6 replies to this topic

[Rebel Tiger]

I was wondering if anyone does 3D printed minis? I would love to get a Nova Prime, but maybe as more of a shelf item rather than just a standard sized mini. I was wondering if anyone sells them?

[Heavy Money]

MobMessenjah, on 06 July 2023 - 08:16 PM, said:

I was wondering if anyone does 3D printed minis? I would love to get a Nova Prime, but maybe as more of a shelf item rather than just a standard sized mini. I was wondering if anyone sells them?

If you search 3D print sites like Thingiverse or whatever its called you can find lots of modelled prepped for printing and then use one of the many print on demand websites.

[Delete Dragon]

I love these threads.

There are a few DIY threads for people with 3d printers and some tech savvy, I'm not one of those people, yet.

Main issue is it is illegal to sell them, and the people who own the IP don't make them, so there is really no way to do it (legally) except DIY or someone willing to do it for free.

Thing verse has a few files for various mechs, and there are at least a couple other place to find them, last time I checked, a few years ago

[confracto]

Delete Dragon, on 06 July 2023 - 10:33 PM, said:

I love these threads.

There are a few DIY threads for people with 3d printers and some tech savvy, I'm not one of those people, yet.

Main issue is it is illegal to sell them, and the people who own the IP don't make them, so there is really no way to do it (legally) except DIY or someone willing to do it for free.

Thing verse has a few files for various mechs, and there are at least a couple other place to find them, last time I checked, a few years ago

...and the people who lease half the IP aren't allowed to make them.

here, I fixed that for you.

and for those who may not know, here's a brief summary:
-Topps owns the half of the IP that's allowed to make physical products, which Catalyst licenses and they do make minis.
-Microsoft owns the half of the IP that is not allowed to make physical products, which licenses to PGI.

PGI politely turns a blind eye to fans ripping game files to make their own minis because they can't offer an alternative, but this has to be free. Trying to buy or sell, or even listing places that do will get you banned, and is also just supporting thieves. It's bad enough seeing people leeching off the work I did at PGI, but I've also seen it happening with my own fan art of MWO too.

[kalashnikity]

confracto, on 06 July 2023 - 11:13 PM, said:

...and the people who lease half the IP aren't allowed to make them.

here, I fixed that for you.

and for those who may not know, here's a brief summary:
-Topps owns the half of the IP that's allowed to make physical products, which Catalyst licenses and they do make minis.
-Microsoft owns the half of the IP that is not allowed to make physical products, which licenses to PGI.

PGI politely turns a blind eye to fans ripping game files to make their own minis because they can't offer an alternative, but this has to be free. Trying to buy or sell, or even listing places that do will get you banned, and is also just supporting thieves. It's bad enough seeing people leeching off the work I did at PGI, but I've also seen it happening with my own fan art of MWO too.

Well, that's even more depressing than I realized, LOL.

FWIW games like World of Warcraft have private servers that are legal because they don't charge money to play. I assume the same applies to 3D printed mechs, there isn't anything the IP owners can do about people running a private server or 3D printing toys as long as it's free. I have seen people selling both 3D printed MWO mechs and WoW figurines.

I got sick of commercial WoW constantly updating and power creeping many years ago and started playing private servers (older versions of the game) which have exactly the same style "free to play, 'donate' to win" as MWO, but the population for MWO is far too small to support a private server population. PGI would have work even harder to drive enough people away to cause that to happen.

[LordNothing]

confracto, on 06 July 2023 - 11:13 PM, said:

...and the people who lease half the IP aren't allowed to make them.

here, I fixed that for you.

and for those who may not know, here's a brief summary:
-Topps owns the half of the IP that's allowed to make physical products, which Catalyst licenses and they do make minis.
-Microsoft owns the half of the IP that is not allowed to make physical products, which licenses to PGI.

PGI politely turns a blind eye to fans ripping game files to make their own minis because they can't offer an alternative, but this has to be free. Trying to buy or sell, or even listing places that do will get you banned, and is also just supporting thieves. It's bad enough seeing people leeching off the work I did at PGI, but I've also seen it happening with my own fan art of MWO too.

how about printing as a service? because there are a number of services out there where you send them an stl, they print it and ship you the model. you pay for materials, use of the machines and someone to handle the order. stl models could be considered software.

my printer really isnt suited to figures, because its an old model that's no longer supported and hasn't seen a firmware update since i got it. and im not sure the controller has the resolution for nozzels smaller than 0.4mm (no or very limited micro-stepping). i mostly use it for engineering purposes, project boxes and structural widgets. but i could have a high res print done on a powder or resin machine if that was considered legit.

Edited by LordNothing, 07 July 2023 - 07:02 PM.

[confracto]

kalashnikity, on 07 July 2023 - 09:03 AM, said:

Well, that's even more depressing than I realized, LOL.

FWIW games like World of Warcraft have private servers that are legal because they don't charge money to play. I assume the same applies to 3D printed mechs, there isn't anything the IP owners can do about people running a private server or 3D printing toys as long as it's free. I have seen people selling both 3D printed MWO mechs and WoW figurines.

I got sick of commercial WoW constantly updating and power creeping many years ago and started playing private servers (older versions of the game) which have exactly the same style "free to play, 'donate' to win" as MWO, but the population for MWO is far too small to support a private server population. PGI would have work even harder to drive enough people away to cause that to happen.

yeah, it's complicated.
I played on the wow vanilla servers too, for a bit, because I liked the old experience. I paid and played 'wowclassic' when it came out though. ...and then stopped supporting any of it altogether when all the news came out about how Activision was treating it's devs. It was too much.

LordNothing, on 07 July 2023 - 06:54 PM, said:

how about printing as a service? because there are a number of services out there where you send them an stl, they print it and ship you the model. you pay for materials, use of the machines and someone to handle the order. stl models could be considered software.

my printer really isnt suited to figures, because its an old model that's no longer supported and hasn't seen a firmware update since i got it. and im not sure the controller has the resolution for nozzels smaller than 0.4mm (no or very limited micro-stepping). i mostly use it for engineering purposes, project boxes and structural widgets. but i could have a high res print done on a powder or resin machine if that was considered legit.

I can't speak for PGI in any way now, but I suspect printing services are fine. Just like taking a jpeg of a mech concept and having it printed on a poster for yourself. Neither you nor the printer owns the content, but you're not selling it. It's the 'selling stuff you don't own' that's the issue, and by buying that, you support it.

I've done this myself and made a 3d model of the japanese art version of the panther. I printed it in 2007 or 2008, on the 3d printer at work, back when I made props for the tv series Stargate. I also have a casting of a print someone made of my old flea model I made before joining pgi. They weren't selling it, and I appreciated the gift.