We have a slew of reviews for resin 3D printers, but are bereft of functional knowledge about resin’s meltier cousin. This was doubly odd to me since plenty of Goonhammer authors own and use FDM/FFF printers. I was especially surprised that Bambu Lab’s A1/A1 Mini haven’t gotten a nod, since Bambu Lab massacred the entry-level 3D printer market in recent years.
Well, I’ll open Goonhammer’s filament 3D printer reviews with this two-part extravaganza. Strap in for a double-issue on the viability of filament printing for tabletop games, entry-level 3D printing, use cases for 3D printers, and the perks and challenges of owning one. If I’m not continuously sidetracked by various home manufacturing topics, I’ll even get to the titular review.
Note: This review is not sponsored by Bambu Lab. I bought my printer personally and used it for over six months prior to writing.
How We Got Here
Bambu Lab is a Chinese manufacturer of 3D printers and filament. Founded in 2020, the company focuses on filament printers aimed at consumers and print farms. Their devices are characterized by reliability, ease-of-use, good quality (for filament printers), and cost-effectiveness. Conversely, their machines are not meant to be modified or upgraded by users and Bambu Lab machines are more network-reliant than other manufacturers.
The big chunk of the market share they hold largely comes down to their A1 series and larger P1/X1 cousins. The lasting impact these machines left on the market isn’t down to exceptional print quality or high-tech features. Rather, they did something I greatly appreciate: they make products that are consistent, user-friendly, and affordable.
3D printers with those characteristics hit the market like a meteor by lowering the entry barrier from tech enthusiast to tech competent. It also enabled countless businesses and print farms to devote more precious hours to printing and less to maintenance. This lasting impression still coats subreddits like /r/3dprinting and /r/ender3. The Ender 3 used to be a definitive hobbyist filament printer. Both communities are replete with people noting that Enders are for people whose hobby is 3D printers. And Bambu Lab is for people whose hobby is 3D printing.
A simple example. While I was writing this, I found this thread on /r/ender3. Someone got a used and upgraded Ender 3 for free and many of the comments are remarking on how much effort it’s going to be to set up and print. Or how the previous owner probably upgraded. Or wishing OP the patience to put up with it. That’s in the printer’s own community after someone got it for free. And Ender 3’s used to be market favorites.
Equally notable was that Bambu Lab took previously premium/advanced features and built them into consumer-price printers. Features like multi-colour/multi-material printing, touchscreens, camera monitoring, active noise cancellation, and automatic calibration. Before the 2020s, this family of features took extensive tinkering and upgrading on your kit printer or an expensive commercial machine.
People with old printers are still manually leveling their print beds like this. The A1 and other modern printers auto-calibrate. The A1 generates active noise cancelling profiles and does a full bed leveling in half an hour. It automatically levels the bed before each print without input. That time and efficiency improvement is the printer equivalent of what intermodal containers did for logistics.
Filament Printers for Goons
The thing I call a filament printer is often termed FDM (Fused Deposition Modelling) or FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication). FDM is a trademarked term, but has become genericized. I call them filament printers because that skips the jargon and focuses on their defining quality: they work by feeding a continuous string (filament) of material into a print head. The print head melts the filament to a workable temperature, then presses it through a nozzle onto the print bed or object.
Consumer printers are bottom-up machines. They deposit their first layer onto a print bed – usually heated – and the object remains adhered to the bed for the duration of the print. A linked system of motors and machinery guides the print head in 3D space while it deposits molten material onto the object. The printer then builds the object layer-by-layer, depositing more material in accordance with its instructions until the object is completed (or fails horribly).
During operation, the printer is just following a set of coded instructions to exacting detail. Those instructions start on a different device. Filament (and resin) printers use software called slicers to generate a code package usable by the printer. They’re called slicers because they literally slice a 3D model into layers.
The slicer also encodes other instructions into the file package, such as print head movements, temperature changes, pauses, and automatic filament changes. The final code package is sent to the printer, which executes the instructions exactly as detailed. Most 3D printable models are presented as viewable STL files. Other 3D models can be converted into STL files using 3D software. Some files are presented as 3mf files which already contain printer settings and are meant to be used immediately with indicated filament and settings. The final code package sent to the printer and used by the printer is usually G-code.
Unlike consumer resin printers, filament printers can feed a variety of materials. Plastics like PLA and PETG are the most common. Some filaments include special additives like carbon fiber, wood, and dyes to achieve specific structural or aesthetic effects. A filament printer’s ability to use a material is mainly limited by the temperatures its bed and nozzle can reach, whether it has a heated enclosure, and nozzle material.
How’s that for a Simple Wikipedia explanation of filament printing?
