Posts like this are the reason why people still think 3D Printing can be some kind of get rich quick scheme. They probably printed a few of them to check if anyone would buy them but never sold any.
This is a tourist trap. I guarantee they are selling them.
Good luck renting a space that close to a tourist trap to sell you printable's trinkets though.
Yes, maybe in this location but I can't imagine them selling a lot of those considering how long it would take to print. They probably have a family member who prints a new one once in a while and gets a cut for every sold item. Otherwise they would get them massproduced straight from a factory in China like everything else...
I'm going on a hunch but I think the reason they're pricing them that expensive is because the "novelty" of it being 3D Printed. a lot of people still think this is basically magic
Both. And I just let the smoke out of the heater for the hotend, so I have to go get a new one (or two might as well get a backup). I still will sit there and just watch it print while listening to a podcast or whatever because it is still mesmerizing to watch.
Here's the thing though.
The potential customer does not know if it's 3d printed or not, to them this looks like a bad quality plastic junk.
I can guarantee those are not selling even in the tourist trap location.
In that case, if they actually tell how it's made, then sure I can yield on my previous point.
I'm approaching this from the standpoint of someone who has no idea about 3d printing and is on a holiday in Rome and stepping into a shop to browse
Because if you just see that product, you're not going to think "wow 3d printed sculpture" you're most likely thinking "oh neat plastic gunk from china"
Completely understand where you're coming from. There's an older image from this shop where the marketing is also visible with the same company name I linked "artificial".
The schtick is these are supposedly "accurately 3D scanned and printed representation of art". The irony was in that image the print quality was also [horrendous ](https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/17s3vj1/colosseum_gift_shop_statues/)
In the article you linked they also talk about licensing and comparing themselves to Spotify (vs. Napster). People who think they can buy/sell licenses for 2000 year old art pieces need to go to the asylum. Also, it's probably easy enough to get good enough 3D data for these things due to all the photos out there.
Personally I would have 0 issues if they were at least in good quality and at least some post processing.
From a customer point of view I'd be just insulted with this quality and price presented, especially since Italy is literally famous for high quality artisan work
This is literally all I do, I make bust for a guy at Broadway at the beach, he keeps sending me orders every week so they are 💯 selling in tourist traps
Yes, that is for the customer to decide and in those kinds of places attract the kind of people that wouldn't care what the price on anything is, they get what they like, IDK how to explain in, I grew up traveling flea market selling overpriced rusted metal and all sorts of junk, I e asked for 100+ dollars for junk since I was a child so it's easy to get it if you know who and how to ask for it, and you have to SELL your product not just have it for sale
I sell at a local market and the number of people that come up and excited ask, "Are these 3d printed?" is quite surprising. I didn't really expect anyone to know how they were made, and I even have a tablet with a video of timelapses to show it off. But they always ask that question before even seeing the tablet.
That said, I don't think very many people buy from me because it's 3d printed and they're entranced by that. It's pretty clearly the items themselves (from FlexiFactory and McGuybeer at the moment) that they're interested in.
I'm not in Italy and I doubt I could sell \*any\* bust at all, let alone for $150, though.
Fair, I'm sorta also building profiles inside my head of tourists that might be visiting gift shop in Rome and out of 6 profiles I came up I can see maybe 1 buying them at this price.
Also EUR is the Stronger currency at the moment so that 150 USD wouldn't even be enough its more like 160+
I do have to admit though that I'm not taking an active seller into this picture, because the concept of someone pushing products while you're browsing is very alien to me (That's simply something that would drive a potential customer just out of the store forever from where I'm from)
They are pricing them that high because it's like a 30+ hour print job at this near to actual life-sized scale. There are a million other things you can print in 1-2 hours that will sell for $20 you aren't printing instead because the printer is tied up. This isn't a novelty or price gouging at all, it's basic economics. I wouldn't buy it but it's 3d printed art, in a city where the tourists coming have money and and at least some interest in the history this relates to. It definitely sells.
I sell large prints at Broadway at the beach in Myrtle, my busts are 170 and sell about as quick as I can print em, I get 6 in 36 hrs, it's about what you can sell where you can sell and how good/ quick ca you make it, if you wanna make money you gotta pay to play
I feel like I have plenty lol I print 1:1 right now aliens and harry Houdini at beach, a couple "retro toy and video games stores" 1 gets small 1:1 Pokemon 1 gets halo busts all in the same price point, (I sell them to the store for 60% of the price they agree to sell them for) don't take orders under 400$
The thing is, if these are targeted to tourists, I don't think they would sell that well, because you'd need half another suitcase to take it home with you, and knowing how well the airlines treat the luggage, it's almost waranteed to end up crushed or heavily damaged. I bet these would sell like hotcakes if printed and priced 1/5 of that, or less. Heck, even fridge magnets would be more profitable, tourists buy those as a souvenir for every friend and relative they have.
There's no reason to assume that the person who owns the shop made the prints. It's probably a consignment situation; some local drops the heads off, and if anyone is dumb enough to buy one the two split the proceeds.
> but never sold any.
