PieceMaker Technologies Brings Favorite Nickelodeon Characters To Life This Holiday Via 3D Printing On Demand

Original PieceMaker Technologies Press Release via Wix.com:

PIECEMAKER TECHNOLOGIES BRINGS FAVORITE NICKELODEON CHARACTERS TO LIFE THIS HOLIDAY VIA 3D PRINTING ON DEMAND

Initial Designs Include SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dora and Friends and Blaze and the Monster Machines.

PITTSBURGH, PA – November 06, 2015 – PieceMaker Technologies, the leader in retail 3D printing, today announced a partnership with Nickelodeon to bring some of their favorite characters to life via real-time 3D printing. Available at four select Mid-Atlantic toy stores, this partnership marks the first time that a major kids' entertainment company has offered real-time in-store 3D printing, enabling kids to see their pieces print while they wait.


Now with the swipe of a finger, Nickelodeon fans can choose from a variety of characters, gifts and souvenirs within the PieceMaker kiosk from SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dora and Friends and Blaze and the Monster Machines. Shoppers personalize each item to make it their own, and then watch as PieceMaker printers magically transform spools of thread into real, one-of-a-kind products that print in 30 minutes or less and cost under $15.

"We are tremendously excited to join together the world of 3D printing and personalization with such popular Nickelodeon characters, especially as kids can see their customized pieces come to life while they watch right in store," says PieceMaker CEO Arden Rosenblatt. "Nickelodeon is a leader in bringing cutting edge technology and experiences into kids' everyday lives, and we are thrilled with this partnership."

ABOUT Piecemaker® Technologies
PieceMaker provides automated systems for creating custom and personalized products on-demand in retail locations. Through proprietary platform, the "PieceMaker Factory," retailers, venues and brands can finally include any shopper in the design and personalization of the products they buy, delivering that one-of-a-kind item almost instantly. PieceMaker offers a variety of customizable products, but focuses currently on toys and fashion accessories, primarily targeting a tween audience.

Since January 2013, PieceMaker has been working to streamline the way products are designed and fabricated using 3D Printing Technology, delivering a creative new shopping experience and a one-of-a-kind product to match. PieceMaker calls this new approach to retail the "Digital Supply Chain."

About Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon, now in its 36th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in almost 100 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for 20 consecutive years. For more information or artwork, visit http://www.nickpress.com. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB).

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Additionally, in a interview with 3DPrint.com, Pam Israel, director of marketing for PieceMaker, said: "For the first time, kids can choose a Turtle head, a Build-a-SpongeBob or a Dora tag, select their favorite color, make it their own and then watch the magic of 3D printing as the piece they customized becomes a physical object right before their eyes,” Israel told 3DPrint.com. "That's one of the many reasons we also love being in-store with our touchscreen and printers at kids' eye-level. We've seen that kids really love putting their own name on a piece and creating a toy or tag that literally no one else in the world has. All these elements together make for a rather magical experience."

"We're bringing 3D printing to people who aren't yet familiar with the CAD design skills or who aren't ready to invest in their own printer. Our hope is that some of the kids who get their first exposure to 3D printing through us get inspired to learn more and then go on to learn more about design and engineering. Nickelodeon is helping us on this journey by being the familiar face that encourages kids with this early exploration," Israel added.

Also, from NEXTpittsburgh:

Kids design toys and watch them being made with PieceMaker Technologies

Think of Arden Rosenblatt and Alejandro Sklar as the next best thing to elves at Santa's workshop.

Through their innovation, youngsters can design a toy on a computer then watch it being manufactured on the spot.

Pittsburgh-based PieceMaker Technologies, the company that Carnegie Mellon University classmates Rosenblatt and Sklar founded in 2013, is delivering the capabilities of 3D printing to an appreciative customer base, with a couple of industry giants on board.

On the heels of a successful local venture with Toys "R" Us Inc., PieceMaker last month announced a partnership with Nickelodeon for on-the-spot manufacture of the likenesses of such favorites as Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Create and make on the spot with PieceMaker Technologies

Kiosks at which customers can take advantage of the technology are set up for the holiday season at four Toys "R" Us locations in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, including one in Times Square.

"We're bringing a capability that many people have never seen before," Rosenblatt, Piecemaker chief executive officer, says. "Kids love this stuff. It's more interactive. It's everything a toy should be."

Kids aren't the only ones who think so.

"It's a great fit for tweens," Pam Israel, the company's director of marketing, explains. "But you'd be surprised at how many adults are fascinated by it."

A common fascination with 3D printing, to say the least – they both had bought printers prior to starting Masters degrees at Carnegie Mellon – got Rosenblatt and Sklar thinking about the possibilities.

"It was really exciting to us," Rosenblatt recalls. "At the same time, the industry was more maker- and engineer-focused, and companies were not very upfront talking about that in marketing. There was no ecosystem, no content, no software to put it to good use."

Rosenblatt and Sklar, now PieceMaker's chief technology officer, wanted to rectify the situation by developing practical means for using the technology. They thought about aiming their efforts at a straight-to-home approach, but eventually focused on retailers as "a way to bring a ton of new product to their stores without any inventory," according to Rosenblatt.

