Marvel 3D Printer Comes to Sam’s Club

For the grand opening of the Sam’s Club which was relocated from south Fort Worth to Burleson Boulevard in Fort Worth, TX, the store has pulled out all the stops. Charles Haley, a retired Dallas Cowboy will make an appearance to sign autographs, candied apples from local company Jim and Lor’s will be for sale, and a Marvel 3D printer will be on site.

With this machine, people at the grand opening will be able to have their faces scanned and then placed on a marvel superhero. In the time it takes to print, fans can take home their likeness. This is the first time that a portable merchandising platform for 3D printing will be available for fans to cast themselves in the role of Marvel superheroes.

The Marvel 3D printer is a product of 3DPlusMe, a company that was founded in 2012 to produce technology for consumer 3D printing. The company represents the combined efforts of a number of experts, bringing experience ranging from Internet startups, to private equity management, as well as people who have successfully created and sold 3D printed products on a large scale at major retailers.

3DPlusMe has, as its primary product offering, systems which allow people to have their faces scanned and quickly turned into a 3D model that can be placed on a number of different hero types, from athletes to comics. They offer the option of having the 3D printed figure then delivered to your door or made available for pickup from the retailer.  The presence of the Marvel 3D printer at Sam’s is just one of what is sure to be a growing number of appearances aimed at the general public.

Cydni Tetro, CEO of 3DplusMe explained the appeal of this innovation:

“The ultimate brand experience is for fans to become part of the story. That is what we do with 3D scanning and printing, we make fans part of their favorite story with our personalized merchandise platform.”

The 3DplusMe machines are also being used to integrate 3D scans of gamers’ faces into the architecture of the characters they adopt in their games. In this way, avatars are brought to a whole new level of personalization.

Just because you didn’t get to play for the Yankees and you haven’t yet discovered your secret superhero identity, doesn’t mean that you’ll never get to see yourself in that light. The manager of the newly opened Sam’s Club location stated, “We have taken great care to make sure our members will find the club full of exciting merchandise at an amazing value.”

So, if you’re on your way to buy in bulk, and are in the Fort Worth area, why not also stock up on your own personal superhero!  Let us know what you think about this machine, and the prospects of having such 3D printers within stores across the country, in the Marvel 3D printer forum thread on 3DPB.com.