed:
This propeller pull toy last longer than the commercial ones with pull string.
This stomp rocket also works great, and if the kids listen to instructions will last ages.
This kind of logic game has similar durability than commercial ones.
This kind of balloon toy also is pretty nice - we used to build those from wood when I was small, but 3D-printing here offers quite a bit more options for experimentation together with the kids. (The author has different models in his profile)
From that there’s pretty much a direct line to 3D printed RC models, where the main problem is that many are in the classic model builder mindset where you have to live with the parts you can buy, and due to that end up with a BOM containing dozens of different screw types. This one is an easy to build example not making that mistake, and there are some others as well.
thank you for sharing all of these
I have several versions of the pull toy and they’re cool. My sister also wanted some Kuromi or whatever the fuck girly cute things so she enjoyed those.
I can count on one hand how many “toys” I’ve printed. I have printed thousands of useful/needed items, though. That tool is indispensable to me. It’s crazy how far prototyping tech has come.
On one hand I think “wow I want to develop this skill”, on the other hand it seems like quite the time suck of a hobby, with quite a high barrier to entry.
it seems like quite the time suck of a hobby, with quite a high barrier to entry
That’s printer building, modding and maintenance of those
3D printing in 2025 is easy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBQ-QfcY3Qs
That’s mostly outdated. Sure, you can still get an Ender 3 in 2025 and spend years fixing it up and upgrading it, but you can also spend €200, get an Anet A1 Mini and be done with it.
These things print almost flawlessly out-of-the-box and are dirt cheap.
€200 for the printer, €20 for a roll of filament and you are set.
So I should buy the Anet A1 mini?
I recently got a flash forge adventure 5m and was printing in 30 minutes with no prior experience. There’s definitely a learning curve but if you can get a paper printer working, you can do a 3d printer
It’s a good printer if you just want to print and don’t care for hardware modding. If you fit into that profile, yes, get it.
TBH I prefer the older machines, I stay away from the proprietary all-in-one stuff. I’m all about modularity, and usually means keeping parts and processes standard between builds for production’s sake.
That’s a totally valid viewpoint, and I myself am also running an Ender 5, modified to death. The only original components are the frame, the motors and the bed, and I even have a toolchanger setup for multi-material prints.
But it’s not the right device if your goal is just to print. For that, the proprietary ones aren’t a bad choice.
It’s all about what works best for the particular individual. The majority of people want some hand-holding, and that’s ok. Not everyone is into designing their own hotends or completely rebuilding stock printers into monsters :)
And it’s not only a person-thing alone, but also a thing-thing. For example, I love modifying my printer or my phone (I designed and built a keyboard attachment for my phone). But I want my 2D printer to just work. And my car as well, same as my dishwasher, my laundry machine and my stove.
I’m currently printing parts for a Voron on a Prusa MK3S. The fact that I can make another printer using a printer is still such a cool concept.
My fleet of ender 3’s have upgraded themselves all to direct drive linear rail dual z, etc. but they’ve also been instrumental in creating dummy and temp parts to build multiple CNC machines, which then are used to make their own final parts. It’s wild what you can do!
I’m currently rebuilding a brand new AnyCubic Kobra2 max, since the factory controller hardware is trash. I bought it for the frame and hotbed. It’s getting all new motion control, klipper, direct drive, bl touch, and a input shaping among other things.
You’re right, and it’s the same reason 2d printers didn’t destroy the book publishing business. It only really makes sense to print things that are either highly situational one-offs for our own purposes or things that someone else created but that aren’t economically justifiable to physically distribute to us.
Commodity items like toys are made to a ridiculous level of cost and process optimization with large and highly sophisticated equipment and molds, which won’t pay for themselves until they’ve sold a hundred thousand toys or more. 3d printers are not competing with that at all. The goal is not to do the same things they already do at scale. The goal is to do the things they won’t and can’t do at scale, that would be cost-prohibitive to set up the process and molds for, that you don’t have time to set up a whole process for because you need it right now. That’s where 3d printing shines. Even companies are using it for rapid iteration because it would simply take too long to keep changing the setup on a traditional process. But it’s never going to replace or “beat” traditional manufacturing and distribution for most things that are done in bulk.
To be fair though, if almost anyone had a 3D printer, only plastics would be distributed, and only the plastic that is needed.
What I mean is that you don’t have to manufacture in advance and actually ship plastic products to every corner in the world so that these plastic garbage cab sit on shelf and then end up in a landfill after not being sold for tens of years.
Basically on-demand plastic garbage production would in most cases where the amount required is not well understood be beneficial if most people did it.
Because almost everything is made in excess, and the wasteful production is just offset in cost.
And yet on basically any convention that has anything remotely to do with making or toys or anything like that, there will be someone with a box full of low-poly-pokemon distributing these garbage-level toys to everyone willing to take one.
I think it’s actually that the “toys” that can be easily printed are simple novelties, and lots of us get caught up in that. They look super cool online, then you eventually realize that they’re usually worse versions of happy meal toys.
But when there’s a broken part on our train set, or we have a dollhouse that needs another chair, printing is super great.
Printing is easy. Choosing something worth printing is hard.
I much prefer printing mechanical things, and stuff that does stuff (or fixes stuff) is where it’s at for me. For me to print a static model it has to either be sufficiently hilarious or fit with some inside joke in my household (penguins and ducks feature prominently) or I ain’t doing it.