He uses the term "digital supply chain" to describe the implications: Instead of stocking shelves with items that may or may not move, companies might simply bring in PieceMaker kiosks and let the customers take care of business.

Look what I made! Photo courtesy of PIeceMaker Technologies

"Part of the beauty of the digital supply chain is there's a different library in every store," Rosenblatt says, explaining that the selection of products can be tailored to certain geographic areas.

For example, visitors to Times Square can choose to self-manufacture souvenir images of, say, the Statue of Liberty or Empire State Building, while patrons of the Toys "R" Us in the Philadelphia suburb of North Wales might prefer the Liberty Bell.

After all, personalization is a big part of what PieceMaker offers, from selecting the type of toy to picking colors and even inscriptions.

"People love that you can put your own name or message on it," Israel says about any given toy. "They think, 'This works for me.' It's not just what a generic company thought would be popular names this year."

When Rosenblatt and Sklar started their company, they decided to set up shop not too far from Carnegie Mellon, in East Liberty.

"Pittsburgh has a really good ecosystem for what we do," Rosenblatt says, citing the prevalence of robotics and software companies, along with "great manufacturing resources. It's a very supportive community for startups."

In fact, PieceMaker's headquarters is in the same neighborhood as AlphaLab Gear, a startup incubator that offers hands-on programs with entrepreneurs – Sklar and Rosenblatt were among the first to complete the process – to work toward attracting investors.

Regionally, PieceMaker piloted its retail 3D printing at Toys "R" Us in Cranberry Township, along with two S.W. Randall locations and Playthings Etc. in Butler County.

The company is also collaborating with industrial printer manufacturer ExOne of North Huntingdon Township to use that company's metals in the process.

"We hope to leverage what they do to bring new materials to the table," Rosenblatt says.

Watch Squidward's Moai (Easter Island Head) house as it 3D prints! What's just as cool? It's a working whistle!:



Additionally, from iKids:

A new dimension: 3D-printing toy kiosks move into retail

The 3D-printing space has seen its fair share of entrants over the past few years from both traditional toycos like Mattel and Hasbro and upstarts such as Cannybots and Printeer. And don't forget about the House of Mouse. 3D-printing tech startups were all over its 2015 list of Disney Accelerator finalists. Pegged to explode for some time, the global 3D-printing market is expected to grow by 600% to US$21 billion in 2020, and makers of kids consumer products are all scouting out future opportunities. In the present, however, Nickelodeon might have just found a new niche.

Until now, kid-designed 3D toys were only available through online manufacturers or to users who had access to a 3D printer at home. But a brand-new partnership between Nickelodeon, Toys"R"Us and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based PieceMaker offers kids the experience of making their very own 3D-printed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turltes, SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer and Blaze and the Monster Machines figures in a retail store lab.

So, how does it work?

It's actually quite simple. Using one of PieceMaker's kiosks at TRU, kids simply select which character they would like to make on a touchscreen. Next, they pick from one of seven colors, and they can also add their name or an emoji to make their toy unique.

Once they submit their creation, PieceMaker's machine builds the toy layer-by-layer using ABS plastic (the same material used in Lego pieces), and 30 minutes later kids have their very own brand-new Nick figure, 95% of which cost US$7.99 or less, depending on the design that's chosen.

"A lot of kids are absolutely fascinated. They won't move away," says PieceMaker director of marketing Pam Israel, of the in-store 3D printing process. What makes PieceMaker's in-store 3D printing kiosks stand out, she adds, is that users don't need to be up on the technology in order to participate in the experience.

"There are plenty of places where you can bring your own model and print it, but we're not asking six-year-olds and caregivers to know how to do cast modelling. We've done all that for them," she says. "No one else is doing an in-store kiosk, where consumers can customize a piece and then watch it being printed right in front of them without having technical skills."

Nick's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer and Blaze and the Monster Machines are the first licensed characters PieceMaker has made with its 3D printing machines and now account for more than 15% all the products it makes.

But it's not just characters like SpongeBob or Michelangelo that kids can make. They can also make things like a working whistle modeled after Squidward's home, a Michelangelo with a tongue that pops when you push a lever, or even personalized name tags for their backpacks."The ability to personalize with kids is huge," adds Israel.

Indeed, research released in October from PlayScience and the Casual Games Association confirms that the ability to personalize products and games is highly valued by this generation of kids, regardless of gender.

Taking reports like that into account, Nick, PieceMaker and TRU doubled their efforts from last year's holiday pilot program, increasing the availability of the 3D printing kiosks from two to four TRU stores this time around — Freehold, New Jersey, Middletown, New York, North Wales, Pennsylvania, and the flagship Times Square New York location.

This year's program launched in November and is slated to run until at least April 1.

Israel says both Nick and PieceMaker have been extremely happy with the program, and PieceMaker has been in discussions to place kiosks at other retailers. And Nick may even help with the pitch, she adds. "They think the pieces are turning out great. They like the way people can still customize our pieces, but it's within some very clear constraints," she says.

In addition to Nickelodeon USA, Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products (NVCP), Nickelodeon's international consumer products division, is also trialing 3D printing initiatives.

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