As many people may know by now, Thingiverse is an awesome platform for people to upload 3D model files that represent real, physical objects that can be created from the source files provided. This means that as the consumer-use 3D printing technology inevitably infiltrates everyones’ homes, everyone will have a place to go to download free objects and print them out right at home. Talk about manufacturing on demand.

Last month some people over at the MakerBot Workshop uploaded some very interesting 3D printable toy figures and playsets.

They first released the MakerBot Damsel and the MakerBot Astronaut; two designs that set some of the system standards for an open-source line of toy action figures.

Simple, stylized, and partially articulated, these figures would serve as a platform for other Thingiverse users to create and upload more toy figures that played nicely with the originals.

MakerBot Workshop also released 2 HUGE playsets for these figures – a Castle and a Rocket. These things are awesome.

I wanted to make some additional figures, so I created a Knight - the Damsels & their castles seemed vulnerable.

I wanted to do a Wizard next, but after I spent some time modeling the hat I decided to also make a Witch using the Wizard’s hat and the Damsel’s body.

Once the beard was finished, I made some robes and voila – the Wizard.

And of course the whole point of the interchangeable system… customization!

See MakerBot’s post on these playsets here