Last weekend's poll suggested a staggering 85% of us are in team toolchanger. The technology is firmly taking root, and with the number of options available to buy today, it comes as little surprise.

But what is it about toolchangers that put one on your wishlist?

but indulge me a moment as two passions of mine have inexplicably collided: 3D printing and Rocket League.

While the just-launched season 23 of the game brings the expected roster of unlockable goodies including goal celebration animations, car decals and titles, there's also, for reasons unknown, a Benchy.

Available as a topper (read: hat) for your car, the model – now famously public domain – is an odd inclusion for a game about rocket-powered car soccer. Credit to Redditor Ok_Debate9268 for first flagging it on the r/3Dprinting subreddit.

A paper published in ScienceDirect's Additive Manufacturing Letters journal details the algorithmic benefits of wave-inspired path planning for flat, unsupported overhangs – similar to arc overhangs we've seen before, but cleaner.

As with arc, seeing it up close it looks nothing short of magic. The paper's author points to OrcaSlicer and PrusaSlicer forks with the feature enabled, so you can try it out (provided you're comfortable compiling the software yourself.)

FDM’s dirty little secret is Z-strength: layers that cool too quickly before the next layer arrives making prints delaminate like a stale croissant. Researchers at Germany's OTH Regensburg want to fix that with a laser-enhanced FDM printhead that preheats the surface just before fresh filament lands. Laser-assisted FDM has been studied for years and shown to improve layer bonding, so why is it still mostly trapped in the lab? Cost, safety, and reliability may all be culprits. Still, if this approach works commercially, FDM’s Z-strength problem might finally meet its Bond villain.

Last week I asked what your primary printer for personal use is. A resounding 44% of you said Bambu Lab is your go-to, with Prusa Research second place with just shy of 15% and Creality marginally behind that.

In a remarkable sign of how fortunes can reverse, Snapmaker is in fourth place with 5% of the tally, above Elegoo and Anycubic. The U1 bounce was real – and a useful toolchanging segue to this week's question.

Creality has joined the toolchanger craze, revealing K3 with KliTek. We know color printing isn't a regular use-case for the majority – so, who actually wants a toolchanger?

Just a beat after announcing the its ColorMix implementation of FullSpectrum color interpolation printing, Prusa has announced a neat ColorMix Shading web app that lets you dramatically shade prints to achieve filament mix-like effects. Just upload your STL, set the colors you're using, and reposition the "light" to set new shaded perspectives on your model. It's quick, easy, integrates directly with EasyPrint, PrusaSlicer or, for non-Prusa users, exports directly to 3MF. Read more about it on the Prusa blog.

Google just dropped 2D CAD drawings for its new Fitbit Air as an open invite for makers to design their own bands, so expect unofficial STLs to hit the usual model repositories fast. Just note: Long-term skin contact means sweat, friction, heat, and overnight wear, and very few 3D printing filaments are actually certified for that job. Look for materials, such as Siraya Tech’s Flex TPU 85A with ISO 10993 biocompatibility documentation.