Matching 3D printing filaments to LEGO colours
Posted by Huw,
Anecdotal evidence suggests that 3D printers were one of the most in-demand Christmas presents last year, and it's not surprising, given that entry-level machines such as the Bambu Lab A1 combo and Flashforge AD5X are capable of producing extremely high-quality multicolour prints and cost about the same as 10356 Star Trek: U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D.
If you were lucky enough to receive one, or you bought one for your kids, it's likely that, given you're an AFOL reading this, you'll be thinking about printing LEGO-compatible pieces with it, or up-scaled ones. If so, you'll probably want to match LEGO colours as closely as possible.
In this article I show which filaments I've found to be good matches, and also explain how to find matches for other colours using various resources on the Internet.
I've been printing for 3 years and, for the last two, have owned Bambu printers. However, I have only recently started using Bambu filament because they are normally more expensive and many colours are often out of stock. There are a myriad other brands available at Amazon and I have used Sunlu, eSun, Overture, Elegoo and Eryone, with good results.
Brand availability varies considerably between the US and UK, and many common US brands such as Inland, Hatchbox and Polymaker are not as prevalent or available at all in the UK, so I have not had the opportunity to try them, thus they are not included in this guide.
For the images below I've photographed a LEGO piece on a swatch, which is my design and can be found on Makerworld.
White, black and greys
You would expect white to be an easy colour to match but LEGO white has a yellow-y tinge to it so many white filaments look too white. Bambu Jade White PLA also has a yellow tinge, so is a good match.
Matching the exact shade of light bluish grey has proven problematic but Overture light grey Super PLA+ is close, and Bambu grey is not far off.
Both Bambu dark grey and Sunlu grey are a good match for LEGO's dark bluish grey, with Sunlu being slightly closer.
Black is black: every brand's black should match LEGO's black!
Blues
Filament seems to come in more shades of blue than any other colour and there are some good matches for LEGO blues available. Bambu Cobalt Blue exactly matches regular blue, Bambu Cyan matches dark azure, and Sunlu Sky Blue is close to medium azure.
Greens
It took some detective work to find a green that matches regular LEGO green and I'll explain how I did so below. Sunlu, Bambu, and Overture greens are nothing like it, but I found Eryone Green to be spot-on.
Bambu does a couple of green filaments, and Bambu Green, the company's brand colour, matches LEGO bright green.
I bought this filament last Christmas for printing trees but coincidentally found that it's almost an exact match for LEGO dark green.
Red, orange and yellow
The red end of the spectrum is much easier to match with both Sunlu and Bambu offering colours that closely match LEGO hues.
Bambu and Sunlu reds are pretty much identical.
Sunlu orange is ever so slightly closer to LEGO orange than Bambu Pumpkin Orange.
If you're printing up-scaled minifigures, you'll want to get the yellow just right. Unfortunately, it's easier said than done. Sunlu Pure Yellow is an excellent match but, unfortunately, the manufacturer keeps changing the names and colours of its filaments and that particular shade seems to have been replaced with Yellow and Vivid Yellow. 'Yellow' is a bit washed-out; Vivid Yellow is better.
Bambu Sunflower yellow is slightly too orangey but a close enough match nevertheless, and at its availability and colour consistency should be assured.
Transparent colours
Sunlu transparent red and yellow pass for LEGO transparent colours, and its green is close to transparent bright green. I've not found one that matches regular transparent green yet.
Finding more matches
If you want to find matches for colours I've not covered here, one way to do so is by looking up the RGB here at Brickset then using one of the online filament databases to find a close match.
The traditional way
Filamentcolors.xyz and 3dfilamentprofiles.com are good places to start. The latter seems more comprehensive and is easier to use.
Let's say we want to match olive green, to print an upscaled Hulk bigfig or something. According to our database, its RGB value is #77774E. Searching for that at 3DFilamentProfiles shows a number of options, including Sunlu Olive Green, #636B2F, but it's not an exact match.
One way to tell if it'll be similar enough before you buy it is to use a colour comparison tool, such as the one at Colour Designer which accepts two RGB values and shows the difference in terms of a DeltaE value, which is a metric quantifying the variance between two colours. The closer it is to 0, the closer the match.