Baby’s First Printer
Bambu Labs’ entry-level machines, the A1s, have been around since late December 2023. The A1 Mini is the smaller, cheaper one and may still have the best cost-to-feature ratio of any filament printer. The A1 has a much larger print volume and some other modest improvements i.e. higher peak bed temperature. They’re both A1s because they use the same print head, nozzle, and various other components.
I own the A1. That’s the one I’m reviewing. I’ve never seen or touched an A1 Mini, but I’m told it’s a cuter, smaller A1.
The A1 has an MSRP of $400. That’s higher than a kit (that you gotta build) or machines with only essential features. It’s a Cartesian printer that prints by maneuvering its head in a three-dimensional space. The print head travels along a horizontal y-axis rail. The print bed travels rapidly along a set of x-axis rails to provide a second dimension of movement. Vertical z-axis movement works by elevating or depressing the entire y-axis rail and head.
It’s a bed-slinger.
Compared to its nearest competitors the A1 has great build volume while hosting a raft of other features, including:
- Automatic calibration and build plate levelling
- Touchscreen interface
- Wireless monitoring and file transfer
- Mobile app integration (mostly optional)
- Remote camera monitoring (no audio, camera has a privacy shutter and can be disabled)
- Very high peak printing speed (cool, but not needed for minis and scenery)
- Simple assembly (sorry, kit printer owners)
- Multi-colour/multi-material printing and automated reloading via a separate upgrade
- Active noise cancellation
- Tool-free nozzle replacement
That list of features is easily commensurate with the $400 base price tag. People have paid for more for worse machines, or paid far more to upgrade a basic machine to reach out-of-the-box A1 performance.
I should note that though I don’t own one, the A1 Mini has all the features in the bulleted list. You mostly lose out on maximum print volume and peak bed temperature (irrelevant to miniatures and scenery). With a $250 MSRP, the A1 Mini renders most entry-level printers obsolete. Only people with extraordinary loyalty to a given manufacturer or a deep interest in a particular printer would buy a similarly priced printer over the A1 Mini. But this isn’t an article about the A1 Mini.
I bought my A1 when I finally had the budgetary space to slake my desire for a 3D printer. I’ve wanted one since I was a high schooler in 2012 (I can’t tell if that makes me old or young compared to Goonhammer’s readership). [Sigh. No comment. –Ed.]Â After considering my options, I took the A1 because it was billed as very user-friendly and there was also a growing community of people using it to print miniatures.
Basically, I got it to mess around with miniatures, scenery, and nerd stuff.
My A1 arrived in November 2024. With the exception of a few weeks away from home, it’s seen almost daily use. To date, I’ve printed upgrades for the machine, modular storage, toys, desk stuff, and this adorable bastard.
Right, miniatures and scenery. I’ve been doing that too. But you see, two things happened when I got the printer that are highly revealing about what it’s like to own a good printer.
Being Able to Just Make Stuff Is Awesome
I got sidetracked from my miniature projects almost as soon as I got the printer. Once I had it putting out consecutive successful prints (took about three days), I immediately began upgrading the printer. A flip cover for the screen. A waste bin for discharged filament, cable guides to neaten the space, literal perfection, a storage system for the printer… you get the idea.
No sooner than I’d finished upgrading did my girlfriend discover two modular storage systems and my machine was once again tasked to capacity. Since I got this thing, I’ve reorganized my hobby desk, made travel gadgets, replaced broken household objects, and upgraded her personal space.
People wax on about the potential for a 3D printer to save long-term money or be better for the environment than just buying this crap. Well, it probably won’t do either. Especially the former once you get into fancy filaments.
My printer improved my life by injecting childlike glee back into it. I have a home appliance that just makes things. It moves its head-thing, makes mechanical noises and then I just get stuff. I can scarcely describe the novelty of seeing something cool like this Tamiya paint holder and setting up an overnight print for it. And waking up the next morning to a complete object.
It was made in my house. I shipped the material in and manufactured a thing.
My mind loses interest in projects and interests quickly. I have a new game binge or topic of interest every other week. But it’s been 6 months and the novelty of being able to make stuff in my house has not worn off one iota. I sometimes watch the printer doing its thing for a few minutes. I named mine. I pat it and say kind things to it. It’s fun.
Printing Means Taking Part in Communities
People who aren’t initiated into the hobby – and it is a hobby – might think that 3D printing is about scooping a few files, loading up filament, and letting it run. That’s part of it, but this is not something anyone can do in isolation. The world of 3D printing is aggressively aligned to open source, accessibility, and sharing. The origins of home 3D printing were largely experimental. People tinkered at risk to sanity and property to get ideas off the ground.
