Our one of a kind Spore figurine

by Christopher Grant on Jul 26th 2006 12:55PM

Some Joystiq readers will no doubt be jealous when we remind them of how Joystiq special correspondent Randall Bennett got to play Spore behind closed doors at E3. And again when he got to see Robin Williams crack jokes while making his own creature at that Wired party.

Well, our jealousy was rekindled when, after some months, Randall's friendly neighborhood UPS guy rang his bell to deliver a Spore figurine identical to the character he had designed at E3. They should definitely have a service so consumers can order their own custom figurine. More pics after the break.

Tags: action figure, ActionFigure, e32006, EA, Electronic-Arts, Maxis, PC, Spore, statue, toy

Reader Comments (34)

Too freaking cool!

That would be awesome, they would make so much money if they offered that, they would probably charge like 50 bucks a figure though

Will this actually be feature in the real game? i.e., you make your dude and then pay a certain amount to get one delivered?

Nick,

Tell me you wouldn't pay it though.

Of course... I wouldn't have to.

*ducks*

=)

Umm ... looks like a penis with wings.

I hope your penis doesn't look like that

I've seen 3D printers that can make models like this, rumor has it the cost is a lot lower than you think. If EA doesn't jack up the price too much I'm sure they could get the price point down to about your average McFarlane Figure price ($15?)

Ozyman666, you need to get yourself to a doctor right quick.

What a great way to ensure stellar reviews!

I'm joking, of course, I think this is all-around awesome, but I also find it hard to doubt someone with something so personalized would right a bad review.

Game looks like a ton of fun, I'm a bit afraid there isn't enough "game" and it will get tiresome within a few hours, but the tech behind it is great.

I think the Spore guys have too much free time.

looks like jar jar binks.

Anyone could have seen this one coming, What I want to see is a model of the world you create that is like 50 feet in diameter and you can put these guys on it. Now that would be impressive.

MosquitoControl: Good thing Randall doesn't write reviews. :)

Chris:

I know, and didn't mean to imply anyone will be swayed, nor that it's Maxis' intent.

I'm just saying that, of all the freebies I've seen, this is the only one that would have tempted me. So damn individualized, making it one of the best I've seen.

"I'm a bit afraid there isn't enough 'game' and it will get tiresome within a few hours"

Not enough game? Spore is going to have the biggest replay value of any game I've ever seen! You could play this through ten times and never have it the same!

A book I just read called "The Long Tail" by Wired Magazine's Chris Anderson actually mentions that the figure creation will be a feature in the game and it should only cost $20.
Really cool idea, that.

Do you think this is a one-time marketing opportunity, or will there we a permanant game option to get your in-game character/species/creature made into a custom figure ... for say .... $30? What a money-making opportunity; you can invision people getting numerous copies of their character as it evolves, as well as create new ones for the sheer creative aspect of custom action figures.

The full 3d character model already exists in-game, so we'd just need a quick means of one-figure-at-a-time mass production (sic).

"Tea, Earl Grey, Hot."

Yes. Yes. Yes. Coolest use of File>Print ever.

I want this game now.

According to the following Businessweek article, there are plans to make the 3D printing into a service for fans.

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jul2006/id20060720_289503.htm?campaign_id=bier_innlt0

Relevant excerpt:

"It may not be there in the same form in the final game, but you could also hit a menu item and send your creature to Maxis’ 3D printer, which automatically creates a model of it. It is likely that a model-making service (which will probably require payment) will be available when the game appears."

Hmmm, this sounds like a challange to make a structurally impossible creature.

"Not enough game? Spore is going to have the biggest replay value of any game I've ever seen! You could play this through ten times and never have it the same!"

Never have it exactly the same, but still somewhat the same.

The creature creation novelty will wear off. After that I'm worried that nothing has enough depth and subtlety to last.
Look at The Sims. No depth nor subtlety. Game got old in a handful of hours.
You can't compare the two, but looking at the movies of Spore I have the same fears. That it will be awesome for the first time or two through, maybe three or four hours, then you'll feel like you've done it all and that nothing you do really matters - you're just rehashing the same ground over and over.

