HeyGears G1 Series on Kickstarter: Full-Color 3D Printing Meets Desktop UV Printing
- Jonathan
- Aug 2
- 8 min read
True full-color 3D printing has always lived behind a price tag with a comma in the wrong place. The machines that build a model in millions of colors, rather than painting it afterward, start around $50,000 and stay on industrial floors. The HeyGears G1 Series on Kickstarter is built to close that gap, and to fold desktop UV printing into the same chassis.
The campaign has raised $10,802,540 from 2,537 backers against a $100,000 goal, with 40 days remaining. HeyGears has spent a decade building resin 3D printing systems for hundreds of dental labs across North America and Europe, and 3Dnatives calls the G1X the first system to consolidate full-color 3D, 3D-texture, and 2D UV printing on the desktop.
Quick Verdict
Our verdict: 8.7/10
Who Is It For?
HeyGears built the G1 Series for makers who want to sell what they print, not just display it. That covers miniature and figurine studios tired of hand-painting every unit, small businesses producing personalized phone cases, book covers, and apparel, and hobbyists who want one chassis that switches between UV, texture, and full-color 3D printing through interchangeable modules, instead of running separate machines for each.
Main Strengths
The 8-channel, i3200-U1HD printhead gives the HeyGears G1X 10M+ colors and, according to HeyGears, 3X faster UV printing than desktop machines built on a single F1080 printhead.
Full-color and transparent resin print as one continuous build with water-soluble supports, so a model with a clear shell and colored internals no longer needs assembly.
HeyGears' own cost breakdown puts full-color 3D resin at $23.40 a liter against $348.33 a liter on comparable industrial machines.
One chassis covers 2D UV printing and 3D texture up to 5 mm across 400+ base materials, plus full-color 3D printing through the dedicated Resin Station, all through swappable modules.
Blueprint Studio's line-scan camera handles real-time alignment, and HeyVerse's text-to-3D and image-to-3D tools remove the CAD step for anyone starting from a photo or a prompt.
Main Limitations
Full-color 3D printing isn't included on either Starter Pack: the G1X Starter needs a Resin Station, Relay Fluid Hub, and 3D Resin Kit; the G1 Starter also needs the i3200 printhead and Lc+Lm UV ink.
At 45 kg for the Full-3D configuration, this is a genuinely heavy "desktop" machine that needs a dedicated bench rather than a shelf.
The campaign material doesn't cite independent certification for the HeyGears G1 printer, and the standard warranty is one year (two in the EU), shorter than some rival full-color systems.
Is the HeyGears G1 Series on Kickstarter Worth Backing?
Back the HeyGears G1X if you already sell what you print, whether that's painted figurines, custom retail goods, or short-run prototypes, since it removes the painting and outsourcing steps in one machine. Skip it if you only print the occasional single-color hobby piece, since the Full-3D configuration's weight and the added cost of the Resin Station only pay off once color is part of the product. HeyGears' 634 patents in resin printing, and a campaign already backed by more than 2,500 supporters, make the HeyGears G1 Series on Kickstarter a serious option for anyone building a color-dependent print business.
HeyGears G1 Series Price on Kickstarter
The tier to plan around is the G1X Full-3D Pack at $3,599, 34% off the $5,499 MSRP, since it's the cheapest configuration that ships with the Resin Station needed for full-color 3D printing out of the box. The G1X Starter Pack runs $3,299 for UV and 3D-texture printing on the same i3200 printhead, upgradeable later, and the F1080-based G1 Starter Pack starts the range at $1,999 as the entry HeyGears G1 UV printer.
At $3,599, the Full-3D Pack bundles the Resin Station, 3D Resin Kit, and the full UV and texture toolset into one purchase, in a category where full-color resin systems alone have run into the tens of thousands. Getting all three print modes without a second purchase is what the price buys here. The HeyGears G1X Full-3D Pack is $3,599 on Kickstarter.
What Is the HeyGears G1 Series and What Problem Does It Solve?