Unfortunately, the DeltaE value for LEGO olive green and Sunlu olive green is 7.53, which means the difference will be noticeable, and I can confirm that it is because I have it:
Whether it's close enough is for you to decide. In the absence of anything better, it would probably have to do.
The new way
Me: "Which 3d printing filaments available in the UK are a close match to RGB 77774E?"
ChatGPT: "Closest Colour Matches (Olive / Earthy Green)
"Top Picks for an Approximate Match to #77774E:
-
Jayo PLA Filament Olive Green – Affordable olive-green PLA, versatile and easy to print; a good starting point for an olive tone.
-
SUNLU PLA+ 2.0 Olive Green – Slightly updated formulation with more vibrant/consistent colour saturation.
-
The Pi Hut Desert Olive PLA – Desert olive shade sits between khaki and brownish-green — ideal if you want a tone slightly warmer/browner (closer to #77774E’s muted earthiness).
-
3DQF UK Manufactured Desert Olive 3D Printing Filament – UK-made olive option from a local filament maker, handy for quick delivery and support."
Much easier, but the same result. The Jayo one is pretty much the same as Sunlu, which is not surprising given it's manufactured by it.
When you get the colours right, printed parts can pass for the real thing:
Banana for scale...
The photo shows 5x scale parts printed on my A1 mini which are all functional. The Forestman uses eSun brown, which is not as red as the current LEGO brown but looks to be a close match for old brown that would have been in use in the 1980s when the figure was produced. Unfortunately, I don't have any bricks in that colour any more to compare it with.
Help!
If you are 3D printing and find filaments that match LEGO colours that I have not listed please let us know. Hopefully this article can become a growing reference on the subject over time.
I hope you found this article interesting. If so let us know in the comments and maybe I'll publish more on the subject in the future.
5x scale version of 2167 Penguin. 5x scale banana for scale:
The underside of a 5x scale 2x4 brick. PLA support material was used for the support interface to give the smooth upper surface inside. It took about 6 hours to print, used 200g of filament and cost about £2.50.
Thanks to Jonathan Twynham for the high-resolution STEP files used for printing the parts.
170 likes
77 comments on this article
Not something I would be interested in doing, but a great read and nice to find out about these things!
This was a subject I was going to look at down the road, as I want to print boxes for Lego parts and a colored handle for the drawer they are in. This helps as a starting point!
Something else I am interested in is how well the color holds up after a couple of months or a year.
Neat project and article :).
Giant goat requested
This opens up some really interesting possibilities. If Lego themselves is investigating 3D printing it makes sense for the fans to as well.
Huh that's a neat article!
Fun fact: If you scale things up or down, surprisingly the perception of color changes too. (Although that effect starts to occur at larger scales.)
30 Years ago a lot of scale modelers tried to be as true to the actual RAL colors of the vehicles they modelled. These models usually turned out looking way to dark. This is because the viewing distance also changes with scale. When you are looking at a model from 30cm in 1:72 you would actually look at the original from 21 meters away. Colors slightly fade when viewed from a distance so to maintain that illusion you should slightly lighten up the color as well. (There are also shadow and shine effects you need to take into account, but that's going in too deep already)
The inverse is true for scaled up things of course.
This is also, why I think Lego is right to do the Snow Speeders, that are actually grey in Episode V, in white color. Both LBGrey and Grey are to dark to accurately capture the grey color that's on film, this color scaling effect further adds to this.
What "Bambu Grey" is this? Can we please have the Bambu filament numbers (ie 10100) for all of these?
Okay, but where's trans-neon green?
@sid3windr said:
"What "Bambu Grey" is this? Can we please have the Bambu filament numbers (ie 10100) for all of these?"
Jade white 10100
Grey 10103
Bambu green 10501
Sunflower yellow 10402
Pumpkin orange 10301
Cyan 10603
Cobalt blue 10604
Dark grey 10105
Fascinating article. Thank you for the effort.
So far I have zero experience with 3D printing, but it's something I intend to look into in the future, especially since my other main hobbies are model railroads and general model making. 3D printing might come in handy for those too one day.
