Santa Rosa Plaza shop uses 3-D printer to make personalized action figures

Imagine walking into a high-tech photo booth that looks a little like a sci-fi teleportation device, equipped with 85 cameras mounted on 17 posts. In an instant, the contraption captures a slew of photos that will be stitched together and used to create a miniature 3-D figure - of you.

“It’s the next generation of the selfie,” said Martin Ramos, owner of My Twin ME, where the ME stands for “miniature edition.”

The business, which opened earlier this month at a kiosk in Santa Rosa Plaza, is part of a growing trend that incorporates digital images and 3-D printers. Ramos hopes he can tap into the age-old need to capture life’s precious moments, just as the photograph has for more than 200 years.

“Anything you can think of that you want to take a photograph of, you can come here and have it printed in three dimensions,” he said.

Ramos, an automotive services worker with San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, or MUNI, said he recently came into a modest share of a family inheritance that allowed him to purchase the Twinstant booth. He said his job at MUNI assures him a comfortable retirement, so he decided to take a risk on the novel business.

Why would anyone want a 3-D figure of themselves or a loved one? Ramos has a number of suggestions. Consider the plastic wedding cake topper. Now you can have one that looks just like the real bride and groom. High school students, too, could stop by the mall and step into the Twinstant on their way to the prom.

Forget the bronze baby shoes. Every year, parents could create a 3-D figurine of their children to document their growth into adulthood, a personal twist on the famous chart of the evolution of man.

“It’s a totally different way to chronicle your child’s life,” he said.

The images captured by the Twinstant are uploaded to a cloud server and processed by the company that makes the device, Berkeley-based Twindom. The company creates both the 3-D image and the figurine. It also provides ventures like Ramos’ with customer support, shipping and retouching services.

“All they have to do is find a location with people and scan them. Everything else is taken care of by us,” said Richard Berwick, Twindom’s chief technology officer and one of its three founding partners.

The company was created in 2013, Berwick said. Prior to that, he and his partners were involved in a business that produced a 3-D printer inside a vending machine, called the Dreambox. However, he said, consumers “had no idea what they wanted to make” with the printer. The company stumbled upon the 3-D figurine business after making a bust of Berwick’s torso.

“We decided it was time to change our product,” he said.

Unlike the traditional 3-D printing process known as “fused deposition modeling,” Twindom uses a full-color printing technique called “color jet printing.” In the newer process, the three-dimensional figure is constructed by laying down alternate layers of powder and binding ink. The result is a full-color lifelike figurine.

Twindom, which only has a handful of competitors, has sold 12 Twinstant devices globally. The device at Santa Rosa Plaza is one of only five such Twinstant devices in the United States, Berwick said.

At My Twin ME, Ramos charges varying prices depending on the size and number of people scanned. A single 3-inch figurine costs $59, a 5-inch statue costs $99 and a 7-inch figure costs $169. The prices for two people are $79 for a 3-inch, $129 for a 5-inch and $219 for a 7-inch figure. The business also can produce figurines of groups of up to four people at a time.

One customer recently purchased a 5-inch figurine of himself, his wife and their newborn child as a Christmas gift for a relative. He asked that his name not be used so as not to spoil the surprise.

“We are going to probably end up going back and get our daughter scanned every Halloween in her costume to have action figures of her,” he said. “My wife wants to do our pets before they get too old and expire. We love our dogs, they were our original fur babies, so to speak, before we had our first child.”

At the Santa Rosa Plaza, the Twinstant is a real head-scratcher for shoppers.

For one Santa Rosa married couple, the idea of capturing a moment in time in three dimensions was a modern twist on an old tradition.

“It’s kind of like doing a family portrait,” said Edward Gregoire.

“It’s better than a portrait,” said Azeneth Gregoire. “It captures every little detail. It’s a nice keepsake.”

Other mall shoppers asked about pricing. Ramos recently reduced his prices and is offering a special deal where customers who buy a 5- or 7-inch figurine can get 50 percent off a 3-inch figure.

Ramos said he hopes the business takes off during the holidays, but he has long-term goals.

“My intention is to be here indefinitely,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.