All,

My wife found this kickstarter this morning and I thought I'd share it here.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/herofo...etop-miniatures

Right now they are only planning Fantasy minis but they do plan to expand that as they grow. Basically they will 3d print custom minis that you design on their web site (if they can get off the ground). I just thought folks here might like the idea.

Love the idea of this. It still sounds crazy expensive though.

Sounds like they are pitching $15-$25 per custom mini after they get set up. Pretty expensive, but for an actual miniature of your favorite character... I can see it.

I expect the major cost is in design. With a quality printer, printing is just a question of time (and of course, overhead for buying said printer). I would expect that once the models are designed, printing a pre-existing model should be cheaper.

According to their Kickstarter (and the backer feedback) you design your mini using their modular pieces, and then submit it for print. This allows hundreds (or more) possible combinations. They are actually contracting with a 3D printing company for the actual prints at least in the beginning. This allows more effort going into the design interface and options. Once they can they may purchase their own printers and begin doing the printing themselves. At least that is my understanding of what they have put out so far.

The sample videos of their modular designer look good, of course it isn't even in beta yet, so we'll just have to wait and see.