Loving the bananas for scale lol
Please make a big version of one of the old boats like 709 or 311, such that it actually floats!
Although I guess it might be a bit big to print... depends on the size of the printer's stage.
Great interesting article. I'm not likely to undertake making or upscaling parts myself, but at some point may consider having it custom done for select pieces or figures.
Are there reasonable colour matches for some of the retired colours such as the old light or dark greys?
Wait so are those articulating giant minifigures? I suddenly want to get into the 3D printing craze…
@LukeSkywalker said:
"Wait so are those articulating giant minifigures? I suddenly want to get into the 3D printing craze…"
Yes they articulate in all the right places, so can be posed as you like, but the joints are much stiffer.
I've been using FLASHFORGE ASA Filament 1.75mm Iron Grey for 3d printing large radius train track and found it to be a very good match for dark bluish grey. The ASA is harder to print than PLA, but is more similar to ABS.
I've seen multiple instances of people printing custom Bionicle masks, but it's interesting to see it be done with regular system parts too. Shame about olive green, though...
@Huw, naive question, but are the details such as the smiley faces printed on at the end? Or are they layers of different coloured plastic that go all the way through the model?
Is that old Light/Dark Gray, or modern Bluish Grays that you're matching to?
Very cool article! I've been very impressed seeing what people have been able to do with 3D printing these days.
@Yardsale19X said:
" @Huw , naive question, but are the details such as the smiley faces printed on at the end? Or are they layers of different coloured plastic that go all the way through the model? "
The smiley faces are 'layers of different coloured plastic that go all the way through the model'. As each layer is printed the printer prints the yellow bit, changes to black, prints the black bit, prints the black bit on the next layer, changes to yellow, and so on. It produces a lot of purge waste to ensure no colour bleeding but the results are excellent.
The fronts of the torsos are printed face down then glued on to minimise that.
“Black is black: every brand's black should match LEGO's black!”
Black is colored with carbon, which is cheap, abundant, and very consistent. It can also override any other color, so in cases where regrind is being recycled into new material, you can add pretty much any color of the same material. In terms of virgin material, this means any variance in the base color will be overpowered. And yeah, base color variance can be quite visible sometimes. When we got certain colors at my last job, the edges of the sheet would be noticeably darker than the middle, and different extruders had wildly different shades of Safety Orange, which was defined by OSHA and really should be consistent.
@dimc said:
"Is that old Light/Dark Gray, or modern Bluish Grays that you're matching to?"
New greys
When I first saw the minifig picture I thought you showed us you printed a microbanana :)
Any concern about plagiarism/ordering an uncommon part and getting a fake one?
@Huw said:
" The smiley faces are 'layers of different coloured plastic that go all the way through the model'. As each layer is printed the printer prints the yellow bit, changes to black, prints the black bit, prints the black bit on the next layer, changes to yellow, and so on. It produces a lot of purge waste to ensure no colour bleeding but the results are excellent.
The fronts of the torsos are printed face down then glued on to minimise that."
Super interesting. Thanks!
@Crux said:
"Okay, but where's trans-neon green?"
Trans-neon orange is also feeling left out.
Perhaps this is another article, but what about matching the dimensions of LEGO bricks? So that a printed brick can be used with LEGO bricks. Is it doable?
@fredrigl said:
"Perhaps this is another article, but what about matching the dimensions of LEGO bricks? So that a printed brick can be used with LEGO bricks. Is it doable?"
Good idea!
@Brickeric said:
"When I first saw the minifig picture I thought you showed us you printed a microbanana :)
Any concern about plagiarism/ordering an uncommon part and getting a fake one?"
I could tell them apart by feel, or by photo. 3D printing just doesn’t have the resolution yet to make passable fakes.
CC3D Silk Bronze PLA filament has a slightly greenish tinge and is a near-perfect match for Lego's old metallic green. Just adding it to the list for those who want to print parts for Bionicle's Toa Bomonga.
I was looking for a good match for Lego blue and was thinking about trying out Bambu's cobalt blue, so I am happy to see it is such a great match.
