In the additive industry we often talk about 3D printing spare parts for the aerospace and transport industries, but there is another area where on-demand spare parts could make all the difference: toys!

Dagoma, a European 3D printing company, realized that the ability to 3D print a spare part for a figurine or doll could make all the difference to a child and extend the lifetime of toys significantly. To address this, the company has launched Toy Rescue, an online platform dedicated to 3D printable toy models.

Though it may have been possible in the past to comb through 3D model platforms to find the odd toy part, now consumers can directly search for and find the part they need. The Toy Rescue platform hosts over 100 toy parts, which were been 3D scanned and modeled by a team at Dagoma.

Users can simply browse Toy Rescue and find an array of the most commonly broken or lost toy components—from doll arms and shoes, to board game pieces, to knobs and wheels. Each 3D model can be downloaded for free and 3D printed by the user at home. Or, if the toy owner does not have a 3D printer, Toy Rescue will connect them with a community of “Dagoma Makers.”

At the same time, Dagoma is also working behind the scenes to develop a filament made from broken (and impossible to repair) plastic toys. By transforming unfixable toys into filament, the hope is to keep plastic out of landfills and oceans. Moreover, the filament could itself be used to fix broken toys—a perfect cycle.

Dagoma has strategically launched the Toy Rescue platform just weeks before Christmas—a day where millions of children will receive new—often plastic—toys. The online platform hopes to curb the number of toys that are discarded because of a missing piece.

As the company writes on the Toy Rescue website: “Before, as soon as part of a toy was broken or lost, there was just one fate awaiting your toy: the bin. Now, you can fix them. And avoid a sad ending to a happy life.”