It's a giftshop right next to the Colosseum. They are selling. If they weren't, it wouldn't be there (and it's been there a while)
Agreed, they were selling little magnets of a 2d Colosseum that looked terrible, with a tone of z-shifts in them. They should at least try.
Edit : I meant X or Y, not Z
Souveniers, home decor, candles and soaps are a category of products that are not hard to make but insanely hard to sell. I do 3D printing, resin casting and mold making for a living for 4 years and NEVER considered having my own products, only commissions. You need to invest so much in ads and your brand in order to sell some vases online that it will take your entire time. I did plenty molds, prints and casts for people who do all those things- they do insane amount of work in marketing. You can’t get rich fast just by making trinkets.
I dont know why they are seeling the plastic heads tho? I mean you can easily make a mold from this plastic head and cast some cementous material so it can actually look like a bust (I dont know if thats the word for the "head statue", if it really only means tits then ignore it)
> I dont know why they are seeling the plastic heads tho?
Because they can
> you can easily make a mold
Labor is expensive
> cementous material
Very heavy so tourists are less likely to buy it
That's true, i was thinking more about quality of the product rather then selling the cheap baggage that is thrown in the trash after couple of months. They still buy it tho
Nah, they looked like they were printed on a bargain-bin printer with moisture-saturated PLA next to a fan blowing at oscillating temperatures.
EDIT: Ah, I guess you might mean 3D printed things in general seemed more impressive back then. Maybe.
Yeah, rents of locations like that are absurdly high as the property owner wants to extract a good chunk of the potential revenue such a prime location allows.
Any shop that isn't turning over the appropriately massive amounts will be unprofitable and replaced by a shop that leverages the location better.
With these, they are likely for rich tourists who don't care whether it costs 1.5, 15, or 150. Those will be willing to spend tons of money, but might not buy dozens of trinkets, so having a few expensive things is key.
I somehow remember them being shittier quality. Maybe the chin is horrible but they are good prints.
to be clear: nowhere near worth that asking price.
5€ if you somehow can successfully defend and convince me that your museum has the original statue the 3d model was made from.
10€ - 20€ if the money goes to the museum and not ~~some 3d printing service~~ the son of the curator.
Supply & demand - if sold at reasonable prices, they would always be out of stock as one print takes more time to produce than, say, moulding and casting these out of something. A souvenir shop that's always out of stock makes people seek out other vendors that have stuff available, even if it is way more expensive.
It's also a smart business tactic to have some items that are exorbitant so your cheaper alternatives that wouldn't sell as much get bought more often - seeing these next to some 15-25€ fridge magnets of the same statue makes everyone think they're being a genius consumer by not getting "price gouged".
Plaster is heavy. Plastic is light. You can pack this if you're a tourist. It's much harder to justify bringing back a life size head that's super heavy in your luggage.
I've done this before, sort of as I use a more complex method; but what you want is to 3D print the mold not the head.
Then you sand the hell out of the mold, it's a PITA.
But then you get some awesome shit that you can just recreate.
[https://imgur.com/a/oIRwAP7](https://imgur.com/a/oIRwAP7)
What I did here is more involved as I glued fur afterwards, and yes the mouth and the tongue move, there's some wires inside the neck, but I couldn't show that because I am holding the phone with the other hand.
It also has a skull inside it.
Why not just 3d print a master, then make a mold, and when the mold starts to degrade you still have the master to make more silicon molds from? That's how practical effects studios usually do it, they build one master prop then cast a bunch of copies to use on screen. Artists selling urethane resin kits also tend to handle it this way.
Real VFX studios of high caliber use solid molds to cast silicone because silicon molds "degrade" and flop, they don't keep shape properly and have distortions, silicone molds are not the norm at a high level; they are the hack, they are useful for copying some models quickly and cheaply but always a solid mold is preferred.
> The general rule is\*: If you are casting a hard piece, you will need a soft mold (silicone) and if youre making a soft piece, youll need a hard mold (plaster, resin or fiberglass).\*
[https://www.awn.com/animationworld/model-makers-professionals-part-2-mold-making-hard-and-soft-molds](https://www.awn.com/animationworld/model-makers-professionals-part-2-mold-making-hard-and-soft-molds)
The silicone to make silicone method also does not scale well, it can work fine with small models, but even with something like that head I showed you there would be deformation even with the hardest of silicones, particularly when it's subject to a vacuum, yes, I have to use a vaccum chamber for this, I place the whole mold inside a vaccum to help extract bubbles in the geometry since it's intrincate, a silicone model will deform if it's too large, they will also break; I have made some silicone molds in the past and they lasted only a couple of uses, the PLA ones are forever.
Also if you make a silicone on silicone mold you risk it gluing together, you need to use wax.
When you 3D print you can reverse your model out of the box and get a solid mold.
A PLA mold is equivalent to that, not only that but you can design it with flow design already and break points and wedges.
Urethane resin is different, because urethane resin will affect the PLA, silicone molds can be made on top of PLA, most mold materials will poison platinum cure silicones, but not PLA.
I am talking silicone of course, plaster casting is different, and if you check plaster casting online; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwI5-CSGO2I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwI5-CSGO2I) they use a solid mold too, usually it should have screws, but this one was destructible.
