Found this Makerbot ad in January’s issue of Wired. I find this incredibly misleading to post a picture of a 4 color print in the bed of a single color printer, with no trace of any support material to boot. They may as well have put a cat on the bed and say “3D print your pet.” For a company targeting consumers, not makers, this is unethical in my opinion.
Yeah this is very misleading, if UK it probably verges on false advertising!
Ethics. MakerBot. Can you even use those two words in the same sentence?
US edition, mine is delivered to my home, not sure if the newsstand one is the same
If they have a shred of honesty the real picture should be the shell of the car on the bed with the final assembly in front of the machine with maybe a spare wheel nearby. Very misleading.
Actually, this can be done with the Replicator 2X. You can switch the Plastic when you get to the part that needs it. Use the Makerbot Software and within your file set it up to be color matched. Pain in the ass but could be done.
This cannot even be done with the 2x. The 2x is only 2 colors and most of those parts require extensive support structure. Also, printing in just 2 colors would still leave you with artifacts of the other color spattered all over due to dripping and support material attachment. I use a 2x at work and am not really impressed weigh it considering the high price. The new maker ware prints priming towers to minimize the dripping between colors, but that would not help the support issue… I’m not even sure if you can print support for 2 color parts, originally you could not even print support or rat at all in 2 color mode. Now you can select a different extruder for your support and raft so you can use dissolvable HIPS.
@Lance_Seidman , I think I’m understanding what you’re alluding to, pause the print when you need to use silver for the rims, then switch back to black or red. But only use 2 colors at a time. Even if you manage to get a 3rd party slicer gcode converted to work in x3g, or you use sailfish, you would have to have the slicing done in such a way that the different colors are different sets of tool paths. I don’t think any slicer has more than 2 color prints, but I know it’s being worked on. @Tim_Rastall would know more about this. But even if you could slice each layer compartmentalized, pausing the print at the correct spot is virtually impossible unless the gcode had discrete pauses. So I suppose it could be printed with 4 different colors if all those mods were done and somebody went through the trouble of changing the filament each layer, and the extruder didn’t jam, but the print would not look nearly that nice, most definitely not like the picture shows straight off the bed.
Even if they showed a picture of the car in all red, I’d be calling shenanigans. PLA can do decent bridging, but those features would be impossible without support.
I don’t mean to come off as inflammatory, I just consider this predatory marketing. Combine that with Bre Pettis not correcting Katie Couric when she asked him a question about him inventing this technology makes me lose all respect for MBI… plus the many hours I spend at work maintaining the replicator 2x and throwing out bad prints.
This is news? When has MBI ever been honest in their advertising?
Disappointed that @WIRED continues to pimp the most expensive, least innovative machine on the market. Weak.
@Eric_Moy Here is a photo how it can be done really easy: https://plus.google.com/photos/+LanceSeidman/albums/5960455097617225873/5960455095026622258?pid=5960455095026622258&oid=100817163402574613504
Is it a pain in the ass? YES! But it can be done. I did only 3 colors with my Porsche Cayenne (model from Porsche, freely available a few weeks ago?) and yes the print is easier than that of the Ad.
I also agree though, they are not to be trusted in the least. Especially with the recent buyout. Even more so, in advertising- but if you look at the Ad, it doesn’t say that car was printed with a MakerBot. It shows a possible “plastic” model car inside of a MakerBot to offer an example on how you could print your favorite model car with this device, what could be done by assumption, but not saying again “Toy printed using MakerBot … Model” aka covers his/her ass whoever put it out.
Does it imply it? YES. Sadly, in the USA, they don’t care. 
I own a MakerBot, but only because I make 3D Printing software for Win8.1 & need multiple Printers but I have to say? I do like it, just not so much the company anymore.
@Eric_Moy actually, multicoloured prints are bottom of my to do list, material composites and supports are the focus atm.
Ah, much more interesting though