A word to the wise for anyone printing static models or figurines for your kids, or whatever. Print these in TPU instead of PLA. TPU is functionally indestructible except via heat, can’t shatter, won’t hurt as much if you step on it in the dark, and its moderate amount of squishiness means that it’s significantly less likely to deal damage when younger brothers throw it at older sisters.
TPU is a total game changer for kid’s toys - I switched to it last summer and my daughter’s outdoor prints haven’t melted in the car like the PLA ones did (TPU’s heat resistance is around 100°C vs PLA’s sad 60°C).
I agree, but with exceptions. More complicated projects made of several separate parts (especially ones not 100% 3D printed) can be hella cool.
Heat set screw inserts, embedded hardware (nuts, magnets, springs), electronics, etc. can all be used to create toys that can’t be purchased.
most toys that aren’t 3d printed are usually plastic waste also
but i understand your point.
The fragile part is easily fixed by changing the print material and/or infill percentage. You’re right on all other points though.
3d Printing can lose it’s luster over time if you don’t make the effort of learning 3d CAD software and making new designs. -This is my current struggle as FreeCAD is a painful piece of software to use.
The fragile part is easily fixed by changing the print material and/or infill percentage. You’re right on all other points though.
You can make it clunky, but then it’s not appealing any more. That’s why I said that it’s a trade-off between clunky and not interesting on the one side and fragile and not durable on the other side.
infill percentage
Btw, perimeters do a huge amount more for stability than infill.
3d Printing can lose it’s luster over time if you don’t make the effort of learning 3d CAD software and making new designs. -This is my current struggle as FreeCAD is a painful piece of software to use.
I’ve been 3D printing since 7 years now, and I mostly design the things I print myself. For functional parts and prototyping, 3D printing is amazing. I am specifically talking about toys here.
Fair enough. I guess I can’t relate to that.
You can make it clunky, but then it’s not appealing any more.
Using pctg and more infill doesn’t make a 3d printed object clunky. It only makes it stronger.
For example a benchy in pctg is so strong that it’s physically impossible to break anything but the smokestack with your bare hands. Print in TPU and it’s completely indestructible to bare hands.
Infill doesn’t really improve strenght that much, perimeters work far better.
But any 3D printed object that has that much space for more infil/perimeters is already clunky.
Compare a benchy to an average toy figurine. The benchy is super clunky compared to most non-toddler toys my kids have.
Infill doesn’t improve strength linearly but it does improve it.
Compare a benchy to an average toy figurine.
I don’t know what figurines you are printing. Could you link to one?
And TPU makes anything indestructible.
I think it really depends.
I print a LOT of barbie furniture and items for my nieces in PLA and it works great, they love it. I also print barbie shoes and jewelry in flex resin, and it’s really perfect.
I also use Resin to print other action figures like the bluey family, a peppa pig lamp for their room etc. But for action figures I have to paint them.too. Sometimes I just let them paint it themselfs and they love it.
Any toy is a “waste” of plastic in the end, it will all eventually break
To some extent I agree, however I do have some examples with staying power:
- bath toys, like boats and stuff
- video games props, like pokeballs, Pokédex, ocarina flute, majoras mask prop, wind waker wand
For the latter, it was a father-son project to sand and paint them, so that probably has to do with it. For bath time, it’s probably because the selection is more limited in the first place.
Hot take but video game props just for having them, is just trash
if you enjoy looking at them, how is it waste?
I mean I guess but that sounds like just defining all toys as trash to me
Most of the stuff people print, is crap that will go in the garbage in a week. I get it, I went through that phase when I got my printer too.
If you learn how to design your own stuff, suddenly it becomes a really useful tool.
I got into 3D printing 7 years ago and I design most of the things I print myself, so I know what kind of useful tool it can be.
The reason I am posting this is because pretty much everyone I know who has a printer and kids prints toys all the time, and any time I’m at any event where someone can shoehorn a box of give-away low-poly-pokemon in, there is one there.
And all that is plastic waste and nothing else. These things often make a happy-meal-toy look like quality by comparison.
Couple of thoughts.
First, what you described sounds like most of the toys I’ve bought my kids growing up so if it brought them joy, probably about as valuable as anything else.
Second, my experience is a bit different. My sons have 3d printed nick nacks displayed on their shelves and both have fidget toys they play with on the regular. Also I’ve got a chain fidget in my pocket I’ve been playing with all day.
I’ve also got a box of less successful toys I’d love to recycle if I could but definitely some wins too. So I think there are a lot of toys you’d be right about but also a lot of them are actually pretty interesting and fun to the right person
I don’t think this is a hot take at all. This is the main reason why I’ve printed fewer than like 5 non-functional prints in my entire life, and most of them were requests from friends. I make lots of custom mounts, replacement parts, custom cases, shims and jigs, custom measuring tools, etc.
Yeahhhh, the makerspace I work at gets constant requests for these kinda things and it irritates me to no end… Totally feel your frustration.
I get the same from friends. Just last week someone asked me to print a bunch of low-poly-pokemon as a gift for some kid. And I know the kid’s gonna look at them for 5 minutes and then toss it in a corner to rot.
In advance, I always plan to at least make them from biodegradable PHA so I’m not contributing to micro plastics. But also I hate wasting my precious PHA on it, because the stuff is so hard to get lol
First I’ve heard of pha. Thanks!