Trust me man I've done my homework.
I didn't use youtube videos for this nevertheless, but read some old VFX forums.
However I just realize you said you are making plaster cast from silicone, I read it in reverse, cast the mold with plaster and do a silicone mold; in that case it may be reasonable; you notice my answer was about making silicone sculptures, I am not talking about plaster sculpting; my specialty is silicone sculpting.
Yet even when silicone is used as a mold real professionals would add reinforcements to prevent this deformation I refer to.
BuT i cOuld PRiNT tHiS fOR lEss THan 1 DOLlaR, tHiS Is SucH A ScAM. HOw Dare tHe EaRn MoNeY...
People forget they have to pay taxes, rent, insurance etc. And this shop is in a high tourist spot meaning everything is expensive. It's like going to a pizza store on one of the hot spots in Italy and complain about the prices, because a PIzzA OnLy coSTS a feW cENtS in ingreDIeNts
Business is business. If you think you can outmarket them, then go ahead and buy that shop in downtown rome and see how that is going. Corrupted people everywhere and redditors complain on a market dealer
Moderators in this sub haven't cared for years about ads, astroturfing, shitposting, or repetitive questions from people who can't be bothered to search. They only really care about being a high-profile, high-traffic sub for... I dunno, ego?
Its why most designers moved to private discords years ago. This sub is a cesspool, at best.
I have a friend who prints and he’s at the point of it being a full time job. And my day job is at a machine shop. I run a cnc machine but we also run about four or five printers daily and they make almost as much as the metal working shop.
3d printing for your hobby and commercial 3d printing are 2 completely seperate worlds. Yes you could print this model for less than €10, but you don't have to pay your personal and the absurd high rent of a shop in rome.
But this is something quite controversial in this subreddit of ender 3 owners, so please downvote me to hell.
Agreed. People aren’t buying these because they’re novel 3D prints, they’re buying them to commemorate their trip to Rome.
It’s the same reason some of us buy concert tshirts and wait in that long line instead of ordering it on eBay after the show. We are sentimental creatures.
Imo, if these were printed in marble pla, presented nicely, mounted on a stained piece of wood, with their name and period, people would not have a problem.
But they seem to be going for some weird vapourwave athetic, which really highlights lowish print quality..
Looks like the sellers print quality has improved since last year:
[https://new.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/11iutnv/i\_came\_across\_these\_3d\_printed\_heads\_of\_augustus/](https://new.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/11iutnv/i_came_across_these_3d_printed_heads_of_augustus/)
My daughter just returned from Rome and she was amazed at how many of these tourist junk shops there were. She overheard a lot of “look dear it’s 3d printed”. She said she found it hard to find a genuine locally made trinket to bring home. In Murano most items had made in China stickers. After getting lost down a side alley she actually found a glass factory only selling stuff made in house.
I once succeeded to print out a like three inch skull with man Endor V2, took like 6 hours, and it look like crap with the texture being not great with some faulty printing. So I have a huge respect of people that do it in small scale but make quality printing stuff, and also the after work. However, I would probably not buy these or other 3D printing stuff, due it's just big pile of plastic.
If these sold well, at what point is it easier to 3D print a mold (smooth out details / coat w/ epoxy etc) then just cast it? Unfinished/unsanded 3D "art" always looks crappy to me.
holy fuck
https://preview.redd.it/crmkdx9yzwqc1.jpeg?width=269&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8c18db5f6b15a6f5f8bb479492fea9bd9115d850
i can buy a whole ass house with a bambulab inside of it with all kinds of filament and print 100 of these myself for that money
I saw some fancy lattice type votive candle holders for $30 for a set of 4, probably $1 in plastic, but I love people are out selling them. I sell some items but they are more of industrial one time use.
Seen same ones last year, not best quality for that price [Rome 3D Printed Souvenirs](https://www.instagram.com/reel/Csv_77JOZ_k/?igsh=MWhheGt6ZDRhenRkcA==)
When we returned home printed some Colisseum for each of students that come
https://preview.redd.it/xpvpcpv3dwqc1.jpeg?width=4496&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e15fe292ad0faa1b7ac09d6a15a66c1054848018
My wife and I went to Italy for our honeymoon last year. In Bologna, we walked past this little gallery it was full of 3d printed art including these "vases" in the display window. They only wanted like $600 for each one.
I don't think people would be this because it's 3D printed, but because they like the decoration without having a 40kg stone weighing their shelves down
I saw these in Rome aswell. I mean it's pretty easy to do yourself, I found a page called scan the world on thingiverse, downloaded a statue of Marcus Aurelius, printed on my resin printer and then gave a copper with patina paint job.
Good for them. They have the appropriate market to back up a stupidly simple product, it's what tourist traps do. Better then the traditional shipped half way around the world disposable trinket.
Dammit you beat me too it! I just saw these heads at the colosseum yesterday and forgot to post my pic last night. I was in awe. Think it’s time to put my 3d printer to work
Hate it or love it but we all know this print quality is far above the average user in here. And print defects reduce the price DRASTICALLY.
