OgoSport Utilizes 3D Printing & Plans to Put All Their OgoBild Designs on Thingiverse

Perhaps you have seen them at a local toy store, or perhaps you saw them on the Regis and Kelly Show a few years back. OgoBilds from OgoSport are traditional construction sets that are extremely unique.

Customers can buy different OgoBild Bits, which are sets to build different characters. They include crazy looking creatures such as “Leap”, “Crank”, “Blink”, or “Wello”. Each bit set comes with the pieces needed to build a certain character. However, OgoSport encourages the mixing and matching of them.

OgoBilds are available at over 1,000 retailers in the United States, including Amazon.com and several other large toy stores.

As of early January, OgoSport started listing different OgoBild pieces on Thingiverse, for people to download, and print on their own 3D printers.

“We are giving away the designs to the maker community to encourage their creativity and mods,” explained Jenie Fu, one of the owners of OgoSport, who sat down with 3DPrint for an interview.

They have already had people download the designs, and modify them for their own liking.

“Our overall goal is to encourage creative play for all ages,” explained Fu. “We see 3D printing as an extension of creative play for kids and adults. Makers are naturally curious problem solvers and we think that allowing printable / customizable parts for them lends to more creative possibilities.”

Eventually OgoSport plans to release all of their OgoBild designs on Thingiverse with hopes of people creating modified designs for others to download.

We asked Fu if they are concerned about a loss of profit due to the free designs that they are allowing people to download and print at home. She insisted that they are not, and that they truly are encouraging people to make modifications on the designs.

In actuality if someone wishes to start collecting and building with the OgoBilds, they probably won’t waist the hours on end that it would take to print all the individual parts.

“The goal is to encourage users to modify our designs to what they want them to be,” explaied Fu.

Ben Nimes, one of the designers at OgoSport informed us that he is constantly trying to add new parts to Thingiverse, and some of them are parts that are not available elsewhere. OgoSport as a whole plans to release more characters (Bits) at ToyFair 2014.

Fu also informed us that OgoSport utilizes MakerBot Replicator 2 3D printers as part of their business development. They use the printers to verify that their designs are correct, before sending them to be manufactured on a mass scale.

This just goes to show you how 3D Printing is influencing businesses on more than one front. Discuss this article at 3DPrintBoard.