So far, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has gotten mixed reviews, but when superheroes are involved, do the critics really matter? The kids and the nerds are going to go anyway, and the money is going to roll in, and Warner Bros. will continue rolling along towards 2017 and their Justice League (!!) and Wonder Woman (!!!) movies, just to name a couple of the surefire blockbusters the studio has in the pipeline. And where there are blockbusters, there are going to be fans wielding 3D printers, so it’s no surprise that Pinshape has already announced that they are holding a Batman v Superman design contest for all the DC fanboys and fangirls out there.
The rules are simple: design a figure, device, prop or anything else inspired by Superman, Batman or both. Upload it to Pinshape by April 15, then sit back and wait. Designs must be free to download and cannot have been submitted to any other Pinshape competition, but there’s no limit to how many entries you can submit, and it’s free to enter. Winners will be announced in the week following the competition’s end.
So how about the prizes? Well, they’re not bad at all. The grand prize winner will receive a Flashforge Dreamer Dual Extrusion 3D Printer with a retail value of $1,099, plus five rolls of assorted specialty filament from Formfutura, including two rolls of EasyWood, two rolls of HDglass, and one roll of CarbonFil. Second place will win a Fabrikator Mini 3D Printer along with five rolls of specialty filament, and third place will receive a subscription to Simplify3D software.
There’s also a contest within the contest — print your design, take an artistic photo of it, upload it to Pinshape and you could win a Simplify3D license plus two rolls of filament from IC3D. Photos will be judged on creativity, technical excellence, and presentation.
“People love Batman and Superman because it takes them back to when they grew up reading the comics or watching the movies. With the new movie coming out, we’re excited to see the creative designs our community comes up with,” Pinshape CEO Lucas Matheson told 3DPrint.com about the contest.
The contest will be judged by Wenjian Pei, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Engineer at Flashforge, and Joe Larson, Pinshape Ambassador and all-around 3D printing expert. Several designs have been submitted already: there are some logos, some bat signals, a couple of rings and keychains. I’m assuming that they’re mostly looking for designs related to this particular movie rather than, say, prior Batman or Superman movies, although it doesn’t say so specifically. If you really want to create a design based on George Clooney’s horrifying nippled batsuit from Batman & Robin, go for it, but no one will like you.
Need some inspiration? Check out some cool 3D printed Batmen here, or this 3D printed Superman. As far as 3D printed tributes go, at least ones that we’ve covered, it looks like Batman is winning the popularity contest so far…but we shall see. Discuss in the Pinshape Batman v Superman 3D Design Contest forum over at 3DPB.com.
