Rebecca Jackman
WHAT do Justin Bieber, Kurt Darren, Charlize Theron, Diana Ross, Jacob Zuma and Prince Harry have in common? You can find them all in figurine form.
They may not have made them themselves, but you can.
In your younger years, you played with your favourite Barbie, GI Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle or celebrity figurine and you may have dreamt of being immortalised in miniature form.
With 3D Printing Africa at Century City, that dream can become a reality. The company, specialising in full-colour mini-figurines of people, will take its service on a mini-tour of Cape Town with brief stints at Audiolens shops in Canal Walk, Cavendish Square and the V&A Waterfront.
It is now at Audiolens 3D at Canal Walk (shop 74), and will move to Cavendish Square in the second week of October and will be at the Waterfront from mid-November.
Co-owners Anton Smith and Kim Higgins were photographers taking pictures for ID books and passports, but when Home Affairs started taking in-house photos they feared their business was dying.
They were on holiday in Las Vegas when they came across a 3D printing shop. “It’s quite big overseas. So we decided we’re going to bring it to South Africa,” said Smith.
The ceramic figurines, available in busts between 4cm and 10cm or full figurines between 12cm and 20cm, are made by scanning 16 photographs a second in a process that takes three to five minutes.
“So you end up taking a couple of thousand photos of a person,” said Smith, adding that they then had software that stitched all the images together to create a 3D file.
For the smallest bust you’ll spend R240, but the largest figurine (bigger and more realistic) will set you back R2 400.
As the figurines are in high demand, you can expect your miniature self or relative to be ready in about 10 working days.
Smith said the figurines were ideal gifts: grandchildren for grandparents, surprise gifts for a partner, as a 21st birthday alternative, or of parents for their children.