Interesting but there are other interesting things not noted there and I believe that Jody and Stern want to get some of the modding money and to a degree control this industry and in the process squash some of the real creativity of some of the modders out there.
Only yesterday I noticed that a particular modder went to thingiverse and copied someone elses design which has a non commercial license and the modder advertised for sale without prior permission. To add, this same person wrote to me as that believing they could do one of my designs cheaper and was going to do it but didn't realise Shapeways pricing structure changed making my design very competitive in the end, and to finish it off Stern also recently asked this person to recreate a design that I did a Marshall Quad Speaker / Amp to create as their own and as a licensed product for Stern. No creativity there.
3D printing is great with the many different styles / types to choose from but they have their place in various industries (prototyping) and I have learnt through experimentation, as well as trial and error. PLA printing is great for one offs but not meant for final product items. I started off doing a few PLA products and learnt that depending on the design PLA has a few certain negatives so I stopped selling final products in this format and switched to Shapeways / iMaterialise as they bind plastic particles with a laser and the end product is more durable, solid (not thin walls and low to medium % fill), higher heat resistance, UV resistant and much better to treat (paint) and will last alot longer. What many people don't realise is almost all laminated PLA print designs have between a 0.10 to a 0.6mm wall thickness and are made hollow or have a small to medium percentage of fill making the item potentially weak in design and susceptible to sun and heat, and my only advice is don't let any heat (sun) hit that playfield as some of those parts will fail especially ones with large surface areas and will only take an hour to do so.
I did a Snackbar mod and opted for a solid laser bound nylon made in Belgium and it is solid (5-10mm walls in places) and the result is a stable design and then sealed with 5 coats of paint giving it a nice clean look. I am concerned with some of the products out there and I think it is heading in a direction of filling up a playfield with lots of cheap plastic toys and starting to cross the line to being tacky.
I think Stern are forcing some of the modders out of the industry in a effort to control it and those making them via "licensed products". In the process I believe companies like Stern will reduce the creativity and are heading down the line of getting a bit greedy with some of the crazy prices advertised. eg A whole pinball cost $5000 USD (Pro) but the mod package is selling at 20% of the whole pinball sale price for a trim package, topper and and inside cabinet decals showing that these items are heavily over priced.
In edition I have been talking to some of the other modders out there and they are concerned as well with the direction that Stern is quietly pushing the modding industry.
Just because a mod is licensed doesn't mean it is original, creative, good or reliable.
