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ThinkMaker, 3D Printer Designed for Kids

By Kanika Gupta | Update Date: Feb 22, 2016 09:59 AM EST

You may have never thought of getting home a 3D printer, for obvious reasons. However, with a machine that allows your kids to develop their own toys, now that's a must have!

Mattel's new ThingMaker is a 3D printer that can help your kids make their own toys in a snap. The printer is integrated with Autodesk that can also help you in designing more things such as jewelry and print a prototype on this machine. This is also the first 3D printer that has a potential of appealing to regular consumers.

While market for 3D printers already exists, it has not yet made it to people's homes. Technology analyst firm Canalys's Joe Kempton assessed that not only did the product sales, but also accompanied materials and services together hit a $1.8 billion mark in the first half alone of 2015. This number will further increase to $20 billion by 2019, as reported by Wired

"Businesses, particularly those focused on the automotive, aerospace, and medical sectors are investing huge sums of money into 3-D printing," says Kempton.

However, everyday individuals do not find much use in 3D printers as they are expensive and complex to use. But ThingMaker is designed to address these constraints and does so in collaboration with the biggest toy maker company in the country.

"Traditionally if you've done any 3-D printing, there are file formats you have to be aware of, you've got to teach yourself about repair and geometry, getting it laid out in the bed right way, getting support structures to support things," says AutoDesk creative director Dan Pressman. "We solve a lot of that."

The kids can create their own designs or choose one from the templates in the ThingMaker Design app that works on simple Drag and Drop technique and gives a 3D visualization of what the product will look like when it is done. Then all it takes is a little push of the button to print the finished product, says Wired

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