A year ago Shapeways and Hasbro announced a groundbreaking partnership that signaled a new way forward for collaboration between IP holders and their biggest fans. Instead of issuing takedown notices and lawsuits to the fan art community, Hasbro and Shapeways created a space where great fan art designers could work with Hasbro to deliver new 3D printed creations based on My Little Pony. SuperFanArt was designed to begin to understand what would happen when brands, fans, and 3D printing really had an opportunity to collaborate as partners.
Now, a year later, this first experiment has reached its natural end. However, the end of this first experiment is not the end of this type of collaboration. Everyone involved – Hasbro, Shapeways, and the designers – have learned a lot about what it takes for this type of partnership to work. We are all excited to take what we have learned to refine and improve these types of collaborations going forward.
The initial response to SuperFanArt from the community, fans, press, and the public at large was amazing. That response is proof – if anyone needed more – that there is a hunger for new ways of thinking about the relationship between brands and fans. That hunger is not going away, and we will continue to work hard to design the best ways to bring brands and communities together.
So make sure to keep your eyes on this space. We’ve got some exciting developments coming up that you won’t want to miss. In the meantime, we value feedback and questions about the partnership. Please visit our forum discussion to get involved in the conversation.