It’s been over a decade since those shaky origins. Major manufacturers now hold most of the marketplace. They have economies of scale and access to industrial resources that enable shipping reliably made devices that require minimal assembly.
Still, the spirit of accessibility and sharing hasn’t abandoned us. Prusa, Creality and more advanced Voron machines are fully upgradeable and configurable. Structural and mechanical components, firmware, and quality-of-life measures are all for the user to adjust. Prusa also operates Printables, one of the largest 3D print file repositories. Creality’s Enders and Prusa i-series printers were the original configurable kit printers. The amount of effort needed to get a printer running at home in the 2010s necessitated community-building. You needed people’s help to get started. We’re past the growing pain era. Basic printers are readily available and easy to use and enthusiasts can just play with high-performance kit printers.
Printables (by Creality), MakerWorld (by Bambu Lab) and other sites are that principle of sharing writ large. When I wanted to refill my empty filament spools with filament from a different manufacturer, I was bombarded with options. A given item on MakerWorld is likely to have a busy comment section filled with feedback, successful prints, and encouragement for the creator.
These good feelings permeate the world. There’s a grassroots-like focus on reduce, reuse, recycle. Manufacturers are nudged toward plastic-free packaging and reusability. Individual models of printers have thriving communities to assist each other.
A 3D printer isn’t in the same league as a toaster or inkjet. Those appliances don’t upgrade themselves. They don’t develop communities that demand longevity and sustainability. They don’t touch every aspect of my life in interesting ways.
But Where Does the A1 Stand?
The A1 is an excellent printer. It’s not the definitive entry-level printer it was at release, because Bambu Lab’s competitors did not stand idle while their market shares were devoured. In 2025, the entry-level printer landscape offers plenty of choice. That doesn’t render the A1 obsolete. Not by a long shot. See, this isn’t the nerd-eat-nerd world of nVidia’s latest overpriced GPU. 3D printer nerds demand reliability and longevity.
The A1 is closing on its second year in existence and it’s still a standby for novices and businesses alike. It’s the experiences of the latter userbase that shapes my opinion even though I’m strictly the former.
Print farms and commercial print-on-demand services have a robust list of expectations from their machines because livelihoods depend on it. The printers must be affordable and easy to set up. They need to be low maintenance. They need to print reliably over a long time. Good quality prints must be easily achievable and excellent prints should only be a few settings away. They need to be network and wireless-compatible for monitoring. Above all, they just need to print.
The Bambu Lab A1 checks every one of those boxes for me. Most of the failures I’ve had have been due to user error or my love for experimentation. After using mine for half a year, I can safely say the only other printer I’d have considered as a first-timer would be the A1 Mini.
That doesn’t mean my A1 is without issues. Of all the major manufacturers, Bambu Lab strays furthest from the 3D printing ethos of sharing and accessibility. Bambu Lab printers are consumer devices through-and-through. They’re not meant to be upgraded or aggressively reconfigured. You can’t replace the firmware. Their cloud and sharing ecosystem is something you have to manually opt out of. Running 3rd party slicer software takes effort and isn’t a given like it is on a Prusa or Ender. It’s nowhere near as bad as being caught in the Apple or Adobe ecosystem, but 3D printing enthusiasts will notice the difference.
The machine itself is excellent right out of the box. Setting it up took me an hour and I had my first print on the day the machine arrived. I’ve used filaments from three manufacturers without issue (besides redoing filament profiles and looking up advice). And critically, functional printing is both reliable and fun.
So would I recommend the A1 to people? Yeah, definitely. If I had to go back and start this hobby again, I’d still pick this A1. I bought this thing and I love it. There are plenty of use cases for this printer, but here are some of the people I think would benefit a lot from an A1:
- People who want a filament printer that is functional and reliable
- People who want to spend more time 3D printing than tinkering with a 3D printer
- People who want a good filament printer with a committed userbase and lots of resources
- People who are willing to trade configurability for ease-of-use
- People who are fine with being nudged into Bambu Lab’s app ecosystem
- Convenient for those who prefer to follow the path
- You can opt out of most of it
- People who want to enjoy an interesting hobby that combines community, creation, and sharing
But Summer, this is Goonhammer. Isn’t this site about tabletop hobby stuff? All the other printer reviews had a focus on miniatures and models and you haven’t said much about that.
I know. That’s why this is Part 1. There’s a Part 2 entirely dedicated to my experiences of using the A1 for miniatures, tabletop hobby work, and scenery. It’s equally dense, informed, and insightful. That’s my promise.
For now, go take a breather after this brick of an article. I’ll see you soon.
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