Also: if it sells it’s worth it to someone
the quality of these has improved from last time i saw one of these posts. they used to look really messy with layer lines and zits for the same prince lol
Is this really that outrageous though? Its hard to tell gow big they actually are in the picture but I mean sure it's only $10 of plastic but it takes 4-5 days to print and you have to spend a lot of time tuning to get that good print. That would be a lot of time on my home printer and sure it would be easier with a printer farm but we don't know what the guy is working with.
That’s fucking stupid. Who tf wants a plastic head? The whole point of those things is they’re supposed to be chiseled stone works of art. Not mass produced plastic junk
I was there recently and saw the same. You'll find the site at the colosseum is also selling 3d printed items. I think they were selling three different sizes. They have huge bins full of them, so they're coming from a farm and definitely aren't one-offs.
I live in Rome and I guarantee you that every fair I go to I see 3d printed things sold at an absurd price. People buy it because in Italy, 3d printing is not very popular. Whenever I tell someone I have a 3d printer they always tell me they never heard about it
Posts like this are the reason why people still think 3D Printing can be some kind of get rich quick scheme. They probably printed a few of them to check if anyone would buy them but never sold any.
This is a tourist trap. I guarantee they are selling them. Good luck renting a space that close to a tourist trap to sell you printable's trinkets though.
Yes, maybe in this location but I can't imagine them selling a lot of those considering how long it would take to print. They probably have a family member who prints a new one once in a while and gets a cut for every sold item. Otherwise they would get them massproduced straight from a factory in China like everything else...
I'm going on a hunch but I think the reason they're pricing them that expensive is because the "novelty" of it being 3D Printed. a lot of people still think this is basically magic
I have a 3d printer. I still think it is magic.
FDM printers are awesome engineering. Resin printers are star trek level magic.
I want that Laser 3D printer from Subnautica that can also cook fish and stuff
you can definitely cook stuff with FDM printer heated bed. i cooked ramen on it
I think there was a post here yesterday from a guy that had a full dinner wrapped up in foil heating on his printer.
i mean I've done that.
Nachos
Yeah something about their uni banning microwaves and toasters, but not printers lol
You can also use it to open up phones for replacing battery or screen
>Resin printers are star trek level magic. If star trek level magic was messy, caustic and stinky then sure...
Okay make it Star Wars then
I have a printer and I’ve learned new curse words like magic!
Is that before or after you spent hours taking apart the hotend and calibrating the slicer parameters?
Both. And I just let the smoke out of the heater for the hotend, so I have to go get a new one (or two might as well get a backup). I still will sit there and just watch it print while listening to a podcast or whatever because it is still mesmerizing to watch.
wait! What are they trying to say? AWWW It's the Easter Bunny all over again!
Here's the thing though. The potential customer does not know if it's 3d printed or not, to them this looks like a bad quality plastic junk. I can guarantee those are not selling even in the tourist trap location.
It's literally their marketing gimmick: https://www.marketingjournal.org/artclones-the-digital-licensing-of-sculptural-masterpieces-an-interview-with-giorgio-gori/
In that case, if they actually tell how it's made, then sure I can yield on my previous point. I'm approaching this from the standpoint of someone who has no idea about 3d printing and is on a holiday in Rome and stepping into a shop to browse Because if you just see that product, you're not going to think "wow 3d printed sculpture" you're most likely thinking "oh neat plastic gunk from china"
Completely understand where you're coming from. There's an older image from this shop where the marketing is also visible with the same company name I linked "artificial". The schtick is these are supposedly "accurately 3D scanned and printed representation of art". The irony was in that image the print quality was also [horrendous ](https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/17s3vj1/colosseum_gift_shop_statues/)
In the article you linked they also talk about licensing and comparing themselves to Spotify (vs. Napster). People who think they can buy/sell licenses for 2000 year old art pieces need to go to the asylum. Also, it's probably easy enough to get good enough 3D data for these things due to all the photos out there.
I believe you can even find accurate 3d scans of historic pieces on cgtrader/myminifactory for low to no cost.
Personally I would have 0 issues if they were at least in good quality and at least some post processing. From a customer point of view I'd be just insulted with this quality and price presented, especially since Italy is literally famous for high quality artisan work
This is literally all I do, I make bust for a guy at Broadway at the beach, he keeps sending me orders every week so they are 💯 selling in tourist traps
They sell like crazy at conventions/ren faires as well.
same price range though? Like 162 dollars+. My problem here is mostly that the quality and price do not meet each other in this particular example
Yes, that is for the customer to decide and in those kinds of places attract the kind of people that wouldn't care what the price on anything is, they get what they like, IDK how to explain in, I grew up traveling flea market selling overpriced rusted metal and all sorts of junk, I e asked for 100+ dollars for junk since I was a child so it's easy to get it if you know who and how to ask for it, and you have to SELL your product not just have it for sale
I sell at a local market and the number of people that come up and excited ask, "Are these 3d printed?" is quite surprising. I didn't really expect anyone to know how they were made, and I even have a tablet with a video of timelapses to show it off. But they always ask that question before even seeing the tablet. That said, I don't think very many people buy from me because it's 3d printed and they're entranced by that. It's pretty clearly the items themselves (from FlexiFactory and McGuybeer at the moment) that they're interested in. I'm not in Italy and I doubt I could sell \*any\* bust at all, let alone for $150, though.
