3D Printing

IMAGIMOD – Create a 3D Printed Army of …. Whatever

The toy industry is proving to be an increasingly popular playground for 3D printing. A new start-up company, IMAGIMOD, is entering this fray and the guys behind it demonstrate some strong credentials for doing so. Indeed together they combining decades of mobile app, entertainment, game and creative content experience, together with 3D printing expertise — all with the aim, they tell us, of “Upgrading the State of Play.” To date, the team has created and delivered entertainment on all major interactive platform technologies, for all major publishers from Television to Tablet for LucasArts, Paramount, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Bandai, Marvel, Lego, Hasbro, Nickelodeon, and many more.

This new company, like many others, sees 3D printing as a truly disruptive technology and is looking to point it squarely at the toy and games industry. Guided by a strong belief that the desire to generate and create physical objects for the purpose of enjoyment will become one of the largest ever entertainment phenomena, Rob King, Founder and VP Creative at IMAGIMOD says that: “We believe there is a great opportunity to create new entertainment services which give users the tools to collect and customize components, to form them into objects for use in digital and physical game worlds.”

Kevin Bradshaw, Founder and CEO added: “We see an opportunity to develop some really ground-breaking things here, technically and creatively. There have been 2 major revolutions to date in how interactive games are created and consumed: mobile devices and social media. The third, 3D printing, is going to revolutionize how gameplay in the physical-world is created and delivered from here on.” He continued: “We’re going to be able to create entirely new forms of play that simply couldn’t be delivered via traditional design and manufacturing.“

imagimod 3d printing

Underlying the more creative aspects is a solid technology platform that aims to “abstract away much of the complexity in designing for the many emerging 3D printing technologies” according to co-founder and VP of Production, Chris Conway. All of the services created and delivered on the IMAGIMOD platform will be verified to ensure the “level of quality that’s needed to create a healthy revenue stream for all participants.”

imagimod 3d printing

IMAGIMOD’s first consumer product, Mech Maker has just launched on Kickstarter, which allows users to create, customize and print unique characters for use in tabletop and other games. They can be 3D printed either via the user’s home machine or via one of IMAGIMOD’s fulfillment partners in various materials including full-colour plastic, a material Conway says is “ideal” for making toys. He told us that the company is also in discussions with Stratasys and 3D Systems in order to select a partner for volume production of their toys.

To get more of a feel for the app, check out the campaign video:

The Kickstarter campaign is seeking $50,000 in funding to complete the app for initial iOS release this summer on the AppStore. If they reach a stretch goal they’ll also release it for “Android and other platforms” said Kevin Bradshaw.