The 3D-printed future of Halloween @kernelmag:

You know that super awesome Halloween costume idea you’ve had for the past five years but still haven’t had the time to put together? The one that would take weeks of design, fabrication, and a ridiculous amount of skill? Whether you want to be Iron Man or Samus Aran, creating a jaw-dropping costume can seem nearly impossible, but this year could be the year that you make it happen—and without all the moulding, casting, and pouring that normally goes into such projects.

Welcome to the magical world of 3D-printing.

3D printers come in all shapes and sizes, from bread-box-sized units to machines large enough to crush a man, but they all do the same thing: conjure solid objects out of thin air. Well, thin air and some plastic. The resulting items are typically rough and far from finished, but they provide the foundation for a costume revolution that is just beginning to take shape.

Take Neomek for example. The company specializes in 3D-printing solutions for businesses, but it couldn’t resist the temptation to engage in a little Halloween mischief by turning Vice President Jim Clark’s son into a disturbingly realistic version of Dr. Finkelstein from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.