The co-founder of the 3D printing startup Toybox shares his plans to launch a citywide scavenger hunt for 3D printed toys in San Francisco.
It all started with an idea posted on Reddit. Ben Baltes, co-founder of the Oakland-based 3D printing startup Toybox, has now turned it into a potential citywide scavenger hunt for 3D printed toys throughout San Francisco.
Last Tuesday, Baltes shared the idea for his “Hidden City” scavenger hunt project with the local San Francisco Reddit community.
Baltes stated that if he got more than 150 up-votes for his idea, which is to create and hide around 200 3D printed toys throughout San Francisco, he would continue working on the project. To his surprise, the post quickly surpassed the proposed mark (currently at 429) and was also met with a wide range of community support as well as constructive criticism.
Each object will include a personalized link and/or QR code, providing the scavengers with information on the 3D printed toy and the journey that it has taken. Essentially, the idea is for each finder to document their experience with the discovered toy and place it somewhere else within 12 hours for a new toy scavenger to find. The possibilities for hidden toys range widely, from a monkey on a telephone poll to a gutter mouse.
In a recent conversation with Mashable, Baltes admitted that the project is quite time-consuming, as each of the 200 toy animals and monsters take about four to five hours to 3D print. But thanks to sponsorship from his toy startup and backing of the local Reddit community, the lead developer hopes that they can debut the “Hidden City” scavenger hunt in February 2017.
Even with the actualization of his idea in sight, Baltes also expressed his desire to expand the community’s involvement with the project. Though the organizer acknowledged that his game could potentially be ruined by trolls or people deciding to keep the toys, he claimed to see the Hidden City project as “more of an experiment than a game.”
While the scavenger hunt might just be a community-wide experiment for Baltes, the market for 3D printed toys and games has widespread potential. From startups like Toybox, to the major toy manufacturer Hasbro, and even within your very own home, 3D printing technology has proven to be a viable tool for toy production. In addition, as the Hidden City scavenger hunt shows, 3D printed toys can also help create a strong sense of community, wonder, and most importantly, fun.
License: The text of "Plans for 3D Printed Scavenger Hunt Surface in San Francisco" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.