Some people play Pokémon on Nintendo Switch. Joey Furdeck hangs out with them in his game room.

In a Reddit post last week, Furdeck showcased his menagerie of “life-sized” 3D printed versions of the iconic Nintendo characters. Charizard, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Diglet, Pikachu – they’re all there, and they’re huge, scaled at 1:1 according to their listings in the Pokédex, which acts as an official Pokémon encyclopedia.

Most of the models, Furdeck said, in an interview with All3DP, come from PokePrintsClub, an Etsy shop that sells the life-sized files pre-cut.

“They all snap together and make it so simple,” he said. “They’re small and trying to grow, so I try to mention them as much as I can because their models make the printing part so simple.”

For Furdeck, however, that’s where the simplicity ends. After printing a character in multiple pieces on his two Bambu Lab P1P 3D printers, he then glues them together, burns the edges closed so there are no gaps, smooths the seams with Bondo putty, and coats them with automotive primer.

After the primer dries comes another round of sanding, followed by more painting – this time in a booth meant for painting cars or other vehicles, which also functions as an oven that allows him to “bake” the prints to set the paint.

“I work in a body shop as a painter,” he said. “I’m lucky enough that my job allows me to use after hours and on the weekends.”

Once fully painted, he airbrushes smaller details, adds a bit of UV resin on the eyes to make them glisten, and voilà: life-sized Pokémon. Obviously, there’s quite a bit more to the process, which is both long and expensive – with Furdeck using up to 13 rolls of PLA and putting in as many as 50 hours of work per print. We’ve glossed over the process here for the sake of brevity. However, Furdeck has documented the process on his TikTok account, so be sure to check that out should you want more of a deep dive.

That said, Furdeck does reiterate his access to costly, professional-grade equipment – something he says helps him achieve such stunning results.

“I don’t advertise that ‘You can do this from home!’, because I don’t,” he said. “I’ve seen plenty of amazing paint jobs from home, but that’s not how I do it – so I don’t ever want to make someone feel like they’re failing because they aren’t getting the same results as I am.”

Granted, Furdeck’s Pokémon set a high bar. The finished prints, which look like the cartoons have been brought to life, would be at home in a theme park or on a movie set. For now, they’ll have to settle for his workshop and game room.

“Hopefully I can convince my girlfriend to let me keep Bulbasaur in the living room, but we’ll see if she’ll let that slide,” he said.

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