CC3D Silver Blue PLA seems to be a good match for metallic blue according to online examples and is the next one I am going to buy. I am still looking for a convincing filament that matches Lego's Pearl Dark Gray, however, there is variance in the Lego color as well.
This is fantastic. I would love to see a full color chart one day! Definitely bookmarking this!
RGB color space shouldn't be used to color match physical objects.
Lovely article, Huw. Thanks and Happy New Year! Don’t forget that volume scaling is the cube of dimension scaling, so you’ll want to carefully engineer your scaled up bricks to minimise volume and hence weight, making judicious use of shells. If you remember, when we started building at 6x all those years ago, weight was the real killer in model stability, so I imagine that would hold for 3D printed scaled bricks as well. Thanks again
@kyrodes said:
"RGB color space shouldn't be used to color match physical objects."
Indeed, but it tends to be, because it's easily understood. Many filament manufacturers specify it rather than CMYK or alternatives.
@jsutton said:
"Lovely article, Huw. Thanks and Happy New Year! Don’t forget that volume scaling is the cube of dimension scaling, so you’ll want to carefully engineer your scaled up bricks to minimise volume and hence weight, making judicious use of shells. "
The slicer software takes care of that. One can specify the infill percentage, with 15% being the default. I tend to go lower than that, usually 5%, hence the relatively low weight of the 2x4 brick, at 115g.
@PurpleDave said:
" @Brickeric said:
"When I first saw the minifig picture I thought you showed us you printed a microbanana :)
Any concern about plagiarism/ordering an uncommon part and getting a fake one?"
I could tell them apart by feel, or by photo. 3D printing just doesn’t have the resolution yet to make passable fakes."
I can also tell them apart by size as these are gigantic. :o)
@Huw said:
" @fredrigl said:
"Perhaps this is another article, but what about matching the dimensions of LEGO bricks? So that a printed brick can be used with LEGO bricks. Is it doable?"
Good idea!"
Perhaps this is another article, but how in blue blazes does 3D Printing even work and how the heck were you able to fabricate fully poseable super maxi figures? Oh, and definitely an article about potential issues with IP infringement.
Asking for a friend. :o)
@yellowcastle said:
"Oh, and definitely an article about potential issues with IP infringement.
Asking for a friend. :o)"
I believe it's OK if you're not trying to sell anything? Same as if you drew a picture of a minifig.
"Article 6 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), which has been transposed into EU law (EU Directive 2008/95/CE, Article 5), limits trademark protection to use “in the course of trade”."
From the UN's World IP Office, albeit a few years ago. https://www.wipo.int/en/web/wipo-magazine/articles/3d-printing-and-ip-law-39896
Thank you for this article. I just today placed an order for our first printer and, while upscaled Lego isn't the number 1 reason for the purchase, that spaceman fig is getting me excited. Now to not get antsy until it ships later this month. While I'm not particularly interested in printed parts in sets (looking at you 10361 ) I am looking forward to more articles pertaining to Lego and 3d printing!
@Yardsale19X said:
" @yellowcastle said:
"Oh, and definitely an article about potential issues with IP infringement.
Asking for a friend. :o)"
I believe it's OK if you're not trying to sell anything? Same as if you drew a picture of a minifig.
"Article 6 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), which has been transposed into EU law (EU Directive 2008/95/CE, Article 5), limits trademark protection to use “in the course of trade”."
From the UN's World IP Office, albeit a few years ago. https://www.wipo.int/en/web/wipo-magazine/articles/3d-printing-and-ip-law-39896"
Yeah, short answer is if you even attempt to sell a thing, they can drop the hammer on you. Not as short answer is it really depends on the scale of operation, how obvious you are about it, and how attentive the IP owner is. Legally, they do have to at least demonstrate that they’re attempting to protect their trademarks, or they can be challenged and have them stripped, like what happened with Aspirin (Bayer) and Xerox (Xerox). Copyright they can be more lax about and not lose protected status, but a lot of people fly under the radar by avoiding use of easily searched words. I remember one instance where someone got hit by Lucasfilm because they were selling “Jedi robes”. The only thing that got that person in trouble was the use of the word “Jedi”. Call them “mystic warrior robes”, and you could have sent a printed catalog directly to George Lucas (he really was supportive of the fan community, in ways most people weren’t even aware of), and he would have been fine with it, but use of the word Jedi stepped way over the line. Likewise, the 501st operates very openly, and they don’t get any flak because they only raise money for charitable purposes, not personal enrichment. As long as they stay true to their non-profit nature, even Disney is willing to leave them alone.
