Bambu Lab’s new PrintMon Maker tool creates cute 3D printable characters from text and image prompts ^↺

Bambu Lab has always placed emphasis on making 3D printing accessible to and popular among a wider audience, whether it’s through its easy-to-use 3D printers or its MakerWorld platform for publicly sharing 3D models. Now, it has released PrintMon Maker, a new tool that can turn a text prompt or image into a Pokemon-like full colour 3D character which can then be printed as a nice personalised desktop toy.

PrintMon Maker was launched in beta mode in August, but can now be accessed by anyone on the MakerWorld platform. The process starts with either a text prompt or an image, based on which the generative AI model produces a 2D image. You can have the AI retry as many times as needed or, if you like the suggested character, you can ‘hatch’ that 2D image into a 3D model. That last step costs 10 MakerLab credits, which are earned through interactions on the platform.

Once ‘hatched’, there are some basic tweaks you can make to your PrintMon, including selection of four-, eight-, or twelve-colour printing, and the colours themselves. You can also customise the character’s eyes and add a base for it to stand on. Not using the tag-line "Gotta hatch 'em all" seems a bit of a missed opportunity, but is probably smart, in light of the Nintendo vs Palworld lawsuit.

The finalised model can be either downloaded as an OBJ file, or opened directly on the Bambu Studio software. While there are other similar services out there, such as Meshy AI and 3D AI Studio, PrintMon Maker is geared towards quickly and easily getting to the printing stage, even for those don’t have much expertise in 3D printing or modelling.

In fact, Bambu Lab already has a host of easy-to-use modelling tools worth checking out, under the MakerLab section of MakerWorld, such as Pixel Puzzle Maker, Image to Keychain, Make My Sign, Make My Lithophane and more.

To try out some of these fun tools, or just to dip your toe in the world of 3D printing, you can buy the AnkerMake M5C 3D printer or the Ender 3 V3 SE, both available on Amazon.