What do you call a 12 inch by 12 inch by 16 inch box that can print 3D objects of your design, continuously for hours at a time, for just over a thousand dollars? That's the new MakerBot Thing-O-Matic, the latest and greatest in automated home 3D object printing. MakerBot has just begun sending the first shipment out its doors.

MakerBot says the Thing-O-Matic prints higher-quality items than its other 3D printers but the real differentiator here is the automation: give this thing enough plastic to chew on and it will print the same or different objects one after the other after the other, clearing itself out each time before beginning anew. Can the Thing-O-Matic self-replicate - be used to make more Thing-O-Matics? That line was crossed by the old school MakerBot last June, so perhaps it's just a matter of time.