I've had a Bambu A1 sitting in its box for months until this week. The timing of this article couldn't be better! Now to go buy spools upon spools of filament.
@Bagelwolf said:
"I've had a Bambu A1 sitting in its box for months until this week. The timing of this article couldn't be better! Now to go buy spools upon spools of filament."
Get it out and get printing!
@Blockwork_Orange said:
"Are there reasonable colour matches for some of the retired colours such as the old light or dark greys?"
Yes, this--old grey specifically!
Hmmmmm....... interesting hues Hew.
@Huw said:
"
Jade white 10100
Grey 10103
Bambu green 10501
Sunflower yellow 10402
Pumpkin orange 10301
Cyan 10603
Cobalt blue 10604
Dark grey 10105
"
Awesome, thanks!!
@beatnik said:
"Hmmmmm....... interesting hues Hew."
@Huw might hew you if you spell his name like that again.
@Huw said:
" @Yardsale19X said:
" @Huw , naive question, but are the details such as the smiley faces printed on at the end? Or are they layers of different coloured plastic that go all the way through the model? "
The smiley faces are 'layers of different coloured plastic that go all the way through the model'. As each layer is printed the printer prints the yellow bit, changes to black, prints the black bit, prints the black bit on the next layer, changes to yellow, and so on. It produces a lot of purge waste to ensure no colour bleeding but the results are excellent.
The fronts of the torsos are printed face down then glued on to minimise that."
Must be nice! My 3D printer is very good but it does only one colour. I have to go into the application and put a stop at a given layer - then change the filament manually - rinse, repeat - it is a total pain in the butt. That said, I am not doing multicolour printing enough to justify buying a new printer.
The printing is easy enough and anyone can be going within half a day by using downloadable parts. Creating your own parts can however have a very steep learning curve depending on the software used.
Nice article, keep them coming: also interested in knowing if a normal size 1:1 printed part will work well with the real thing (clutch power, etc).
@HOBBES said:
"Nice article, keep them coming: also interested in knowing if a normal size 1:1 printed part will work well with the real thing (clutch power, etc)."
I think that'll be the topic of the next article on the subject :-)
In Lieu of Huw incurring rue, talks of hue will not do, though clearly poo it is true.
When I first saw that banana with those upscaled minifigs--I thought that was one of those fancy ones done on one of those pricey Stratysis 3D full-color powder rigs.
Great writeup! I first had a Flashforge Adventurer 5M, and it was always having problems (that at the time I ended up causing more problems by trying to fix). I ended up going with a Bambu A1 Combo.
99% of the filament I buy tends to be SUNLU since I've not had a problem out of probably a dozen rolls by now and it's cheap. My current bed scraper was printed in their "Green" filament--and it's pretty darn close to baseplate green.
@yellowcastle said:
"In Lieu of Huw incurring rue, talks of hue will not do, though clearly poo it is true."
Oh, you...
@Yardsale19X said:
" @yellowcastle said:
"Oh, and definitely an article about potential issues with IP infringement.
Asking for a friend. :o)"
I believe it's OK if you're not trying to sell anything? Same as if you drew a picture of a minifig.
"Article 6 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), which has been transposed into EU law (EU Directive 2008/95/CE, Article 5), limits trademark protection to use “in the course of trade”."
From the UN's World IP Office, albeit a few years ago. https://www.wipo.int/en/web/wipo-magazine/articles/3d-printing-and-ip-law-39896"
But presumably not putting the company's logo on the 3D prints, especially if used on a for-profit website. It is a very murky area whether this is personal use only when publishing it as an article on a website that makes money.
