I, as one of many collectors that mourned the loss of the platform that was Shapeways to our hobby, am happy to announce that there is finally something positive to announce after their Bankruptcy this Summer. The Eindoven facility, and most of their design and production team from that facility and the Shapeways name have been acquired by 2 of the former co-founders of the company. The website is now active, although for now only their goals and a sketch of their vision for the re-imagined company is apparent.

There is much bad new but some good news as well. The main bad news is the Shapeways Marketplace is gone, at least for now. The software was very old and creaky and not transferable to new platforms. All info on that platform is "lost" to the new company.

The good news is that Shapeways is actively attempting contact with previous Shapeways shops, starting with the European ones and now reaching out to American ones about getting shops back open on the platform. At the moment it is a "shops only" platform, so no word on how it will work and be cross-searchable like the old Market place. They have also acquired the European software model platform "Thangs" and their team.

Anyone interested can go online with the old Shapeways search can access the site once again, and read in full their press releases and announcements. Hopefully, this is the first step back for the community who wishes to purchase these detailed ship models from the producers we purchased from in the past. But it is still a ways into the future.