A Japanese hackerspace/coffee shop, Fab Cafe, is offering patrons the chance to cast their likeness in fruit gummy bear just in time for White Day, a Japanese reverse Valentine's Day. Because nothing could possibly be more romantic than presenting the women in your life with an edible cast of yourself.
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The basic process for making a gummy bear version of yourself is fairly straightforward. A week before White Day goes down, you show up at Fab Cafe and get a 3D full-body scan of yourself in a bodySCAN. This generates a 3D digital model of yourself that can be manipulated by a digital artist/engineer to create something suitable for 3D printing.
Your 3D model is printed out, a vacuum molding machine creates a cast of that model and sugary goodness and gelatin are poured into the cast. Bam, instant slightly creepy gummy you. Fab Cafe is charging around $65 for this process. Last month, for Valetine's Day, Fab Cafe allowed women to get 3D busts of their heads made so they could be printed onto pieces of chocolate. Shockingly, a full-body gummy person is actually slightly less deranged-looking.
Japan runs Valentine's Day a little differently than we do here in the states. On their V-Day, it is the woman's job to present the man in her life with a gift, preferably handmade. Japanese Valentine's Day could also be described as "Friendzone Day" because women typically give out two sets of Valentine's, honmei-choco to express true love and giri choco which translates to very sexy "obligation chocolates." Giri chocos are usually destined for co-workers, bosses, and "just" friends. Much like Valentine's Day, White Day is a totally fabricated holiday designed to help pay women back for the mess of chocolate they're expected to distribute on Valetine's Day. White Day happens a month after Valentine's Day and typically involves giving women a gift roughly three times in value to what was received on Valentine's Day.
