Finally, a use for 3D printers that we can all get behind! Two services are now available that can help you generate a sex toy from scratch by using a 3D printer — which can produce preconfigured dildos of various shapes, sizes, and colors. There's even an option to create an exact replica of your very own genitals. But while the idea appears to be total win, the end results aren't completely perfect — at least not yet.
This news comes to us from Venture Beat's Ricardo Bilton, who highlights two different options:
First up is Makerlove, a website that provides free sex toy designs that can be downloaded and sent out to a 3D printer queue for on-demand gratification.
Its founder, Tom Nardone, is responsible for such toys as the Hello Kitty-inspired Hello Pussycat, the tongue-shaped Organic Communicator, and the very strange Freaky Freud.
As Bilton notes, Makerlove allows for the utmost in privacy — which may be a welcome relief for those maker enthusiasts too embarrassed to go out and buy one for themselves.
There's also the New York Toy Collective, a high-end sex shop run by Chelsea Downs and Laura Parker. By using a MakerBot printer, their service allows for an almost endless array of possibilities — designs that can be altered to meet the specific needs of the individual. Customers can request changes to dimensions, color, and overall aesthetic appeal.
Bilton writes:
This process also allows them to maintain a high level of quality in their creations. Most sex toys are designed via injection molding, a massively expensive manufacturing process used to create as many products as quickly as possible. But that method is completely incompatible with New York Toy Collective's hyper-realistic silicon toys, which have to sit in a mold for longer than a day before they can be removed. Try telling that to a manufacturer focused on getting products out as fast as possible.
New York Toy Collective has also created a technique in which an exact replica of your junk can be created. Visitors to this week's 3DEA Pop Up exhibition can have their genitals scanned and replicated in silicon form.
But, as Bilton notes, the end results aren't quite perfect. First, the sex toys are slightly textured and coarse, owing to print resolutions that aren't quite high enough (although if you like it rough, however, then this might be right up your alley). And as Nardine told Venture Beat, "The resolution will improve with time. 3D printing is just like any other technology."
In addition, the material used for printing, polyvinyl alcohol, is water-soluable, meaning that water-based lubricants can't be used. And lastly, 3D printers are prohibitatively expensive; this is not something that everybody can do right now.
Images via Venture Beat and Makerlove.