This game is going to be so amazing. The whole idea of having a character different from everyone else is cool just in itself. By the way, I would totally pay $15-20 for a 3d copy of my own character. That's geek chic.

...............that is the ugliest son-of-a-bitch I've ever seen......

That's pretty cool - but does it poop to see?
(http://www.vgcats.com/comics/images/060619.jpg)
P.S. geekinabox: I don't think you understand the proper usage of "[sic]" :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sic

"that is the ugliest son-of-a-bitch I've ever seen"

Well concidering the "gameplay" in this game/be-God-for-a-day-simulation, what I said could actually be a comment on the...uh..creativity. Yeah, that's good, creativity.

I'd totally order one. Wouldn't pay more than 30$ for one though.

"Look at The Sims. No depth nor subtlety. Game got old in a handful of hours. "

Thankfully, you're the exception.

The 3d printers can cost less than $20k, and if they already have one, the overall cost of the figure would be whatever time/materials it took to make the damn thing. Probably not too much money in the end.

I wonder if they could hook me up with an Alyx figurine...

"The creature creation novelty will wear off. After that I'm worried that nothing has enough depth and subtlety to last.
Look at The Sims. No depth nor subtlety. Game got old in a handful of hours."

Considering how INSANELY popular and profitable The Sims was (and is) Maxis probably hopes Spore will be similar to it. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy The Sims, MosquitoControl. I didn't either. That doesn't mean that it won't sell like hotcakes, though.

I honest to god hope that the modder community will make it possible to hack and slash your way through Spore and mod it as much as you can mod The Sims. I mean, how many people, after playing the Sims for a couple of hours, didn't just go to a resource site and give their characters infinite hapiness?

After initially facing the challanges the game provides, you want to get to the most fun part as soon as possible. In the Sims, that means being able to buy anything you ever wanted and building a fantastic house. In Spore, it'll mean having your completely evolved species rule the entire universe as we know it. (Or so I would assume.)

So, in all, even if the game does get boring after a few plays, I expect people will fix it so we can get to the parts we like, and skip the rest of that nonsense.

That is truly one of the coolest things ever.

You need to remember that this is a static, unjointed figure. Any kind of articulation would make this gimmick impossible, as it would take a human designer to fit hinges or balls-and-sockets to the shoulders, hips, etc. It shouldn't cost as much as a McFarlane figure simply because it isn't anywhere near as complicated to produce.

When you consider that this is a solid chunk of plastic, modelled by computer from a set library of components, then painted by computer from a set library of patterns, then you can imagine that it would be potentially quite affordable.

How very, very cool. Imagine if they did this for The Sims 2, which uses similar modular modelling technology. They could make a fortune... well, another fortune...

And they'd actaully deserve the fortune for making a good game. Who would have thought.

Or for an MMOG, as a reward for retiring a character of long enough playtime. Makes all that time and money you sunk into the game at least partly worthwhile.

Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.

Breaking News

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days

Vita 'UMD Passport' won't be offered in US 220 comments
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate 153 comments
David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update] 108 comments
Don't call it a remake: Final Fantasy X is a 'remaster,' to be clear 95 comments
Battleship movie adapted into FPS by Double Helix 93 comments

Our one of a kind Spore figurine

Reader Comments (34)

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 12:57PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 1:01PM VGSandwich said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 1:03PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 1:05PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 1:08PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 1:12PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 1:28PM Android8675 said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 1:34PM XLM said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 1:42PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 1:44PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 1:50PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 1:52PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 1:53PM chrisgrant said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 2:14PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 2:15PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 2:23PM St McDuck said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 2:28PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 2:38PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 2:40PM Denbowski said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 2:46PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 3:07PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 3:10PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 3:14PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 3:35PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 3:54PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 3:59PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 4:26PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 4:30PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 4:48PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 4:51PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 8:31PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 26th 2006 9:43PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 27th 2006 12:26AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 27th 2006 6:30AM (Unverified) said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Double Fine Kickstarter passes $1 million in under 24 hours, breaking yet another record

Featured Stories

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier brings information warfare to the front

Rhythm Heaven Fever review: Crazy into you

Remedy not done with Alan Wake

The most popular postsin the last 7 days

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days