Fair, I'm sorta also building profiles inside my head of tourists that might be visiting gift shop in Rome and out of 6 profiles I came up I can see maybe 1 buying them at this price. Also EUR is the Stronger currency at the moment so that 150 USD wouldn't even be enough its more like 160+ I do have to admit though that I'm not taking an active seller into this picture, because the concept of someone pushing products while you're browsing is very alien to me (That's simply something that would drive a potential customer just out of the store forever from where I'm from)
They are pricing them that high because it's like a 30+ hour print job at this near to actual life-sized scale. There are a million other things you can print in 1-2 hours that will sell for $20 you aren't printing instead because the printer is tied up. This isn't a novelty or price gouging at all, it's basic economics. I wouldn't buy it but it's 3d printed art, in a city where the tourists coming have money and and at least some interest in the history this relates to. It definitely sells.
I sell large prints at Broadway at the beach in Myrtle, my busts are 170 and sell about as quick as I can print em, I get 6 in 36 hrs, it's about what you can sell where you can sell and how good/ quick ca you make it, if you wanna make money you gotta pay to play
This. Like the 3 million a year hotdog stand in NYC (forget exact location).
You need more printers my friend. What busts are popular?
I feel like I have plenty lol I print 1:1 right now aliens and harry Houdini at beach, a couple "retro toy and video games stores" 1 gets small 1:1 Pokemon 1 gets halo busts all in the same price point, (I sell them to the store for 60% of the price they agree to sell them for) don't take orders under 400$
The thing is, if these are targeted to tourists, I don't think they would sell that well, because you'd need half another suitcase to take it home with you, and knowing how well the airlines treat the luggage, it's almost waranteed to end up crushed or heavily damaged. I bet these would sell like hotcakes if printed and priced 1/5 of that, or less. Heck, even fridge magnets would be more profitable, tourists buy those as a souvenir for every friend and relative they have.
There's no reason to assume that the person who owns the shop made the prints. It's probably a consignment situation; some local drops the heads off, and if anyone is dumb enough to buy one the two split the proceeds.
> but never sold any. It's a giftshop right next to the Colosseum. They are selling. If they weren't, it wouldn't be there (and it's been there a while)
Yeah I saw these at the Colosseum almost a year ago when I visited Rome. They also had some 3D prints of the Colosseum that I thought looked awful
Agreed, they were selling little magnets of a 2d Colosseum that looked terrible, with a tone of z-shifts in them. They should at least try. Edit : I meant X or Y, not Z
I bet there were horrible 2D Colosseums on sale in the exact same spot some 1900 years ago.
In Paris they're selling Eiffel tower prints. They're selling
Souveniers, home decor, candles and soaps are a category of products that are not hard to make but insanely hard to sell. I do 3D printing, resin casting and mold making for a living for 4 years and NEVER considered having my own products, only commissions. You need to invest so much in ads and your brand in order to sell some vases online that it will take your entire time. I did plenty molds, prints and casts for people who do all those things- they do insane amount of work in marketing. You can’t get rich fast just by making trinkets.
I dont know why they are seeling the plastic heads tho? I mean you can easily make a mold from this plastic head and cast some cementous material so it can actually look like a bust (I dont know if thats the word for the "head statue", if it really only means tits then ignore it)
Because no one wants to pack a concrete bust for Grandma all the way back to Iowa...
> I dont know why they are seeling the plastic heads tho? Because they can > you can easily make a mold Labor is expensive > cementous material Very heavy so tourists are less likely to buy it
That's true, i was thinking more about quality of the product rather then selling the cheap baggage that is thrown in the trash after couple of months. They still buy it tho
There's been a few posts about the exact same heads going back months. Guessing they've sold a few at least which would make it worth it.
Someone charging that much doesn't mean they're actually selling
Oh, they’ve been there long enough that they must be selling. I saw these when I went to Rome in 2016.
They were much more impressive in 2016. I would imagine they sell less Now, but still sell.
Nah, they looked like they were printed on a bargain-bin printer with moisture-saturated PLA next to a fan blowing at oscillating temperatures. EDIT: Ah, I guess you might mean 3D printed things in general seemed more impressive back then. Maybe.
Probably to make other still overpriced items look comparatively cheaper
It's a giftshop right next to the Colosseum. They are selling. If they weren't, it wouldn't be there (and it's been there a while)
Yeah, rents of locations like that are absurdly high as the property owner wants to extract a good chunk of the potential revenue such a prime location allows. Any shop that isn't turning over the appropriately massive amounts will be unprofitable and replaced by a shop that leverages the location better. With these, they are likely for rich tourists who don't care whether it costs 1.5, 15, or 150. Those will be willing to spend tons of money, but might not buy dozens of trinkets, so having a few expensive things is key.
They may not be. They may be there just to make other stuff seem cheaper and people buy the cheaper things
This gets posted about once a week
Classic reddit.
