The cranial confectionery was the brainchild of 3D tech company Inition. I’ve already outlined the steps above, but in case you need something that makes more sense, watch the video below:

They would’ve skipped a couple of steps if they just used this 3D printer instead, although I guess it would take way longer. Inition also put up an Instructable for those interested in eating chocolate brain, including an MRI file containing a scan of Millns’ brain. I can’t decide which is weirder: eating a chocolate brain based on another person’s brain or one that’s based on your own brain. Or that Chocolate Rain song.

[via Ubergizmo]

These Ear Adapters were created by the Chilean-born, Paris-based designer JC Karich, and allow users to transform earbuds into over-the-ear headphones. This means that you can take your earbuds on the go, and when you want the stability or looks of headphones you can have them easily enough.

The whole thing is 3D-printed and even comes with cushioning. If you like the design, you can freely download the schematics from Thingiverse and print them out on a 3D printer.

[via designboom]

Carbon Freeze Me will let guests step into a “carbon freezing chamber” which will snap digital images of your face and convert them into a 3D model. These will then be used to create an 8-inch-tall 3D model of the classic Han Solo frozen in carbonite, but with your face replacing Han’s. It’ll cost you $99.95(USD) if you want one, and that also includes a commemorative LED Carbon Freeze Me wristband. Additional 3D figurines can be ordered for $74.95 each.

Carbon Freeze Me will be on hand for four weekends starting on May 18th, 2012 at Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios. You must reserve a spot in advance by calling 407-WDW-TECH, and placing a credit card deposit.

[via Sci-Fi Storm]

Well, today, Firebox is making their dreams come true. (And maybe even yours, too, if you’re still secretly wishing you could become Superman one day.)

Although these Personalized Superhero Action Figures won’t turn you into an actual hero, you’ll still have an action figure of you as a superhero to call your own. These built-it-yourself kits contain the original head of the superhero action figure you want and come with an extra one that looks just like you. All you have to do is send two pictures of your face to Firebox and they’ll use 3D printing technology to print off your action figure head to attach to your action figure.

Choose from Superman, Batman, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, or if you’re feeling villainous,The Joker. Personalized Superhero Action Figures are available from Firebox for £79.99 (~$127 USD.)

Naturally, the queen and the king form the head and torso. The bishop and rook along with a few pawns form the arms and hands, while the knight and remaining pawns are the feet and legs. Those who have 3D printers can head to Thingiverse to download the necessary files. The rest of you can go beg Larson to start a Kickstarter fundraiser for his chess set.

[via Geekologie]

The 79 piece set includes every possible set-to-set transitional piece as well as one giant universal adapter brick that is just plain crazy. I have no idea what you would use that one for. You can download the kit here, and check out the complete grid of adapters on this cool wall chart [PDF].

It will be really interesting to see how people use these pieces to create new and amazing things. Happy building.

[via Boing Boing via Geekosystem]

It was created by the Irish design company Curve and it’s called the Angryman. You can use it as a stand by attaching it to the side of your iPhone. This works well on your bedside table or while your out and about town.

Your earbuds are probably all tangled up in your pocket, and Angryman will sort that out for you too. When not in use, Angryman can be attached to a keychain, and it’s really light and unobtrusive, which is another reason I like it.

This effective, multifunctional add-on sells for $13.25(USD) over at Shapeways and can be ordered up in red, black, white or indigo.

[via Ubergizmo]

Their 3D nano-printer can create complex objects no bigger than a grain of sand, like a race car, a model of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, and the Tower Bridge in London. This is amazing stuff. Working on this scale is possible thanks to two-photon lithography.

A laser is directed by a series of mirrors through a liquid resin which then hits a surface and leaves behind a “polymerized line of solid polymer.” The thickness of that line is only a few hundred nanometers.

This printer technology may be new, but it isn’t slow. Remember how slow the first new real-world printers were? In 4 minutes this one can print 100 layers of 200 lines per layer. That’s five meters of polymer printed in one second and a new world record.

It probably won’t be long until we have a super-fast 3D printer that will produce replacement body parts on demand.

