HeyGears G1 Series Raises $15.4M on Kickstarter for Desktop Full-Color 3D Printing

A full-color 3D printer that fits on a desk

HeyGears closed its Kickstarter campaign for the G1 Series on September 11 with roughly $15.4 million raised from more than 3,500 backers. That is a long way from the original $100,000 goal. The headline product is the G1X, a desktop machine that combines full-color 3D printing, raised-texture printing, and UV flatbed printing in one chassis. The full-color 3D pack starts at $3,599 on Kickstarter, with post-campaign MSRP rising to $5,499.

Professional full-color 3D printing systems from Stratasys and Mimaki still cost $40,000 to $100,000 or more. HeyGears is targeting the opposite end of the market. The G1X uses an Epson i3200-U1HD printhead with eight channels and 3,200 nozzles, offering a build volume of 420 x 330 x 130 mm. The machine can mix colored and transparent materials in the same build and uses water-soluble supports for internal cavities.

What the G1X actually does

The G1X runs three distinct modes. Full-color 3D printing handles volumetric objects with millions of colors. Raised-texture mode deposits relief up to 5 mm high onto existing parts. 2D UV mode prints flat graphics and artwork at 1440 x 2400 DPI onto more than 400 materials, including acrylic, wood, leather, glass, ceramics, and metal.

The $3,299 G1X Starter Pack includes the printhead and UV printing but omits the Resin Station, Relay Fluid Hub, and 3D Resin Kit required for full-color 3D printing. Buyers who want the complete workflow need the $3,599 Full-3D Pack. That $300 gap matters. Anyone backing the lower tier thinking they are getting full-color 3D printing will need to spend more later.

The throughput question nobody has answered

HeyGears published a single print log showing one 66 x 87 x 40 mm figure completed in 13.25 hours. That figure used roughly 4% of the Standard Flatbed. Material jetting does not scale linearly like FDM, so nesting multiple parts reduces the per-figure time, but a full plate still takes longer than one part. HeyGears has not released batch benchmarks, which leaves the real production economics unknown.

At an estimated $9 to $10 all-in per 8 cm figurine and a potential retail price of $69, the unit economics look promising if throughput holds up. They may not. Until independent testing confirms batch performance, treat the per-unit claims with caution.

Ship date and caveats

HeyGears targets December 2026 for first Kickstarter shipments. Crowdfunding hardware routinely slips, so treat that date as a plan, not a promise. The G1X has not undergone long-term third-party testing, and maintenance claims remain based on HeyGears' own specifications until production units are evaluated independently.

If the machine delivers on throughput, it genuinely changes the economics of small-batch custom manufacturing. At $3,599 for a full-color 3D setup, it undercuts every industrial alternative by an order of magnitude. The risk is the same as any crowdfunding hardware: the numbers on paper only matter if the hardware actually works at scale.