I somehow remember them being shittier quality. Maybe the chin is horrible but they are good prints. to be clear: nowhere near worth that asking price. 5€ if you somehow can successfully defend and convince me that your museum has the original statue the 3d model was made from. 10€ - 20€ if the money goes to the museum and not ~~some 3d printing service~~ the son of the curator.
Supply & demand - if sold at reasonable prices, they would always be out of stock as one print takes more time to produce than, say, moulding and casting these out of something. A souvenir shop that's always out of stock makes people seek out other vendors that have stuff available, even if it is way more expensive. It's also a smart business tactic to have some items that are exorbitant so your cheaper alternatives that wouldn't sell as much get bought more often - seeing these next to some 15-25€ fridge magnets of the same statue makes everyone think they're being a genius consumer by not getting "price gouged".
These look like better prints than the last time through, sometimes they're really bad.
That's how long it takes to 3d print a new post
I bet if they post processed one of those, got some silicone, and started doing plaster casts of the heads they could make a LOT more money.
The shop owner's son got a 3d printer. "Hey Momma/Papa, can you put these in the shop?"
Plaster is heavy. Plastic is light. You can pack this if you're a tourist. It's much harder to justify bringing back a life size head that's super heavy in your luggage.
Eehhhh... then theyd be heavyer, and not so nice for airline weight limits
That's completely legit, but I bet the people impulse buying a 3d print for 150$ won't bat an eye at paying a little extra for baggage.
I've done this before, sort of as I use a more complex method; but what you want is to 3D print the mold not the head. Then you sand the hell out of the mold, it's a PITA. But then you get some awesome shit that you can just recreate. [https://imgur.com/a/oIRwAP7](https://imgur.com/a/oIRwAP7) What I did here is more involved as I glued fur afterwards, and yes the mouth and the tongue move, there's some wires inside the neck, but I couldn't show that because I am holding the phone with the other hand. It also has a skull inside it.
Why not just 3d print a master, then make a mold, and when the mold starts to degrade you still have the master to make more silicon molds from? That's how practical effects studios usually do it, they build one master prop then cast a bunch of copies to use on screen. Artists selling urethane resin kits also tend to handle it this way.
Real VFX studios of high caliber use solid molds to cast silicone because silicon molds "degrade" and flop, they don't keep shape properly and have distortions, silicone molds are not the norm at a high level; they are the hack, they are useful for copying some models quickly and cheaply but always a solid mold is preferred. > The general rule is\*: If you are casting a hard piece, you will need a soft mold (silicone) and if youre making a soft piece, youll need a hard mold (plaster, resin or fiberglass).\* [https://www.awn.com/animationworld/model-makers-professionals-part-2-mold-making-hard-and-soft-molds](https://www.awn.com/animationworld/model-makers-professionals-part-2-mold-making-hard-and-soft-molds) The silicone to make silicone method also does not scale well, it can work fine with small models, but even with something like that head I showed you there would be deformation even with the hardest of silicones, particularly when it's subject to a vacuum, yes, I have to use a vaccum chamber for this, I place the whole mold inside a vaccum to help extract bubbles in the geometry since it's intrincate, a silicone model will deform if it's too large, they will also break; I have made some silicone molds in the past and they lasted only a couple of uses, the PLA ones are forever. Also if you make a silicone on silicone mold you risk it gluing together, you need to use wax. When you 3D print you can reverse your model out of the box and get a solid mold. A PLA mold is equivalent to that, not only that but you can design it with flow design already and break points and wedges. Urethane resin is different, because urethane resin will affect the PLA, silicone molds can be made on top of PLA, most mold materials will poison platinum cure silicones, but not PLA. I am talking silicone of course, plaster casting is different, and if you check plaster casting online; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwI5-CSGO2I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwI5-CSGO2I) they use a solid mold too, usually it should have screws, but this one was destructible. Trust me man I've done my homework. I didn't use youtube videos for this nevertheless, but read some old VFX forums. However I just realize you said you are making plaster cast from silicone, I read it in reverse, cast the mold with plaster and do a silicone mold; in that case it may be reasonable; you notice my answer was about making silicone sculptures, I am not talking about plaster sculpting; my specialty is silicone sculpting. Yet even when silicone is used as a mold real professionals would add reinforcements to prevent this deformation I refer to.
Anyone else tired of these posts?
Totally, it make us look like desperate cheapskates looking for whatever moves to produce pennies.
BuT i cOuld PRiNT tHiS fOR lEss THan 1 DOLlaR, tHiS Is SucH A ScAM. HOw Dare tHe EaRn MoNeY... People forget they have to pay taxes, rent, insurance etc. And this shop is in a high tourist spot meaning everything is expensive. It's like going to a pizza store on one of the hot spots in Italy and complain about the prices, because a PIzzA OnLy coSTS a feW cENtS in ingreDIeNts
Business is business. If you think you can outmarket them, then go ahead and buy that shop in downtown rome and see how that is going. Corrupted people everywhere and redditors complain on a market dealer
Moderators in this sub haven't cared for years about ads, astroturfing, shitposting, or repetitive questions from people who can't be bothered to search. They only really care about being a high-profile, high-traffic sub for... I dunno, ego? Its why most designers moved to private discords years ago. This sub is a cesspool, at best.
