Broken Toy Part? Getting It 3D Printed Costs Less Than You Think

The favourite dinosaur lost an arm. The toy car is down a wheel. The discontinued building set is incomplete because of one connector, and the 1995 board game has been missing a pawn since three house moves ago. On paper these objects are worth a few euros — and a great deal to whoever loves them. The problem is that the replacement part simply doesn't exist: no manufacturer sells the dinosaur's arm.

3D printing — the technology that builds objects layer by layer from a digital design — was practically made for cases like these: small, one-off parts nobody will ever produce again. And as a maker in Italy, let me lead with the thing that surprises people most when they ask me: it often costs less than a pizza night.

What can be reprinted (nearly everything, actually)

The requests I see most often draw the map by themselves:

• the arm, tail or leg of a plastic animal, traced from the surviving limb on the other side
• the wheel of a toy car or toy tractor, often identical to the other three: the easiest case there is
• the connector or piece from a discontinued building set — for compatible bricks there are entire archives of ready-made models
• pawns, tokens, dice and tiles from board games: simple shapes, and for well-known games another enthusiast has often already drawn the file
• the piece of the 3D puzzle or the marble run

Then there's the whole "household" chapter, which technically isn't toys but follows the same logic: hooks for roller shutters and mosquito screens, caps for containers, clips for stick vacuums, the furniture foot, the shelf bracket. Two-gram parts holding hundred-euro objects hostage.

What it costs (and why so little)

A toy part is almost always small, and in 3D printing raw material is weighed in grams: the plastic in a dinosaur arm costs cents. What you're paying for is the maker's time to rebuild the shape on the computer and run the print. That's why the typical ranges — explicitly indicative — look like this:

• a simple part, or one mirroring an existing piece (wheel, pawn, hook): €5-15
• a part needing more careful modelling (a sculpted limb, a connector with precise interlocks): €10-25
• a batch of identical parts (ten tokens, four wheels): the first costs as above, the rest almost nothing — the file already exists

Collector's items deserve a separate note: a reprinted part fixes the object for play and for the heart, but a purist collector will always tell the replacement from the original. If the toy has market value, say so upfront: you and the maker can decide whether to aim for function or for maximum aesthetic fidelity.

Safety: the section I'm glad to write

This needs plain words, because children are involved. 3D printed parts are not certified toys: the European toy safety standard (EN 71) requires testing on materials, strength and small detachable parts that a craft print has never gone through. So:

• Children under 3: better not. A printed part can chip into small fragments, and at that age everything ends up in the mouth. No serious maker will print a rattle for your newborn — and if one does without a word of warning, change maker.
• Older children: use common sense. A glued-back dinosaur arm for an eight-year-old is a very different risk from a tiny wheel for a two-year-old. Ask the maker for a tough material like PETG (a sturdy plastic from the same family as water bottles) instead of the more brittle PLA.
• Pawns, tokens and board game parts for teens and adults: no particular concern — this is the ideal use case.
• Hobby filament colourants aren't formulated for sucking on: one more reason for the three-year rule.

Two lines on the legal side too, with no claim to be advice: having a part remade to repair a toy you own, for personal use, is generally fine. Reproducing and selling parts covered by registered designs, trademarks or licences (brand-name bricks, licensed characters) is not. Fixing your dinosaur: yes. Opening a stall of photocopied dinosaurs: no.

DIY or local maker?

If there's already a 3D printer in the family, doing it yourself is a lovely project to share with the kids — and free models for the most popular games abound online. But the truth is that the hard part isn't printing: it's rebuilding the part on the computer from a broken fragment, choosing the right material, and dialling the fit to a tenth of a millimetre. If you don't own a printer, buying a machine and a skill set for one toy car wheel makes no sense; finding someone who's been doing this for years — ideally near home, so they can see the part in person — does.

Where to find them: Trova un Maker

At Stimalo we built Trova un Maker ("Find a Maker") for exactly this: a free directory of makers across Italy, filterable by area. You post your request — a photo of the toy, one of the broken part or its surviving twin, a couple of measurements — and receive quotes from makers in your province. Asking costs nothing and commits you to nothing: in most cases you'll find the dinosaur comes back whole for under twenty euros.

And if you're the one with the printer, and friends have already started bringing you broken toys: the Stimalo calculator tells you in thirty seconds what to charge without losing money. Also free.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to 3D print a replacement toy part? Typically €5-20 from a local maker: €5-15 for simple parts or ones mirroring an existing piece (wheels, pawns), €10-25 when careful modelling is needed. Further copies of the same part cost almost nothing.

Are 3D printed parts safe for children? They are not EN 71 certified toys: for children under 3 it's best to avoid them (small fragment risk). From age 3 up, with tough materials like PETG and normal supervision, use is reasonable. Board game pieces for teens and adults pose no particular concern.

Is it legal to have a brand-name toy part remade? To repair a toy you own, for personal use, generally yes. Reproducing and selling parts covered by registered designs, trademarks or licences is not allowed.