Kaiju Korner: Wonder Festival 2014 (Winter) / ワンダーフェスティバル 2014［冬］ Part 3: 3D Printing & the 3D-GAN Area

One of the neat things about recent Wonder Festivals has been a spotlight on the technology that's changing the toy industry. In the 3D-GAN (Geometry Application Network) area, a number of tech companies showed off their machines, products, and services.

In addition to straight-up 3D printers and toys made from them, there were companies with lithography technology, mass produced keshi gomu toys (made from molds that were created using 3D technology), and more.

Here's a video followed by stills of some of the booths.

Astec

These high quality keshi gomu toys are made using a unique injection molding process. The molds were made using 3D technology. Because of the precision of the process, they can make numerous molds for the same design, speeding up production, improving efficiency and consistency, and, I would think, lowering overall costs.

Interesting note: I had a nice chat with the person running the booth, and he told me that these figures, along with a lot of other keshi gomu toys, are made from PVC resin. So although we often call them "rubber erasers," the material used to make them may be something else entirely.

More after the jump:

Crew3D

CTI Corporation

I remember this type of etching being popular a long time ago. Back then, lasers were the big thing. I think they were made by sharks with lasers on their heads. Throw me a frickin etching here!