The 10 Craziest 3D-Printed Creations (So Far)

Employing a printing technique called massive stereolithography, a group of 16 Belgian engineers were responsible for building the entire body frame on this electric open-wheeler. The ensemble known as Formula Group T had the help of a massive 3D printer to construct the lightweight plastic unibody, which is said to reduce drag and increase thrust performance. It’s just a matter of time before we’re all stuntin’ in 3D-printed Lambos.

A team of doctors and bio-engineers constructed this artificial titanium mandible for an 83-year-old Belgian woman who endured an infection that nearly deteriorated her jaw. Production on the prosthetic was done digitally and transplanted successfully with the implant fitting the patient in just four hours. The senior citizen was able to speak and chew the following day.

Peep the world’s first 3D-printed firearm. Creator HaveBlue managed to assemble the plastic pistol using a Stratasys 3D printer, assembling an AR-15 (M16) lower receiver and reportedly firing over 200 rounds. Plans were to take the same receiver and create a full-on AR-15 rifle, but the 2nd Amendment activist claimed to have encountered “feed and extraction issues.” This could be a scary look going into the future.

WREX was built to assist disabled children such as two-year-old Emma Lavelle who suffers from a rare congenital disorder that limits her arm movement. Two scientists from the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children printed the lightweight exoskeleton from the same plastic Lego bricks are built from, allowing the toddler to partake in the finer joys in life such as eating and playing with toys. Life changer.

In an attempt to preserve its original historical antiques, the Smithsonian Institution has begun utilizing the RedEye on Demand system to recreate its collections and display them across the globe. You’re looking at statue of Thomas Jefferson, which serves as the largest 3D-printed artifact replica in its class. The museum hopes to reach its goal of duplicating all of its 137 million collectibles. Wouldn't that be something.

Designer Bryan Cera has put a whole new spin on the phrase "talk to the hand" with his functional cellphone glove prototype. The Glove One features number, power, and call buttons on the fingers that are used to dial numbers and text. It also supports hand gestures, so if you make the call me signal with the glove in hand you’ll be able to answer the phone. Cera is also working on a "user-controlled, augmented video game project" similar to the Xbox 360 Kinect. Microsoft could use this kid for their mobile division.

Who would have thought of building a boat out of shredded HDPE milk jugs? A group of engineers from the University of Washington, that’s who. The collective manufactured this 40-pound canoe capable of carrying a max of 150 pounds with a hacked plasma cutter. That’s enough to send two supermodels paddling back to the dock from your summer crib instead of putting them in a cab.

Sex and politics go hand-in-hand, but Matthew Epler found a more erotic way of combining the two. The NYU master’s candidate captured data from Gallup’s website and made these 3D-printed sex toys from line graphs representing the vote-approval rating of each GOP candidate. Epler explained the purpose of his project saying, "Grand Old Party is a data visualization of voter approval rates amongst registered Republicans for each of the GOP candidates. They are also butt plugs." Uh, ew.

Prosthetics manufacturer Bespoke Innovations has made some waves as of late with its custom body part fairings. The company uses rapid prototyping to construct artificial limbs based on a 3D computer model and 3D scans, giving customers the perfect fit to match their personality. Each prosthetic goes for $4,000 to $5,000—saving amputees one-tenth on the original cost.

It's not a live-ammo spitter like the .22-caliber you just saw, but it'll definitely put you on 5-0's radar. The dudes over at Shapeways.com have created a platform where designers can embrace 3D printing technology to craft some of the coolest and most bizarre accessories, which leads us to this little doohickey from gun enthusiast junjortan. The revolver iPhone 4 dock was created using the MakerBot machine. Cop it if you dare for $114.