MAKE YOUR OWN ‘MINI ME,’ LIKE THE BOZOS IN “SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.” A customer gets ready for his close-up (inset). (
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One goal has long evaded sex toy engineers: an exact replica of a human penis. Not just any penis, but yours, with all the contours and skin tone that the good Lord gave you rather than those unnaturally smooth and luridly pink options.
Plaster molds and other attempts take too long and often leave the customer limp with disappointment.
Now, thanks to 3D printing, the era of the perfectly cloned mini-you has arrived; finally, you can be in two places at once, as it were.
The New York Toy Collective, run by Murray Hillers Chelsea Downs, 28, and Laura Parker, 28, “searched for something like this in the market and couldn’t find [it].”
The pair teamed up with Openhouse Gallery, which has been running a 3-D printer pop-up shop on the first floor of the Eventi Hotel near Herald Square, to offer personalized sex toy making. The latest scanning sessions are being offered each Monday through Feb. 11.
Customers go to a suite in the hotel, where Champagne and chocolates await. They undress, throw on one of the hotel’s robes, and, ahem, bring themselves to attention. Since the process takes only about 30-45 minutes, guys use a variety of means to achieve this: pay-per-view TV, a partner whispering dirty thoughts or, in one case, watching porn on an iPhone.
The camera then takes multiple images using its laser scanner to capture all 360 degrees. This file is sent to a 3-D printer, to create a mold from which a flesh-like “body safe” version is created. The finished product, which costs $400, is delivered in about a week.
But when you can buy a non-personalized version at Babeland for $40, who would shell out for these? Parker and Downs say the average customer is a well-to-do businessman or an eccentric young professional, one of those “done everything, experienced anything types.”
But some are just curious exhibitionists like Paul Zepeda, 30, an artist who lives on the Upper East Side. He plans to use the raw 3-D file in art projects, or to create bracelet charms or gifts for friends.
“I’m thinking lawn ornament,” he says. “I may not release it until it’s in a 40-foot statue.”
Another of the target demographics is women who are unhappy with their, ahem, manufacturer’s original parts. Downs and Parker say they started the collective partially to provide hand-crafted, wearable prosthetic options for transsexuals, who want to feel a little presence between their legs but don’t want to go through the hassle of having surgery.
“To me, this whole project is a celebration of anatomy,” Downs says.
Once the project finishes on Feb. 11., the duo will take requests online at newyorktoycollective.com.
Downs and Parker plan on developing a “lady part” by spring, and expanding to other cities. But they are well aware that New Yorkers may be their target audience.
“It takes a little bit of an attitude of indulgence,” Parker says.
After all, we embrace the culture of custom-tailored everything.
“Customization has been the trend,” Downs says. “This is the next evolution of it.”