What would you build with a 3D printer?

I used to play around with 3D modeling software years ago. I would likely get back to that and just make random... anything. I suspect my house would soon be cluttered with dozens of random "sculptures" of my own making.

One of the cool ideas EA had with Spore was to offer 3D replication of creatures made with the creature creator. I'm not sure if they went through with this or not. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pyrogenic/147435979/

I could also make random (video-game related?) knick knacks and sell them on Etsy or Ebay. I had an idea for something like this a few months ago, that I wanted to make for myself, but I couldn't find any good places to do it locally.

In short, once the price drops to around $1000, I'll likely be first in line to get a 3D printer.

What would you use a computer for, if you could have one of your very own? Hard to tell, but to say the possibilities are endless is an understatement.

I'd set up a web site that let you put famous people in funny situations. You could have the whole rate/share/clan social stuff if you like. Then you could print out your figurines to keep in your office as fun collectibles. Sort of a cross between a comic book, Digg, Newspaper cartoons (political or not), Home Shopping Network, and Martha Stewart.

It would be extremely easy-to-use, but freelance artists could write their own "modules" -- such as new famous people or scene extras -- and get royalties each time they were used.

All the lego pieces I could never afford as a kid.

About 4 years ago a friend went to a "rapid protyping" conference, and there was a guy there who was making resin models of people's online game characters from his garage. He would paint them or you could paint them. I think the game companies themselves got into that business later.

In niche areas such as car restoration, antique radios, and etc you could offer a service of building replica parts. I think that being successful in this area depends more on knowing the market involved and how to get to it, not so much on pushing the limits of 3D printing.

I think you could make a business of taking in Google Sketchup models of houses, sheds, and other buildings and mailing back a model, in which the roof could come off to see inside. I'm not sure that the current 3D printing technologies are the best way to make those models, however.

Much of the current market for 3D printed products is decorative pieces, either novelty figures or decorative plastic bits of molding for cars and other things. My personal instinct would be to find something that was more functional to produce, such as the little breakable plastic bits of laptops and cell phones.

Could I make copies of my housekey instead of going to the hardware store? Could reprep do this? That's the only one I could afford.

It will extend hacker skills into meatspace. An exciting prospect!

A 4D printer.

Gifts for people, maybe make a figurine of someone for their birthday.

I'd do what that countach guy did and build myself a car. The shell part is the hardest part, and with the 3d printer you'd get perfect sized body parts.

Maybe a model of my house, or a bust of my face.

A neat casing for MintyMP3 (which then would have to be renamed, obviously).

I would make some 3D fractals, and other fun mathematical objects.

Robosaurus

I would use a 3D printer to make another 3D printer.

In the spirit of the Halloween season:

I would use it to print models of the non-Euclidean geometries manifested in the sunken city of R'lyeh where dread Cthulu lies dreaming!