[Gracana]

Sure you can print interlocking bricks with a 3D printer, but there are some problems to solve if you want to even approach the quality of legos. The lego interlocking bump mechanism alone is a precision interface which requires tight tolerances and a controlled surface finish, both of which are currently impossible to match with 3D printing technology. The outside dimensions of the parts are quite important as well, particularly the vertical dimension: deviations run-to-run and-part-to-part will give you trouble with accumulating height offset errors in stacks of bricks. Where bricks should match up, they may not.

[stormbrew]

You may note I did not say it's possible now, but it would be absurd to think that it won't at some point in the future. You could have said the same about early digital cameras, which produced incredibly shitty pictures compared to even a polaroid. And that even when polaroid began to get utterly destroyed by digital cameras they still weren't really up to snuff, other factors overrode their low quality.

And if Lego wants to survive it when it does come, imo they should be thinking about this now.

[malkia]

And my kid can spot the difference between LEGO and some other brands, even if the pieces are compatible - it's something about the texture, the coloring, and how they stick together that makes LEGO unique.

Recently he got some cheap "no-name" chinese produced "lego-clone" - just a tractor and a character to drive it. It was so bad, the pieces were not sticking together properly. The character's head kept falling off, and the hair piece too.

But eventually he used some real lego "replacement" pieces and did it.

We must have like 10,000+ pieces now... If only there was a sorting LEGO machine!