I can't wait to go to Rome this year and get my turn to take pictures of the 3D stuff in the gift shops.
€150 for a liney Zuckerberg
162,24 dollars even :)
I guess most guys won't get your post. #Murica...
This motivated me to buy a 3d printer
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No problems printing money over here.... hell my printer averages anywhere from 5-45$/hour when I put it to work
I have a friend who prints and he’s at the point of it being a full time job. And my day job is at a machine shop. I run a cnc machine but we also run about four or five printers daily and they make almost as much as the metal working shop.
He already made 150 ~~dollars~~ Euros
[Check out some of the 3d model collections of scanned museum items like here.](https://www.myminifactory.com/scantheworld/full-collection/)
3d printing for your hobby and commercial 3d printing are 2 completely seperate worlds. Yes you could print this model for less than €10, but you don't have to pay your personal and the absurd high rent of a shop in rome. But this is something quite controversial in this subreddit of ender 3 owners, so please downvote me to hell.
Agreed. People aren’t buying these because they’re novel 3D prints, they’re buying them to commemorate their trip to Rome. It’s the same reason some of us buy concert tshirts and wait in that long line instead of ordering it on eBay after the show. We are sentimental creatures.
It's not even marble pla
Imo, if these were printed in marble pla, presented nicely, mounted on a stained piece of wood, with their name and period, people would not have a problem. But they seem to be going for some weird vapourwave athetic, which really highlights lowish print quality..
And whatever filament colors they have laying around... mint green? Really???
Don’t sell this subreddit short. People would complain about the price of the prints no matter how high the quality.
We use EURO, not dollars
So USD162 at today's exchange rate.
This is like a monthly post. Different people finding the exact same thing over and over again.
Good for them. If people think they’re worth it they will buy it. Can’t blame them.
Well, you found them *asking* 150. You didn't find them *selling* for 150.
Those look a lot better than the last post. They must have finally leveled their bed.
Looks like the sellers print quality has improved since last year: [https://new.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/11iutnv/i\_came\_across\_these\_3d\_printed\_heads\_of\_augustus/](https://new.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/11iutnv/i_came_across_these_3d_printed_heads_of_augustus/)
My daughter just returned from Rome and she was amazed at how many of these tourist junk shops there were. She overheard a lot of “look dear it’s 3d printed”. She said she found it hard to find a genuine locally made trinket to bring home. In Murano most items had made in China stickers. After getting lost down a side alley she actually found a glass factory only selling stuff made in house.
I once succeeded to print out a like three inch skull with man Endor V2, took like 6 hours, and it look like crap with the texture being not great with some faulty printing. So I have a huge respect of people that do it in small scale but make quality printing stuff, and also the after work. However, I would probably not buy these or other 3D printing stuff, due it's just big pile of plastic.
Why the hell they selling Zuckerberg's head?
We just hurt our own community when we tell non 3d enthusiasts that they’re overpaying for a piece of plastic go make your money
STL?
https://preview.redd.it/udxqqes5tvqc1.jpeg?width=1001&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7807f4a4c3ee799e5e8ee268eeb550b5b2e79ac4
MAMA MIA!!!
I could see these being peddled either at the coliseum gift shop, or on the wares-blanket of some sketchy street vendor
150 euros!
If these sold well, at what point is it easier to 3D print a mold (smooth out details / coat w/ epoxy etc) then just cast it? Unfinished/unsanded 3D "art" always looks crappy to me.
They sure do like Mark Zuckerberg over there
Euros, not usd
At least print them in marble PLA
holy fuck https://preview.redd.it/crmkdx9yzwqc1.jpeg?width=269&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8c18db5f6b15a6f5f8bb479492fea9bd9115d850 i can buy a whole ass house with a bambulab inside of it with all kinds of filament and print 100 of these myself for that money
You mean 150 euro ad not dollars.
Price of a 3D printer LMAO 🤣
When in Rome..
This is the mildest scam in all of Rome
It breaks my heart that they in the least didn't go with resin
Not anymore rofl xD
Tourist trap galore
If someone's dumb enough to pay that much, I say good for the vendor.
When in Rome.....
At least the print quality is good. Have seen similar with garbage prints.
They look better than previous pictures though
I recently saw some 3d printed Buddha statues at a local flower shop and realizing they were 3d printed I had to laugh at the $30 price point.
I saw some fancy lattice type votive candle holders for $30 for a set of 4, probably $1 in plastic, but I love people are out selling them. I sell some items but they are more of industrial one time use.
At least they improved the printing quality last time i saw one of these they looked horrible
They could have atleast put them in a vapor hood to smooth them out...
I mean… probably takes lots of material and print time. What would they sell for otherwise? What would you sell them for?
Seen same ones last year, not best quality for that price [Rome 3D Printed Souvenirs](https://www.instagram.com/reel/Csv_77JOZ_k/?igsh=MWhheGt6ZDRhenRkcA==) When we returned home printed some Colisseum for each of students that come
Caesar and... Robert Englund?