Has anyone (or Huw) found a matching filament for Lego's old Gray (i.e. monorail track) and old Dark Gray (i.e. train track) ?
@HOBBES said:
" @Huw said:
" @Yardsale19X said:
" @Huw , naive question, but are the details such as the smiley faces printed on at the end? Or are they layers of different coloured plastic that go all the way through the model? "
The smiley faces are 'layers of different coloured plastic that go all the way through the model'. As each layer is printed the printer prints the yellow bit, changes to black, prints the black bit, prints the black bit on the next layer, changes to yellow, and so on. It produces a lot of purge waste to ensure no colour bleeding but the results are excellent.
The fronts of the torsos are printed face down then glued on to minimise that."
Must be nice! My 3D printer is very good but it does only one colour. I have to go into the application and put a stop at a given layer - then change the filament manually - rinse, repeat - it is a total pain in the butt. That said, I am not doing multicolour printing enough to justify buying a new printer.
The printing is easy enough and anyone can be going within half a day by using downloadable parts. Creating your own parts can however have a very steep learning curve depending on the software used.
Nice article, keep them coming: also interested in knowing if a normal size 1:1 printed part will work well with the real thing (clutch power, etc)."
Just so you know, even with a single-color printer, you can do more elaborate multi-color prints than just layer-changes (with modern slicers)! All the color changes are still manual, but with Orca Slicer you can set up your printer to be single-extruder, multi-color, and select manual filament change. Then it'll print like a more advanced multi-color printer, but pause for manual filament changes within layers. I don't do it too often, but it can be pretty cool!
(Biggest multi-color project was printing a full set of Lego-compatible 2x4 tile Canadian and American license plates!)
Thanks for the article! I've definitely spent some time looking for a match for LBG, but never ended up buying one. I'll have to bookmark this article for later reference!
@CCC said:
" @Yardsale19X said:
" @yellowcastle said:
"Oh, and definitely an article about potential issues with IP infringement.
Asking for a friend. :o)"
I believe it's OK if you're not trying to sell anything? Same as if you drew a picture of a minifig.
"Article 6 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), which has been transposed into EU law (EU Directive 2008/95/CE, Article 5), limits trademark protection to use “in the course of trade”."
From the UN's World IP Office, albeit a few years ago. https://www.wipo.int/en/web/wipo-magazine/articles/3d-printing-and-ip-law-39896"
But presumably not putting the company's logo on the 3D prints, especially if used on a for-profit website. It is a very murky area whether this is personal use only when publishing it as an article on a website that makes money."
It is no different to someone publishing a drawing of a LEGO brick with the logo on its studs on a website, and I think we'd both agree that that could not be challenged in court.
@Huw, How did you grow that teeny tiny banana?
@2GodBDGlory:
Now when you say “full set of license plates”, do you mean you made one license plate per US State, or did you make the entire spread of variant plates? I know Michigan currently has at least three available to pick from, and at least four that are legal to drive with. And someone once pointed out that (I think) Arizona has just a ridiculous array of plate designs to choose from (possibly more than all of Canada, if none of your provinces offer multiple designs).
@Huw (and anyone who doesn’t know about the Fair Use policy):
I know TLG’s published Fair Use policy addresses a few odd situations, like how it’s fine to post photos of LEGO set boxes that show the logo on the box design, but it is strictly forbidden to just put the LEGO logo in your page layout because it makes your site look like it’s an official LEGO site. And it’s not addressed in that statement, but I know there are a few people who display their work professionally as a primary source of income (including some former employees), and a lot more who get paid to do it on a much smaller scale, and none of them get hassled over it.
But then there was the guy they turned into a sworn enemy because he pretty blatantly violated the Fair Use policy by designing what he called the “LEGO computer” and later the “LEGO laptop”, and then had the poor sense to contact them himself and request that they actually sponsor his work. Naturally he got a C&D from the legal department, and he felt this was unwarranted. He was wrong.