HeyGears G1X: An 8-Channel Printhead Behind Full-Color 3D, 3D Texture, and UV Printing
The HeyGears G1 Series on Kickstarter is a modular desktop machine that prints full-color 3D objects, 3D-textured surfaces, and flat 2D graphics from the same chassis. All three modes run through the same industrial-grade Epson i3200-U1HD printhead, which HeyGears says fires 3,200 nozzles for up to 1440 × 2400 DPI, though the ink set itself changes between UV and full-color 3D printing. Full-color and transparent resin can print inside the same continuous build, and water-soluble supports dissolve away rather than needing to be cut off.
The series splits into two hardware tiers. The base G1 uses a consumer-grade F1080 printhead with 6 ink channels and 720 × 900 DPI UV output, while the G1X upgrades to the i3200 for 8 channels, faster UV printing, and the resolution and precision the full-color 3D mode needs. HeyGears, founded in Guangzhou in 2015, built its reputation supplying precision resin printing to hundreds of dental labs across North America and Europe, including the One-Piece Denture process that HeyGears says informed the G1 Series' multi-material development.
Why Color Stayed Locked Behind a $50,000 Price Tag
Hand-painting adds hours of sanding, priming, painting, and sealing after every print. Scale that across a batch of ten or a hundred and painting becomes the real bottleneck. Full-color inkjet resin systems solved this years ago, in machines costing as much as a small workshop's entire equipment budget, keeping the technique out of hobbyist and small-studio reach.
The G1 Series brings that same color-in-the-resin approach down to a single desktop unit, and pairs it with 2D UV and 3D-texture printing so the same machine also produces the packaging, signage, or textured surfaces a small studio would otherwise send to a separate print shop. The painting step disappears because the color is built layer by layer as the object prints, not applied afterward.
HeyGears G1 Series Key Features and Specs: Full-Color 3D Printing, UV Speed, and Modular Design
10M+ Colors Without a Paint Step: The i3200 Printhead and Full-Color 3D
HeyGears attributes the G1X's 10M+ color range to its 8-channel ink system and a raster image processor blending droplets at micron-level precision to build gradients inside the model. HeyGears' own cost comparison puts full-color 3D resin at $23.40 a liter against $348.33 a liter on comparable industrial systems, an estimated $53.68 saved on a single parrot model.
The iNEW3D QC2A, another full-color desktop printer we've reviewed, reaches similar territory with a CMYW process rated at 500,000+ colors, though its published material centers on full-color 3D objects and doesn't describe the separate flatbed UV or texture-relief workflow the G1X runs.
3X Faster UV Printing, Auto-Calibration, and Anti-Clog Design
As a HeyGears G1 UV printer, the i3200-U1HD runs at up to 3X the print speed of F1080-based systems, illustrated by a phone-case test at 40 units an hour against 13. A line-scan camera continuously reads the print surface in real time, feeding data into Blueprint Studio so curved or long-format jobs stay aligned, alongside 2MP top and side cameras for platform monitoring.
Printhead heating and automatic white-ink agitation keep pigment from settling, and after three days idle the G1 Series runs its own maintenance cleaning cycle unprompted. Switching between modes triggers a deeper ink-path flush to cut upkeep and extend printhead life.
Full-Color and Transparent in One Print, 400+ Materials, Water-Soluble Supports
Transparent and full-color resin print inside a single continuous build, so a clear shell wrapped around colored internals doesn't need to be split into parts and glued afterward. Supports dissolve in plain water rather than needing a blade or solvent, useful on models with tight internal lattices otherwise difficult to reach by hand.
The flatbed handles 400+ base materials, including acrylic, wood, leather, glass, and metal, across an open print area of 420 × 330 mm, with an enclosed flatbed option at 130 × 330 × 150 mm. A Rotary accessory extends printing to cylindrical objects up to 245 mm tall, and 3D-texture relief runs up to 5 mm deep for embossed or wood-grain finishes.
G1 vs. G1X vs. G1X Full-3D Pack: Picking the Right Tier
The G1 Starter Pack ($1,999) is the entry-level HeyGears G1 UV printer, built on the F1080 printhead at 6 channels and 720 × 900 DPI, without full-color 3D. The G1X Starter Pack ($3,299) swaps in the i3200 for 8 channels and 1440 × 2400 DPI, shipping for UV and 3D-texture printing only, upgradeable later with the Resin Station and 3D Resin Kit.
