When I saw the advertisement for Spore Sculptor, I was intrigued. It looked like something that might be pretty neat. So I took the plunge and got one. I wanted a sculpture of a space craft rather than a creature and that may have been where I took a wrong turn, though there are other quality problems.

The actual space ship designed in Spore was as long as was permitted by the creator. When reduced to a sculpture the space ship ended up being about three and a half inches long and less than an inch high off the base. Details were at best fuzzy. The actual material used for the sculpture is very grainy and you can see that in the picture - it has an irregular bumpy surface.

In my case the space ship was mounted with the tail facing the viewer over the Spore logo. You'd expect it to have the nose facing you or the side, but not the rear end. This is an obvious quality assurance problem.

On the base you can clearly see a white area behind the wing. There were two of these on the base that were prominent and one less so where the surface was smooth and not bumpy suggesting another quality control issue.

To be honest, I was expecting a space ship about twice the length and height at the smallest and properly mounted with good materials. What I received is depicted in the photos below. You can be the judge of whether this is a good deal, but for my part I don't think it was good value for the money spent.



Note the crude bumpy surface and how even the logo is not crisp or sharp.



Below is how the creation looked in the creator.



The quality of the sculpture in relation to the product in the creator is not very good.

The idea of having a sculpture of one's creation was a good one. I'd really like to have a good sculpture, however this wasn't it. I'm disappointed in the quality and hope that something can be done to assure other players don't end up with the same low quality stuff. For the high price of the sculpture, I think it is reasonable to expect better than this.

I wanted something where I could show it to friends and say hey look at the cool stuff that you can make in Spore - buy the game and join me. That won't happen with this sculpture. Instead it will get stuck in a drawer out of sight.

I wasn't aware that spaceships were approved for sculpting. >_>

Someone posted a few pictures of some creatures he got a while ago and they looked decent (he did mention some issues with the material in gaps).

The fact that the ship is backwards really is a serious issue (as is the logo), but I'm not surprised that many of the details didn't turn out at all. The picture you've posted of the ship in-game looks incredibly detailed.

If you compare some of the ship textures (like the one you used) to creature textures, there's a huge difference in complexity.

I wasn't sure about that either, but it didn't say yea or nay in the list of things that you could/couldn't do. So I decided to have a go with a space ship.

You are right that the texture is pretty complex and if that was the only thing, I probably could live with it. I guess I was mostly shocked at how tiny it was and really irked that it was on the stand backwards with an unreadable logo and with discoloration on the base -- maybe a Spore birthmark. LOL. THX for the comment!

Indeed...

I think that your mistake was going with a ship, not that you're wrong in your complaint. The material looks as though it's textured specifically so that it has an "organic" feel to it... As for the loss of details, I agree with the above comment, your ship is highly detailed and I wouldn't expect them to be able to replicate that unless the sculpture was hand carved and painted...in which case I'd assume the price to be...well, exceedingly high.

Most likely they haven't gotten things perfected with transfering ships into models yet. I'd like to see examples of people who had turned their creatures into models to see if the issues are as bad with them.

Edit: The ship being backwards is one hell of a problem though, I VERY much agree with that. Otherwise, I would simply make the guess that they haven't perfected ship transition yet...or they actually don't TECHNICALLY permit it...but forgot to place a restriction on it and when you submit, it's all automated. Thus, no one actually knew you chose a ship...you slipped it on in there because they didn't have a failsafe to prevent it.

You just may be right that this got slipped through for want of a failsafe to prevent sculpture types that they really just can't do. If so, hopefully this will illustrate the issue and prompt them to fix it before anyone else does the same thing.

OldRygel wrote:You just may be right that this got slipped through for want of a failsafe to prevent sculpture types that they really just can't do. If so, hopefully this will illustrate the issue and prompt them to fix it before anyone else does the same thing.

Indeed...

I really think you just kind of "slipped by the system" due to neglect on their part in regards to failing to install a failsafe against ships and the like. You should most likely contact them and speak to them about it...you may get a refund or something along those lines as well as preventing anyone else from the same fate. :P

I would, however, assume that they plan to do a ship variant eventually...but use a smooth material for it as opposed to this "grainy" material that looks to be obviously for critters...

Mail them...lets see if I'm right :P

Most spaceships and buildings fall victim to this even when they are just uploaded to the server. Has anyone gotten a creature? I thought that was what it was mainly designed for.

That definitely bites..... I would think customer service would call and say.... not today... we're sending you a refund. Rather than shipping that.

it looks like it was "print" manufactured. was it make of a sort of plaster-ish substance? do the bumps follow lines that go all the way around the sculpture in reasonably level lines?
"printing" is good for computer generated images, but it lacks much detail and the product is usually less than the size of your hand. it is a cheap process tho, and if you answer yes to my questions you got gypped dude

The sculpture feels like sandpaper to the touch - rough grade sandpaper. The whole surface is grainy like that. It is very light - too light for conventional plaster. The base kind of looks like recycled plastic to me and is slightly smoother than the sculpture, but still an uneven surface. The sculpture is harder to tell what it is made of, but probably the same material. Best way I can describe it is that the material feels and looks crude.

If somebody got a good sculpture and has a picture of it, please post it.

yep. you got gypped. they "printed" it cheaply

"printing" is the laser hardening of a certain type of plaster in layers. you can see these layers with reasonable ease using the naked eye. its cheap, and looks crappy-but its also fast.

Ok, I found the old thread with someone's review of a creature sculpture he ordered.

You can find the review here: http://replicatorinc.com/blog/2009/01/review-spore-sculptor-3d-printing-service/

It looks like the creature worked out a little better.

OneBlackbird wrote:Ok, I found the old thread with someone's review of a creature sculpture he ordered.

You can find the review here: http://replicatorinc.com/blog/2009/01/review-spore-sculptor-3d-printing-service/

It looks like the creature worked out a little better.

Thanks,

That makes me think, even more so, that this was a matter of them not putting a failsafe on ships and the sculpture process being specifically for creatures only. That sculpture, as well as the two examples on the site, look pretty good...whilst this ship obviously dosn't. The fact that the ship is backwards also points twoards computer error in thinking it was a creature and not a ship.

I'd see about getting a refund, or at the very least a free sculpture of a creature to compensate for the extremely lacking ship.

OneBlackbird wrote:Ok, I found the old thread with someone's review of a creature sculpture he ordered.

You can find the review here: http://replicatorinc.com/blog/2009/01/review-spore-sculptor-3d-printing-service/

It looks like the creature worked out a little better.

Thanks. At least the creature is not so diminutive in size. Good review in the blog.

It does sound like the figures you can order from World of Warcraft are similar, but better quality and come with a protective glass dome to keep the dust off.

XxxTenebraexxX & merkwerkee - THX - probably will see about a refund or exchange of some sort.

OldRygel wrote:

OneBlackbird wrote:Ok, I found the old thread with someone's review of a creature sculpture he ordered.

You can find the review here: http://replicatorinc.com/blog/2009/01/review-spore-sculptor-3d-printing-service/

It looks like the creature worked out a little better.

Thanks. At least the creature is not so diminutive in size. Good review in the blog.

It does sound like the figures you can order from World of Warcraft are similar, but better quality and come with a protective glass dome to keep the dust off.

XxxTenebraexxX & merkwerkee - THX - probably will see about a refund or exchange of some sort.

No need to thank us till you get the refund : P

We’re simply speculating.