I love my 3d printer. Last Christmas opened up a brand new hot wheels track and told the kids not to touch it so we didn’t lose any parts. They waited patiently as I built it. Get toward the end and realize a clip for the tracks was missing no fault of the kids. Damn. Quick search and find a 3d file for new clip. Printed within 30 minutes and kids had their track. So much easier then calling the company and dealing with waiting for a part and not having the receipt anymore. Was really nice

I knew of a kid in elementary, this was in Chile, ordering missing Lego parts from the catalog. Was unthinkable. Pre-internet, I think mail or international phone call, something crazy. Unthinkable.

Plus the company introduces a wait. No blame on hot wheels, they (I think, not sure but want to believe) try to live up to being a cool toy. Good gift. They want to be a good gift, like get a kid saying "Ohhhhh, damnit I mean gosh-darn-it, sorry, hot wheels cars, real cars, wow oh wow oh wow oh wow!" Jumping up and down. But it's still a wait. So the problem is, reminiscing upon childhood, children make promises to themselves about holding out until birthdays and Christmas. So if they break that promise with themselves because a "company" (what's that?) "makes an error" (like on a test?) then it's like...nah, "I'm not a happy kid."