Only the G1X Full-3D Pack and above include the Resin Station and 3D Resin Kit from the start, turning it into a full-color 3D printer instead of an upgrade path. Studios that know they want color-embedded 3D prints on day one avoid buying and installing the upgrade later.
Blueprint Studio, HeyVerse AI Generation, and the Ink Economics
Blueprint Studio handles slicing, layout, and maintenance for every HeyGears G1 printer, while HeyVerse turns a text prompt or a flat image into a printable file without CAD software. A separate app, Blueprint Studio Go, adds remote print monitoring and control.
On the UV side, HeyGears estimates ink cost at $0.07 per phone case against $0.27 on a comparable F1080 printer, putting an 84,000-unit run at $6,058.50 against $23,690. The campaign frames a textured leather book cover at roughly $32.92 profit per unit and a full-color chameleon model at $59.98, figures that assume HeyGears' material projections hold at retail.
Should You Back the HeyGears G1 Series on Kickstarter?
The HeyGears G1 Series on Kickstarter is aimed at small studios that need repeatable color output, not hand-painted one-offs.
What doesn't exist at this price elsewhere is a single chassis that goes from a text prompt to a full-color figurine, or from a flat 2D UV job to a textured leather cover, by swapping modular accessories rather than buying a second machine. The campaign's own demo videos, including Steve Makes Everything, Spen's Painting, and stlDenise3D, show the G1X handling miniatures, a full-color papaya model, and 2D and 3D-texture jobs. Covering color, texture, and flat UV from one chassis separates this campaign from single-purpose resin printers at the same price.
HeyGears' 634 patents and decade of resin-printing R&D back this consumer launch, and the Full-3D Pack's price against a $5,499 MSRP is the tier that skips the Resin Station upgrade entirely. With mass production already scheduled for October 2026 and G1X shipments targeted for December, a full quarter ahead of the G1 Starter Pack's March 2027 date, the HeyGears G1 Series on Kickstarter is currently funding with 40 days remaining.
FAQ about the HeyGears G1 Series on Kickstarter
Does the HeyGears G1X ship worldwide, and are customs fees covered?
Every HeyGears G1 printer ships worldwide. Customs fees and VAT are covered in the US, Canada, Australia, the EU, UK, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and New Zealand, though backers there still pay a shipping fee of $50 to $200 by region and tier. Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao carry no additional fee.
Can a G1 or G1X Starter Pack be upgraded later to add full-color 3D printing?
Yes. The G1X Starter adds full-color 3D printing with the Resin Station, Relay Fluid Hub, and 3D Resin Kit. The G1 Starter also needs an i3200 printhead upgrade and Lc+Lm UV ink.
How does the HeyGears G1X compare with the iNEW3D QC2A?
Both print full color inside the resin. The QC2A carries a 2-year warranty against the G1X's one year (two in the EU), while the G1X's published material adds a separate flatbed UV and texture-relief workflow the QC2A's specs don't describe, starting at $3,599 against the QC2A's $7,199.
What is the warranty on the HeyGears G1 Series?
HeyGears offers a one-year warranty on the main unit, extended to two years for EU customers. Both the F1080 and i3200 printheads carry a separate 180-day warranty as consumable parts. The warranty doesn't cover damage from user error, unauthorized repairs, or disassembly.
Does the HeyGears G1 Series require proprietary ink, or does it accept third-party ink?
HeyGears says the G1X's open material system accepts third-party ink, unlike the industrial full-color printer HeyGears compares itself against in its own materials, which requires official ink. HeyGears also sells its own bottled ink and resin for aqueous, UV, and 3D resin lines.
About the Author
Jonathan
Crowdfunding Strategist & Analyst at GizmoCrowd
Jonathan is Co-Founder of GizmoCrowd and a crowdfunding strategist with over 15 years of hands-on campaign experience on Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
Read more...
.png)