[TrentTroop]

3d printing is going to change everything a few innovation cycles from now. Shapeways is workign on getting full color, smooth-surface printing with variable transparency together as an option in the next 12 months. At the start it will be niche and expensive, but with the ability to print the deco straight into the material you can do all kidns of things that would never be cost effective or even possible by other means.

I'd love to see 3d printing kiosks in the style of the old Mold-A-Rama machines you'd find in zoos and other tourist attractions. Speed is the real question there with how things are currently done.

Heck, Mattel was supposed to get a home 3d printer out on the market under the "Thingmaker" name, but they haven't quite gotten that together yet.