Berkeley Tech Firm Makes Anyone An Action Hero With 3-D Printer

BERKELEY (KPIX) -- "In a moment the lights will come on, you will begin to move and the scan process will begin."

With those slightly-ominous words, the process of turning a mild-mannered news reporter into a superhero began at a Berkely company called Twindom ( http://twindom.com ). Using a full-body 3-D scanner, they can make a custom action figure of- and for just about anyone.

The process -- at least for the subjects -- is simple. You stand on what looks like a motorized, rotating cake platter for 3 minutes as the scanner does its magic. Then, they build your action figure with a 3-D printer. Price goes along with size, anywhere between $39 to $400. A six-inch figure of this reporter cost $120.

If you prefer, your figure can be virtual -- a 3-D digital avatar, ready to be sucked into a video game, a la Tron.

"We've been watching the application for a number of months, trying to figure it out, and when we finally figured ... this is something we could develop, we put it all together," said David Pastewka, Twindom's CEO.

At Twindom we ran into a guy named Jim Baubel, who was using the service to enhance his marriage proposal. We told him to be careful, since our report would appear weeks before his intended proposal date and his secret would be out.

Jim was unruffled.

"We only read books. I don't even have a television. I don't believe in them, sorry," he told us.