Mimaki has made an interesting investment with Mixed Dimensions that will allow Mixed Dimensions to significantly boost their operations.
Mixed Dimensions Background
If you’re not familiar with Mixed Dimensions, they are a San Francisco-based startup that has two lines of business. One is their excellent online 3D model repair service, MakePrintable.
The other is full color 3D printed collectibles. These designs are carefully licensed from owners and 3D printed in full color on demand for consumers. So far they have made deals with game companies to produce, for example, starships from Star Trek Online and Eve Online. They also have a wide selection of warriors, creatures and bots, and even several human anatomy models.
They also provide a way for designers to obtain high-quality full color 3D prints, and even have a squad of artists to paint models if requested.
But the future for Mixed Dimensions lies in the full color 3D printing. They’ve been working in this space for a while now, and have been using Mimaki’s full color 3D printing services.
We’ve seen Mimaki’s devices in operation and I can say the color quality is quite incredible, and is ideal for this particular application. Figurines 3D printed on the Mimaki equipment will be about the best possible color quality that can be made today. They’ve also been able to secure the rights to produce popular content through proper licensing deals.
This line of business has been successful for Mixed Dimensions, and it has not gone unnoticed by Mimaki, who no doubt saw a great deal of color 3D printing taking place.
Full color 3D printing has been around in various forms for quite a few years, but the quality has been generally poor until recent years. As a result there have been relatively few full color 3D printing applications as compared to mono-color 3D printing. Thus I’m certain a burst of activity as exhibited by Mixed Dimensions would be of particular interest by Mimaki. If they can find and help develop new markets, it just means more sales of equipment and materials for them.
Mimaki Investment
Then, Mixed Dimensions released this:
“Mixed Dimensions and Mimaki Engineering Co., LTD announced a global strategic partnership in the areas of 3D printing and modeling services and 3D software. This groundbreaking collaboration is expected to accelerate the global market growth and expansion of full-color 3D custom game collectibles.”
They also said that a Mimaki representative would join Mixed Dimension’s Board of Directors as an independent director. But what will this “strategic partnership” really mean? I reached out to Mixed Dimensions to find out more.
In response, Mixed Dimensions’ Faisal Nimri said:
“Mimaki has committed significant resources to Mixed Dimensions, including full color 3D printers and an equity investment. With these resources we will be able to fulfill our vision of building the merchandising factory of the future. We will be the biggest player in the custom [collectible] market. This will lead us to make more deals with gaming companies like the ones we did with Cryptic and CCP games.”
So it seems that Mixed Dimensions has figured out a feasible and proven workflow for licensing, producing and marketing 3D printed collectibles. Mimaki now understands this and will provide additional resources to expand this business.
We don’t know the specifics of the deal, but there’s likely cash, equipment and materials involved.
Full Color 3D Printed Collectibles
I’m now expecting Mixed Dimensions to seal more licensing deals with content owners, and this could result in many more collectibles available.
While this is a good thing for Mixed Dimensions and Mimaki, it’s also a good thing for collectors because for far too long content has been legally locked or otherwise tied up and thus generally inaccessible to collectors. If Mixed Dimensions is successful in license negotiations, watch for a flood of fantastic content in the future.
Via Mixed Dimensions