So yeah, I see nothing about this site that runs afoul of their posted Fair Use policy. And if it did, you certainly would have had your RLFM(?) status yanked, and your stream of review sets cut off. If you don’t display the logo as a graphic, you don’t have the word “LEGO” in your URL or site name, and you aren’t presenting yourself in a way that makes you appear to represent them. That covers the main rules. And I’d guess your ad revenue might not even generate a net profit after all the the site expenses are covered, especially since you shut off ads for anyone who is logged in to a member account, which has to be a pretty large chunk of the site traffic.
Interesting and very useful, thank you. I have tried a bunch of filament myself, here are my experiences: Prusament white PETG is a good match for white, Prusament yellow PETG is a good yellow, both have the same translucency as lego, or the lack there off, much better than other ones I have tested or you showed here. Prusament PETG green matches lego green well, Prusament PLA light gray matches light blueish gray very well.
For monorail/old light gray I have been trying a lot of filaments, most are a bit too dark, from those I tried anycubic pla and deeple pla seemed like the best choice, they are also very cheap, anycuic being on sale for just 6 euros/kg during black friday. (There are a bunch of monorail files to download for free on the 4dbrix website and from me on printables, I even made motors last year.)
Thank you so much for this article!
I'm looking for a sand green match! Does anyone have an idea?
@julesvincent said:
"Thank you so much for this article!
I'm looking for a sand green match! Does anyone have an idea?"
ChatGPT suggests
https://www.filamentive.com/product/sage-pla-matte-sage-3d-printer-filament-1-75mm-750g/
Wow, edgy article considering Brickset's affiliation with LAN. But I like it.
I'd be curious to know what TLG's stance is toward 3D printing LEGO adjacent elements and accessories.
@Matt_Z_ said:
"Wow, edgy article considering Brickset's affiliation with LAN. But I like it.
I'd be curious to know what TLG's stance is toward 3D printing LEGO adjacent elements and accessories. "
Filament printing isn't as durable as injection molding, so it's not something that can really compete with their main product. They've never had any protected status against LEGO-compatibility in general, since the original Kiddiecraft patent expired. They did patent the tube design, and a variety of alternate designs like the X-bottom 2x2 round tile, but I think even those patents have expired by now. They've copied a few elements here and there that other companies did first, but there are a lot of parts that can be considered derivative of other parts, like the recent 1x5 plate, so nobody can really claim protected status on them. They did manage to shut down one of Hasbro's knock-off brands once, likely over the fact that they cribbed a bunch of brand-new original shapes, like the 2x6 triple curved slopes, which weren't just an extension of other existing parts, so there are limits to how far they can go in that regard.
As for 3rd Party manufacturers, I know there's a preliminary image of the S2 CMF lineup that used Brickforge accessories for the Spartan minifig. There's also someone who makes not-100%-exact copies of the old 3x4 and 5x7 leaf pieces, and they reportedly came to an agreement that the individual wouldn't sell them in any colors that were currently being offered by TLG. So they were apparently fine with them selling non-production colors, or colors that had gone out of production for some unstated amount of time.
The people I know who do 3D printing mostly focus on non-production shapes and long-retired molds, neither of which is really a threat to TLG's business. Even if they tried to copy new shapes, the quality would never be the same. Filament prints aren't as sturdy, and no 3D-printed parts can match the look of injection-molding. You'd also have to sink a ton of money into your setup to be able to produce them cheaply in mass quantities.
@ChazTheMinifig said:
"I've seen multiple instances of people printing custom Bionicle masks, but it's interesting to see it be done with regular system parts too. Shame about olive green, though..."
That's where I would want to use it myself, I already have some 3D printed and resin cast masks I have bought from fan makers before. There's a lot of canonical Bionicle masks that were never made in real LEGO form (looking at you G2 Vahi and Mask of Ultimate Power), so turning to fan customs fills a void in the market.
Off topic
@Huw, Is there a way to see just animals we have in our sets collection?!
Thank you!
@xboxtravis7992 said:
" @ChazTheMinifig said:
"I've seen multiple instances of people printing custom Bionicle masks, but it's interesting to see it be done with regular system parts too. Shame about olive green, though..."
