Snapmaker returned to Kickstarter with a new 3D printer, the U1, and raised an astonishing $7.8 million on its first day, underscoring an eager market for 3D printing tool changers. Unlike traditional AMS-style color 3D printers, where all the spools share one filament path and one nozzle, a tool changer has a separate tool head for each spool loaded into the machine. This results in very little material wasted between color swaps, the ability to mix materials with different temperature requirements, and avoids cross-contamination of filaments.
Tool changers aren’t especially new, but they are rare and, until now, fairly expensive. The Prusa Research XL, a five-head tool changer we reviewed last year, is aimed squarely at the professional market with a $3,499 price tag. By contrast, Snapmaker is appealing to the average consumer with a special early bird price of $649 and a regular Kickstarter price of $749. The four-color machine has an MSRP of $999.
We’ve reviewed the Snapmaker U1 and found it to be a remarkable machine worthy of our Best of 2025 3D Printer List.
Tuesday’s launch surpassed Bambu Lab’s Kickstarter debut in September 2022, which sold $7,047,538 worth of X1 and X1-Carbons to 5575 backers. At that time, a brand new X1-Carbon combo was priced as low as $999 for lucky early birds.
At this pace, it could beat AnkerMake’s Kickstarter record for the launch of its high-speed printer, the M5, in 2022. That printer raked in $8.8 million with over 11,000 backers. Sadly, AnkerMake failed to impress consumers once Bambu Lab entered the fray, delivering a Core XY machine that made the noisy M5 bed slinger, and later the screenless M5c, look like old tech. They disappointed backers by never producing a proposed six-color engine, and the company recently abandoned 3D printing entirely in favor of 2.5D UV printing. AnkerMake is now called EufyMake and hopes to wow a slightly different market of crafting enthusiasts.
The Snapmaker U1 could very well mark a shift in the 3D printing market toward tool changers. Go onto any forum for people who are new to 3D printing, and you’ll see utter dismay at the amount of waste that multicolor printing produces. This is not only bad for your filament budget, but bad for the environment, as 3D printing plastic is not easy to recycle or accepted by most community waste management companies.
Early-bird backers are still in luck: the U1 is available at $749, with a special $30 refundable reservation deposit that unlocks $100 cashback, bringing the effective price down to $679—a strong incentive for those ready to support the future of tooling right now, snapmaker.com.
