About a year and a half ago, we had a topic on the forums about 3D-prints of Spore characters. Little else about it has been heard about it since then, but apparently the idea was picked up by former Microsoft Games Executive Ed Fries. He has started up a company called FigurePrints, which is producing three-dimensional figurines of the characters people create in the online fantasy game “World of Warcraft.” Seattle Times had an interview with him in which he states that he got the idea after receiving a Spore figurine from Will Wright himself.

Wright agreed to make a character Fries had designed, Fries put it next to the computer where he was spending a lot of time playing “Warcraft.”

“It probably took a month of that before I put two and two together and said ‘Wow, what if you did this, what if you applied this technology to ‘World of Warcraft?’ ” he said.

It is as yet unknown whether FigurePrints will go beyond creating figurines for WoW. Maybe a separate company will pop up once Spore is released. Considering the huge interest FigurePrints is receiving for the WoW figurines, there’s definitely a market.

One of our users on first hearing about 3D printing of Spore figurines remarked:

That is so awesome! I would so buy models of everthing I create! That is exactly the sort of thing I’ve wanted all my life.

He might want to rethink that as the WoW figurines are currently priced 99USD + 14.95USD shipping to the US and Canada, and it is unlikely any future Spore figurines will cost significantly less.