The most 3D-printed Pokémon has been revealed, and it wasn't my first choice
Love 3D printing? Love Pokémon? Me too! If you own one of the best 3D printers out there, then chances are you've stumbled across sites like Thingiverse, Printables, and MakerWorld when searching for open-source STL files to print from. As it turns out, Pokémon prints are hugely popular. One of my first-ever prints on my Anycubic Kobra 2 was a low-poly Snorlax model, during my first 3 weeks with a 3D printer.
New data based on 3D models from Thingiverse has revealed the most popular fan-made designs, ultimately uncovering the most popular 3D printed Pokémon of all time. Who's that Pokémon? It's... Cubone!
Yep. The baby skull Pokémon is, according to the experts at 3DSourced, the most 3D printed Pokémon ever. Well, technically the skull is. The most liked individual model was a Cubone skull keychain with 17,000 likes. Other Pokémon that made the top 10 list include Pikachu (of course) plus other gen-1 favourites like Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Gengar, Charizard, Vulpix, Dragonite, and Eevee.
This data has been gathered and analysed by Scott Hamill, the Head of 3D Printable Projects at 3DSourced, who kindly shared these findings with us. He said a key part of the research was analysing the total number of likes for each Pokémon model on Thingiverse, as well as the number of occurrences in the top 100 Pokémon models on the platform. He also dived into which generation the Pokémon first appeared in, and which family they belong to.
It's no surprise that Scott found the Eeveelutions (evolutions of the Pokémon Eevee) to be one of the most popular 3D-printed Pokémon families, since they're all so damn adorable. Social media is known for having claimed the ghost Pokémon family of Gastly evolutions too, so it makes sense to see it as part of this data set.
Despite including the entire evolution family as one entry (so, Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard would all count under the same “Charmander” family), Cubone was STILL found to be the most popular Pokémon from 3DSourced's data.
I've 3D printed a ton of Pokémon since getting my printer last year (see the gallery below) including Pokémon planters which seem to be growing in popularity. I also printed an articulated Onix model in marble PLA which looks awesome.
It's notably the cutest Gen 1 Pokémon families that were found to be the most popular, including Togepi, Dratini, and Vulpix. Though I'm surprised Growlithe and Jigglypuff families didn't make the cut to be honest.
Hold that thought. It turns out that a bunch of other Pokémon families had multiple appearances on Thingiverse, including Clefairy, Growlithe, Mareep, Mew, Psyduck, Jigglypuff, and my personal fave: Snorlax. Entries that surprised me were Larvitar (gen 2) and Groudon (gen 3, legendary) however, given that they're not particularly notable or crowd favourites as far as my understanding goes.
The data conclusively found that Cubone was the most liked Pokemon overall, but Pikachu claimed second place, and the Pokémon with the most occurrences on the top 100 most popular 3D model list on Thingiverse was Eevee, shocker. Scott found that 10% of the most liked models in the top 100 list were either Eevee, or an Eevelution like Jolteon or Vaporeon.
To see the full set of results and data sheet (with links to each STL file for you to download) head over to 3DSourced.com.
If you're looking for some other 3D printing projects to master, see our guide on how to print a HueForge in just 7 steps, and see how I managed to 3D print a hexagon shelf for my game room too.
