Introducing The 3D Printed Fetus, Because Ultrasound Photos Aren't Creepy Enough
A popular parenting site predicts 3D printed fetuses will be one of 2016’s hottest trends.
For the past decade or so, 3D and 4D ultrasounds have been all the rage among expectant parents, but one of UK’s top parenting sites predicts this will be the breakout year for something much creepier: the 3D printed fetus.
Channel Mum is the UK’s most popular video-based parenting community and website, and they recently released their predictions for the trends that will sweep the parenting world in 2016. Number one on their list was 3D printed fetuses — essentially little dolls or casts printed to resemble a 3D ultrasound.
Image via Indiegogo
Image via WolfPrint 3D
There are a few online retailers who make the dolls and casts, and they’re available in a variety of sizes and skin tones. Both are printed using ultrasound images you provide, and you can indicate what skin tone you’d like. For the dolls, you can even choose whether or not to have it flashing it’s genitalia, because that’s not weird at all. Basically these companies reproduce the baby’s face from your images, then they print it out and voila! You’ve got a new way to creep out the people closest to you.
image via Indiegogo
Image via Indiegogo
Image via 3D Babies
The small face castings cost around $300 and the full-size dolls retail for $250 to $550, depending on what size you want. Sure, that’s the cost of a brand new, top-of-the-line car seat or stroller, but a fake fetus in a box just seems like such a better use of your money, doesn’t it? You can display it in your living room to get that “waiting room at the OB/GYN” feel you’ve always wanted in your house.
We’ve had the technology to create these nightmare souvenirs for a few years, but they’ve yet to really catch on. The dolls first made the press rounds in 2013 when an entrepreneur launched an Indiegogo campaign to get funding for a 3D fetus printing company. That company — called 3D Babies — still exists, and if Channel Mum’s predictions are right, this might just be their time to shine.
The question is, of course, why 3D fetus prints are expected to be a trend. The word “trend” implies that lots and lots of people will be into this, but I fail to see how that many people will think it’s a good idea to pony up $300-500 for something that essentially makes your unborn baby look like Gollum from The Lord Of The Rings. I mean, it’s not a model of your adorable infant. It’s a weird, misshapen blob based on a 3D ultrasound photo that already makes most babies look like a demon stuck in a lava lamp. What’s chic and trend-worthy about that?
As grateful as I am for technology, sometimes it’d be nice if we didn’t have the ability to take everything way too far. Yes, pregnancy is exciting, and yes, your fetus is probably the most special snowflake fetus to ever exist, but we put our families and friends through enough with the constant ultrasound photos. The last thing we need is a handheld monument to our womb-mate that we can pass around at parties.
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