That's where I would want to use it myself, I already have some 3D printed and resin cast masks I have bought from fan makers before. There's a lot of canonical Bionicle masks that were never made in real LEGO form (looking at you G2 Vahi and Mask of Ultimate Power), so turning to fan customs fills a void in the market. "
I was given a box by another member of my LUG that someone had given to him at a convention. Inside was an Onepu, but with a purple Hau instead of the usual Pakari. I'm pretty sure that was a resin casting, but I don't even know who sent it to me. What I'd really like is a solid white Rau, because that's the only piece I was waiting on for my SnowToaper that's otherwise already built. If not that, then I need to see if I can figure out how to fake the design with minifig capes or something.
Awesome article! Lots of good information. I'm still a couple of years out from starting up my 3d piece printing, I have a couple of themes that I need parts for that will never be made since Nexo Knights was discontinued before they made all of the themes in the Book of Monsters. Someday I'll print up the minifigures that are in that book!!!!
If I had access to a 3D printer I would start printing vintage mono-rail tracks as need in large quantities, relatively simple design and really expensive to buy in secondary markets (as only came in a few sets), although I think someone has commercialized this already. Then move onto the points and boogies.
I don't know, man. From a 3D-modeling standpoint, I love this article. From a LEGO-enthusiast's standpoint, I don't. I like printing, but I just don't like printed LEGO-pieces.
Still, y'know. I can at least appreciate this from an educative standpoint, so keep them coming.
@ambr said:
"If I had access to a 3D printer I would start printing vintage mono-rail tracks as need in large quantities, relatively simple design and really expensive to buy in secondary markets (as only came in a few sets), although I think someone has commercialized this already. Then move onto the points and boogies."
I don’t know the site offhand, but yes, someone started making aftermarket monorail track several years ago. I remember it was offered in a few non-production colors, like black. If I was going to amass a huge collection of monorail track, the real stuff is so expensive now that the aftermarket stuff is probably quite affordable in comparison, and the idea that I could get it in Blacktron black is quite appealing. Problem is, my LUG hasn’t done a Moonbase display in over 20 years, and I’ve never been able to participate in one outside of my LUG. It’s just not something I expect to get any use out of anymore, so I’ve never sampled the wares.
Do people really not explore the 'LEGO world' beyond the boundaries of Brickset? 3d printing of enlarged LEGO bricks, figs, accessories (Christmas wreaths!! Lifesize brick-built Christmas trees or even castles!!) or replicating train track and monorail stuff has been a thing for a number of years now, and is becoming more and more prevalent and affordable. Whether that's for sale or personal use, it's easy to find on etsy, ebay, craft fairs etc
Something about over-sized LEGO accessories really appeals to me, but I haven't bitten the bullet and bought a treasure chest or monkey yet. Interesting article, definitely useful info for printers.
5x scale banana for scale <-Classic!
@Huw , I'm interested in buying a Bambu printer. Can you please tell me what model you're using, regular or combo? What about accessories? What do you recommend?
I am interested in geting Bambo A1 Combo with this performance Accessories:
- Bambu Cool Plate SuperTack
- Bambu Hotend 0,2mm - A1 Series
Anything else besides filaments?
TNX
@Videofronta said:
" @Huw , I'm interested in buying a Bambu printer. Can you please tell me what model you're using, regular or combo? What about accessories? What do you recommend?
I am interested in geting Bambo A1 Combo with this performance Accessories:
- Bambu Cool Plate SuperTack
- Bambu Hotend 0,2mm - A1 Series
Anything else besides filaments?
TNX"
An A1 combo is what I have (as well as a A1 mini combo). I'd get the smooth plate before the SuperTack one, although both have their uses. A 0.2 is only really useful for small, detailed, stuff as everything takes 4x longer to print. But, no harm in having one given they are cheap enough.
This article tells you all you need to know about filament :)
10x size 3d printed Lego UCS set when?
@StudMuffin24 said:
"10x size 3d printed Lego UCS set when?"
Give them time. Currently, scaling up 2:1 is all they've managed to accomplish:
https://brickset.com/article/58636
Could someone provide a link to a model of the Utensil Space Gun + round 1x1 plate stud that the space minifigure is holding? In general, what is the best way to find models for arbitrary parts?