3D Printing

But 3D printers are so expensive. ;_;

From what I gather, you send [site with forums] your 3D model, and they do the actual printing. It's magic. And it looks like you can sell your models, as well: [Don't link to sites with forums. -Shine]

I'm not sure how much of a 3-D printing scene there would be in the community even if BIONICLE were still around. Think about it-- how many people were even rendering custom masks even when BIONICLE was around?

As far as I've seen, 3-D rendering actually picked up after BIONICLE ended since fans wanted to create 3-D movies to replace the new movies we'd never see. And even so that project has sort of crashed and burned (or in the very least, stumbled and fell).

I don't think BIONICLE's end has been a huge hindrance to those members of the community who would be producing creative masterpieces like the Ignika that recently turned up in General Art. Those members would have likely been a small segment of the community even if BIONICLE had continued, because the 3-D rendering is the difficult part of the process, and few people were doing that during BIONICLE's lifetime even though the resources were available.

Still, it's encouraging to see that some people do continue to express their creativity and hard work in this community, finding new ways to express their love of BIONICLE now that the theme is no longer giving us new material.

I'm not sure how much of a 3-D printing scene there would be in the community even if BIONICLE were still around. Think about it-- how many people were even rendering custom masks even when BIONICLE was around?As far as I've seen, 3-D rendering actually picked up after BIONICLE ended since fans wanted to create 3-D movies to replace the new movies we'd never see. And even so that project has sort of crashed and burned (or in the very least, stumbled and fell).I don't think BIONICLE's end has been a huge hindrance to those members of the community who would be producing creative masterpieces like the Ignika that recently turned up in General Art. Those members would have likely been a small segment of the community even if BIONICLE had continued, because the 3-D rendering is the difficult part of the process, and few people were doing that during BIONICLE's lifetime even though the resources were available.Still, it's encouraging to see that some people do continue to express their creativity and hard work in this community, finding new ways to express their love of BIONICLE now that the theme is no longer giving us new material.

I'm sure it would still be a minority, but it would be far more accessible all the same. I know I've wanted to make my own masks for ages, but the major impediment was the plastic itself—I simply had no means of producing anything. Here, someone else takes care of the material end of the process.

I'm not saying it'd be huge, but we'd probably have more than just Flintsmith and Heir of the Chronicler to look to.