[via TGDaily via Geek]

A professor at Auckland, New Zealand’s Massey University, Diegel created these beautiful and lightweight 3D printed electric guitars using a combination of alumide and polyamide materials with an EOS Formiga P100 selective laser sintering machine – a serious industrial 3D printer. I doubt you’d be able to do something this impressive with a Makerbot, but I’m happy to be proven wrong.

His current designs, the Scarab and Spider, feature a cool open air design, and tremendous depth and detail thanks to the capabilities of the 3D printing tech. I love the tiny insects and plants on the inside of these things.

Of course, while the guitar bodies are 3D printed, the neck, pickups, frets and strings are all standard electric guitar parts. Maybe someday those can be 3D printed too.

I’m not sure if Olaf is offering these guitars for sale, but if you’re interested, he has contact information up on his University web page.

[via Ponoko]

The 3D printed fossil bones will initially be used in museums and for educational purposes. The truly awesome part about the 3D printed bones though is that the two researchers plan to eventually use them to build a robotic dinosaur. The duo will start by constructing a robotic leg complete with muscles and tendons. Once that is finished, they will start a truly awesome task.

Their ultimate goal is to create a complete robotic dinosaur so they can study how the dinosaurs moved around the earth millions of years ago. How awesome is that?! A massive robot dinosaur would be so cool. There’s no word on what dinosaur they would try to recreate, but I would assume it would be a smaller dinosaur.

[via Forbes]

While most 3D printers use plastic materials to build small items, Dini’s own D-Shape printer – the world’s largest 3D printer – uses ordinary sand and a binding material, fusing them together into a sandstone-like product to create large structures, anything from a statue to a house. The structure above is the world’s biggest 3D printed object, a scale model of a sculpture that Dini also plans on printing.

Dini’s approach has groundbreaking advantages. Using his system, a building can either be built part by part offsite or as a whole on the construction site itself. The 3D printer also opens up more possibilities for designers in terms of unorthodox shapes and forms. Unfortunately, Dini has faced a lot of challenges and setbacks while pursuing his dream. Jack Wake-Walker and Marc Webb are now working on The Man Who Prints Houses, a documentary about Dini, chronicling not just the Italian’s revolutionary technology but the drama that it dragged into his life as well.

You can find out more about the D-Shape printer on its official website. Those interested in the documentary can go here for more info. If Dini and his like-minded peers succeed, the future will be extremely convenient – or litigious. We may not have to wait for the products we order to be shipped – shops could just provide us with the schematics for us to print at home. Downloadable games? Pfff. How about a downloadable console? Will Minecraft players be able to print their digital creations in 1:1 scale? The infamous anti-piracy ad also comes to mind. Why steal a car if you could download the necessary schematics and then print it? Only one thing’s for sure: printers still have ridiculously overpriced cartridges.

[via Geeks Are Sexy, Shapeways & Inhabitat]

It’s certainly an… interesting technology, although I have a feeling that this dalmatian’s creepy stare is no exception. I think any portrait will become terrifying when subjected to this technology.

The dog’s blood red eyes don’t help its efforts to remain adorable. Fortunately, Casio also has a scaled back version of this 3D-fication. They’re calling it Relief Painting Technology, and what it does is add just the right amount of texture to pictures to make them look and feel like they were paintings, like in the sample below.

But here’s the kicker to this story. Speaking with Casio, Evan Ackerman of Dvice found out that the company “is as unsure as we are about whether anyone actually wants them to be doing this.” I actually burst out laughing when I read that. That’s a nerd’s mentality right there – tech first, business second. Screw the new HDTVs and PCs, it’s nuggets of insanity like this that make me wish I was at CES.

[via Dvice]

This is the third version of the Robotic Hand, courtesy of Thingiverse user Armjunkie. It improves on the original by using fewer non-3D-printable parts, less plastic, and less sanding. The hand also requires less force to move.

I wonder how long it will take for hackers to make their own 3D printed robots. Skynet won’t be far behind, since the technology already exists to make self-replicating robots, ones that are self-aware, and killer ones too.

[via Make:]

These lamp designs were created using i.materialize’s 3D printed table lamp kit, which provides everything you need to design and output your own 3D printed lighting fixture. The 3D table lamp kit includes a lamp base, dimmer, halogen bulb, a metal base and fittings to hold the shade in place. Using a provided design template for popular 3D modeling software (including free apps like Google SketchUp and Blender) you design your shade and upload your 3D file it for printing.