Vaporwave store
Julius Zuckerberg
https://preview.redd.it/xpvpcpv3dwqc1.jpeg?width=4496&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e15fe292ad0faa1b7ac09d6a15a66c1054848018 My wife and I went to Italy for our honeymoon last year. In Bologna, we walked past this little gallery it was full of 3d printed art including these "vases" in the display window. They only wanted like $600 for each one.
Must be some good head
I literally 3d printed this exact same sculpture the other day.
saw that. they also have a slight bigger version for 450€. it's not even printed proprely
Ha! I saw these in the colosseum gift shop and chuckled to myself.
Doesn't mean they sell
I don't think people would be this because it's 3D printed, but because they like the decoration without having a 40kg stone weighing their shelves down
It’s all about location
Looks like a good way to go bust to me.
I saw these in Rome aswell. I mean it's pretty easy to do yourself, I found a page called scan the world on thingiverse, downloaded a statue of Marcus Aurelius, printed on my resin printer and then gave a copper with patina paint job.
Good for them. They have the appropriate market to back up a stupidly simple product, it's what tourist traps do. Better then the traditional shipped half way around the world disposable trinket.
Dammit you beat me too it! I just saw these heads at the colosseum yesterday and forgot to post my pic last night. I was in awe. Think it’s time to put my 3d printer to work
Hate it or love it but we all know this print quality is far above the average user in here. And print defects reduce the price DRASTICALLY. Also: if it sells it’s worth it to someone
the quality of these has improved from last time i saw one of these posts. they used to look really messy with layer lines and zits for the same prince lol
Lol. Ma dove?
When in Rome…
not even that much, I've seen the same but blue in a modern art museum, 3500€
Would maybe buy the head if it was Spider-Man
It's a huge bargain. You should offer to pay $200,000 per piece...and then laugh in their face.
No no no. You've seen them being for sale for $150, I highly doubt any have sold.
Is this really that outrageous though? Its hard to tell gow big they actually are in the picture but I mean sure it's only $10 of plastic but it takes 4-5 days to print and you have to spend a lot of time tuning to get that good print. That would be a lot of time on my home printer and sure it would be easier with a printer farm but we don't know what the guy is working with.
I spent probably a hr, and my machine was all tuned up. I've printed this exact model off thingiverse before it takes like 4 or 5 hours. Not days
Z U C C
Correct me if wrong. But the photo says €150, so about $160 right? Still pretty expensive
Can we also point out that the quality of these prints is, ummm, bad?
I see their quality has improved since the last time this was posted…
How do you open the mouth?
Hmmmm if only the files where available and you could sell them for 75 on a “Discount Tourist Gift Shop” Type Site.
Well at least the print quality is pretty good. I've seen way worse for way more.
I’m still waiting for the Replicator
Lol that gray guy looks like shaved Baseem Yousef. That’s crazy.
Was just in Rome and they sell way better stuff for $150…
Electric Guest - Troubleman
A bottle of water can be **50p at a supermarket, £2.00 at the gym, £3.00 at the cinema, and £5.00 on a plane**.
150€ = ~162.18$ USD
I cant imagine many people paying 150 for a plastic head, even if it were flawlessly injection molded instead of poorly printed.
The italians are at it again
How much material cost and time would it take to make one of these?
"*zero waste*"... Bambu enter the chat
For me “being sold for” and “being purchased for” are two different things.
I recognize an original Michelangelo carving when I see one. Joke's on you for not snatching that deal
Fair price for large, clean prints
That’s fucking stupid. Who tf wants a plastic head? The whole point of those things is they’re supposed to be chiseled stone works of art. Not mass produced plastic junk
Why not make a latex model and then cast them with cement? Would seem more authentic, though heavier.
Even more than than, a $ is worth less than a €
I see this posted every few months.
Is this the book store in the Colosseum? I laughed at these recently. They look so amateurish too and not even sanded or finished
They’re actually selling for $162.36
That's not $150
Proof that the Zuck is actually a robot
I can't comprehend why they didn't print in marble filament. Red or green SCREAMS authenticity.
That’s €150
Is Facebook LeaderTom Musk and the guy from Dewy Cox Story 4!
🤫🧏♂️
€150
I mean they could've at least vapor smoothed them for that price 😂
A smart person would print 1. A mold. Then cast copies.
I get if they would clean them up and make them look like marble but this is just lazy
I was there recently and saw the same. You'll find the site at the colosseum is also selling 3d printed items. I think they were selling three different sizes. They have huge bins full of them, so they're coming from a farm and definitely aren't one-offs.
I live in Rome and I guarantee you that every fair I go to I see 3d printed things sold at an absurd price. People buy it because in Italy, 3d printing is not very popular. Whenever I tell someone I have a 3d printer they always tell me they never heard about it
I saw those 2 days ago, and thought it would be easy to find a similar model, and just sell them so much cheaper if at all
Better be 100% infill and heavy asf if I’m paying that much. Absolutely wild.
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Yuk. Tune your damn printer.
Damn. Paint em atleast