Amazon has opened a 3D-printing marketplace , offering customers the ability to buy customized products and trinkets like earrings or figurines. To enable customization, Amazon has built a new interface on top of its normal product pages that allows buyers to tweak the look of different 3D products.

There are plenty of 3D print-to-order businesses already in existence, including Sculpteo, Shapeways, and iMakr. While some work just as an on-demand service for individual customers, others are marketplaces for artists' and designers' 3D-printed products that users can browse and buy, like an iPhone phonograph amplifier.

Looking more closely at Amazon's implementation, it's more like the marketplace model, with partnerships from 3D printing services like Mixee Labs, which specializes in bobblehead figurines. 3DLT, a 3D printing design company, is also participating in the new venture, though it has sold its products through Amazon since March.

While we can personally attest to the myriad problems that come with trying to 3D-print stuff yourself and the potential for a service that takes care of it for you, 3D printed items tend to be more frivolous than useful. Amazon and Mixee's bobbleheads won't do much to change that, but the store has lots of room to expand.