You can check out a number of example designs over on flickr, and read up on the design guide (PDF) before deciding to make the investment in one for yourself. And if it’s feeling like it’s a little over your head, you can always choose one of their nifty already designed lamps.

The 3D printed lamp kit sells for €199 (~$260 USD) over at i.materialize. Be sure to specify whether you need a U.S. or European plug when you order.

Chris Krueger from The New Hobbyist reports that he also used to accidentally touch the microphone, which would mess up the audio while shooting videos. For his solution, Chris first started with a cumbersome handle, but ended up with this nice, collapsible one, which he had 3D-printed.

The 3D design file for the handle is available over on Thingiverse if you’d like to have a copy printed for yourself at one of the online 3D print services such as Shapeways or i.materialize. Once printed, the suction cups can be found at Home Depot and sell for $2 for a dozen, so the resulting handle isn’t expensive, and can easily be stowed when you don’t need it.

[The New Hobbyist via Make:]

It was created by the UK-based designers Sash Reading, Heather and Ivan Morison. They’ve dubbed it Three Cubes Collide and it was made from 1,700 3D-printed pieces, which were engineered and fabricated by Queen & Crawford. The kite uses a lightweight and durable fabric called Cuben Fiber to help keep it airborne.

I don’t know about you, but I think this thing is kind of awesome to see in flight. The modular design is supposedly scalable, so regardless of the size you print, due to its lightweight materials and carbon fiber rods, it should float.

What’s next, 3D-printed airships?

[via designboom]

My Robot Nation uses 3D printing technology to create bespoke robot figurines to your exacting specifications. Simply head onto their website, mix-and-match your choice of head, torso, arms and legs to build your robot body. If you’re feeling whimsical, you can always just hit the “randomize robot” button too.

Once you’ve figured out your robot’s basic form, you can add details like eyes, visors, weapons, and even costumes. Then pick your colors, and even add robot tattoos. You also get to pose your robot at this point, since the finished product won’t be bendable. So pick your pose wisely, since that’s the position your robot buddy will be stuck in for eternity.

Once you save your design, you pick a size, and order up your custom robot. Prices range from $17.99 (USD) for a 2″ tall robot, up to $169.99 for a 6″ tall model. Check it out for yourself over at My Robot Nation now. Be sure to spend some time in the robot Hall of Fame for some cool creations from prior customers.

It’s probably too late to get one of these in hand for Christmas, but they do offer a gift code option you could give instead. Frankly, I think that’s better anyhow, since half the fun is designing your robot in the first place, so why shouldn’t that be part of the gift?

[via Gizmag via designboom]

All you have to do is provide MineToys with the username of the avatar to be printed. They’ll then render it in HD and 3D and possibly other Dees, then send it to Shapeways to be printed.

Build a cart and ride it to MineToys’s website to order. If you think your avatar looks ugly, you can also order 3D prints of the Minecraft avatars of other users. I wonder if there’s a program that does the reverse – take your appearance and render it in Minecraft.

[via Shapeways via NotCot]

What a beautiful commercial district. It’s begging to be hit with a 3D printed tornado.

Isn’t it funny how the rise of 3D printing could take things from the virtual back to the real world? Years from now instead of playing MMOs we could be playing board games, pen-and-paper RPGs or LARPing with high quality trinkets that we print right from our homes. Speaking of which, aspiring tabletop mayors should build a subway line and head to Thingiverse to download the templates for Skimbal’s play set.

[via Architizer via Notcot]

These particular designs were made by Thingiverse user 3dYeti. They were created using a hobby-scale desktop 3D printer, like the MakerBot. They kind of remind me of AT-STs from Star Wars. Other than the banding effect which is common in 3D printing, these miniatures look almost as good as the ones made by traditional modeling methods.

Want these, but don’t have your own desktop 3D printer? You can always use a 3D printing services, such as Shapeways, so you can have access to their fancy high-resolution Selective Laser Sintering rapid prototyping machines. Just upload the designs, pick your materials and pay.

[via Make:]