Mattel's New ThingMaker Lets You Design and Create Your Own Toys

If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming a toy developer, or simply wished you could equip your favorite action figure with a fantastical accessory of your own design, it’s your time to shine.

Mattel has reimagined its classic ThingMaker—a set that allowed kids to create new toys by pouring liquid plastic into pre-made molds—for the 21st century. The updated version comes in the form of a $300 3-D printer that lets users conceive and create their own toys.

You can send designs wirelessly to the printer through a free app (available for iOS or Android), but the device itself is currently only available for preorder on Amazon and won’t start rolling out until the fall.

The new ThingMaker is intended for kids 13 and up, and comes with safety features like an automatic door lock and retracting print head. It also comes with templates to get the creative juices flowing; users can also create custom add-ons that assemble with ball-and-socket joints. Better still, the brand new ThingMaker opens the door to a world where you can contribute new items to your favorite toy universe. In the broader scheme of things, Mattel is hoping all the thing makers out there go far beyond that.

Aslan Appleman, senior director at Mattel, told USA Today: "Obviously we have quite a few iconic brands in our portfolio as well as access to partner brands. You can imagine that’s part of our longer term strategy."

For now, we’ll be over here printing dinosaurs and making Barbie the bike she was always meant to ride.

Images via Amazon.

[h/t The Verge]