After joining the Disney Accelerator program earlier this year, MakieLab is seeing its line of custom, 3D printed dolls dress up in some important new clothing just as the holidays are approaching. Customers purchasing 3D printed Makies can now outfit their dolls in apparel featuring patterns of Disney’s Minnie Mouse and Maleficent.
For those unfamiliar with Makies, they are one of the most popular consumer 3D printed product yet on the market, with the Britain-based MakieLab allowing customers to customize a Makies doll online – including eye, hair, and skin color – and have them 3D printed on-demand with accompanying clothing and accessories. Now, Disney is contributing to the clothing available for purchase to include pieces with Minnie Mouse and Maleficent iconography.
The news is big for Disney and the 3D printing industry as a whole. While Disney Research has been toying with new ways to 3D print consumer products, such as soft robotic toys, they are also been experimenting with producing consumer products, such as personalized 3D printed Star Wars figures. The recent news that Open Bionics, another Disney Accelerator startup, will be producing Disney-themed bionic limbs for those in need pushes them further into the 3D printing space. Disney Chief Strategy Officer Kevin Mayer described 3D printing as “a future technology that’s going to be important to us as a company.”
On top of allowing MakieLab access to Disney IP for their apparel, MakieLab will be working with the corporation to personalize their upcoming Star Darlings brand. Makies have already experienced a great deal of praise and made some headway into mainstream consumer shops, through the British department store Hamleys and Selfridges. MakieLab’s entrance into the Disney Accelerator program allows them to leverage the universally recognized IP of a $190 billion multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. New Disney-themed t-shirts for custom, 3D printed dolls may be a small kid-cred boost for the British startup, but, if their contribution to the Star Darlings brand is a significant one, this could be the meal ticket MakieLab has been waiting for.
As 3D printed end products make their way into the consumer space, I’m happy that Makies has been one brand to establish itself successfully. Their complete customization options make for great representation among all races and ethnicities and their recent contribution to the Toy Like Me campaign is quite admirable. Once they represent all body sizes and shapes, they’ll truly be making strides to expand the toy offerings, and therefore the imaginations, we provide to kiddy consumers.
