Here are some things 3D printers can build: Working rocket engines for NASA, FDA-approved epilepsy medicine, and, crucially, a model of your face to put onto Lego characters.
For $30 (£20), UK-based print shop Funky3DFaces will send you a 3D version of your face to put on any Lego minifigure you want (you must supply your own figure). Ever dreamed of seeing your head on Darth Vader’s body? Now you can. Ever wish you had a half-Batman, half-you Lego character to play with? Your time has come.
All you have to do is send the shop two images of your head—one from the front, one from the back. The 15mm heads are fashioned from sandstone material, and are supposed to fit onto the necks of all Lego figures. Nerdist first spotted the Lego doppelgängers.
It’s a cool idea in theory. The actual results, however, seem mixed. Most of the models on the company’s website look only marginally like their human counterparts. Others look like Al Pacino:
Funky3DFaces is an offshoot of ELAT3D Ltd, a company that makes 3D-printed bones for the medical industry, as well as architectural models for architects. The company first tried printing 3D models of entire bodies, but that proved too expensive.
This might be the first time real human faces have been 3D-printed onto Lego toys, but it’s not the first time human faces have been replicated by 3D printers. MirrorMe3D, for instance, can print full-size models of human heads (and other parts of anatomy) to help plastic surgeons show patients what they’d look like before and after surgery.