I never cared about multicolour printing, sure Its nice that we can and probably there are a lot of people out there who love it. But I always thought it was a waste of time with too much waste, especially compared to manual painting models by hand with spray paint, airbrush or paint them with brushes and paint, even paint markers (which is a lot faster), sure I do the occasional multicolour print for fun If my nephew want a pokemon character or something. but thats about it. And yes I do own an ams for every bambu printer I have because its really nice for quick selecting materials or singe colours for my models (or for the spool run out feature). But I feel the race between all the brands is about how fast they can do colour changes, with tool changers, amss , idex sytems or whatever , Im sick of it , we are grinding to a standstill again in innovation . like the title says we get it !!! we can do multi colour printing, but are we going to spend the next few years to try to beat each other (different brands) how fast we can do it and how many colours we can do? I don’t care, start innovating again there are so much areas that are still untouched and we can improve up on in the 3d printing space. So all you brilliant minds at bambu lab (and other brands), start innovating again Bambu Lab and surprise us again like you did when entering the market a few years back
They do what people want and ask for. People care about multicolor. Why was there so much hype around the snapmaker u1?
There is still plenty of innovation. The quesion is. What do you want? Because when other people answer that question, independent nozzles have been the answer.
I think for 3000 usd it should be able to clean its own bed, load its own filament, make you breakfast, and pleasure you.
Because enough people asking for these features.
Make a list of features or products that you want Bambu Lab to build. You can make your voice heard too.
Dont get me wrong, I think the multicolour printing is great and the whole AMS system bambu introduced is brilliant with all features it offers (hence all others brands copying them). But if you followed the last form next (and what popular youtube printing channels were covering) the lionshare was all about multicolour printing. sure the U1 snapmaker is awesome (mainly because of the price compared to the prusa xl) thats why it was so hyped. But yes you are joking about these other features clean its own bed etc think about it these brilliant minds at those companies can come up with amazing things if they don’t get bogged down by higher ups with demands to beat the competition with faster filament changes or less waste , who care if brand x can do it 6.345345 seconds faster the brand Y , or save 0.3 grams of filament on a colour change. It doesnt matter anymore anybody with whatever brand printer can do multicolour printing nobody cares about shaving of 2 seconds, they are probably pleased with the machine they have. there are still a lot of tinkeres out there from the early days that never got their ideas or concepts come to fruition, things like (to name a few) non planar printing, multiple axis toolheads etc things like that , what I`m saying is we got that multicolour/material thing locked down now move on to next great thing
Now multiply that by 500 filament changes
Multiply again
This can be done, but limitations outweigh the benefit.
Cool idea. That is a whole new machine.
No they dont.
See but that is what i mean, Bambus response to the snapmaker with multiple toolheads and prusa XL with mulitple toolheads was the h2c (and that isnt faster than the competion). so the bigger picture at this moment is “snapmaker does it faster and cheaper” than these “big boys”. Sure you can improve up on speed here and there. then again Ill beat any printer in multiclour printing with my trusted airbrush and a bottles of paint (if we are not taking about 3000 models hahah) I understand your point but I think the focus on multicolour printing and trying to beat the competition is a waste of resources there will always be another company that does it faster and cheaper, but hell yeah I would love reducing supports (and thus waste) and cleaner curved surfaces on my 3d prints with techniques like non planer and multiple axis toolheads, wouldnt you? and wouldnt you like to have those great minds at those companies working on that (because Im to stupid to think like an engineer, Im a Neanderthal compared to those people hahah)
I am not sure that’s the case. The H2C was originally planned to be released in 2024, a year ahead of Snapmaker’s U1 and Prusa’s upcoming new printer.
BL’s Vortek is on its own path. It doesn’t follow others. It’s not built for speed per se to compete with others on speed. It goes for reliability instead.
true but that doesn’t change the fact the snap maker does it faster and cheaper and the the “normal” consumer doesn’t know that they see a cheap machine that does good quality prints in multicolour, they don’t have brand loyalty or nothing. I choose bambu for a reason a few years back (coming from other brands) and my farm has almost 99% bambu`s exclusively now (apart from my resin printers and some huge (but slow) other fdm printers), I choose bambu lab for their inovation , reliability and speed and affordability when they stormed the market only a few years back, So I want them to keep innovating, but I feel the mulicolour print race is not the area where they have to put their focus, thats all
It was one of the major pitches when BL started. They said they wanted to bring colors back to 3D printing. The AMS was built in part to facilitate that.
The Vortek is a way to reduce the waste of color printing. It is a natural progression of the original vision of bringing colors into 3D printing.
I think they are still doing these. Reliability is still their top priority. Their printers are reasonably priced given the features. Speedwise others have catched up but theirs is not slow by any means. For innovation, they designed and made their own motors, and developed their own Vortek. Judging by this history (short) BL probably will continue to innovate instead of following others’ lead.
Brand loyalty is a thing of the past. As consumers, we don’t have to be bothered by that 
. No need to compare H2C with U1 either. First of all, they are different. Secondly, at this time, neither is proven. Wait a few more months.
So if all of this is a waste of time, what do you think they should be focusing on instead?
I don’t personally care much about all this multi color stuff than I am into the ability to be able to switch nozzles and/or tool heads. Being able to change colors faster with less waste is a huge bonus to these systems, but that’s only piece. Now ignore that and focus on what new a novel things you can do with multiple print nozzle’s or heads. These are the kinds of things that inspire all new branches of designs and innovations. Just think of all of the possibility and potential this opens up for all these wildly creative makers out there.
with brand loyalty I mean…i dont consider myself a “hobbyist” anymore (like 10 years ago , I am/was a 3d animator/modeler but I mostly do 3d prints for a living now because thats an area AI hasnt has taken over (yet) compared to 3d visuals/animation , i mean I pay the bills with my 3d-printing (laser engraving/cutting, 3d scanning and the ability to model from scratch), I invested in a 3d printing farm for that reason so i had to make a choice what brand ( I build my own 3d printers before that, pretty much had every popular brand of printer before that) so I made a choice prusa or bambu those where pretty much the only 2 brands that are reliable in the pro-sumer market (couldnt afford those industrial brands) the speed and ams en price of bambu`s was the deciding factor (prusa are great printers but a lot more expensive and slower compared to bambu back then ) and I wanted 1 brand so I could get my spare parts etc at one place (not multiple brands so I have to bother with discontinued stuff etc), so bambu lab it was and still is, but multicolour was never the deciding factor for me it was the speed, affordability and the ams for the run out feature and multi material (abs, petg, asa and tpu etc) and for the first time a felt 3d printing is a tool now (with bambu lab) and not a tinkering hobbyist machine for fun (and every brand in 3d printing space took notice of bambu lab and went into catch-up mode with their machines, hell even industrial brands like Stratasys started suing them because they felt the heat)…so going back to where their focus should be is to disrupt the market with superiour machines and not getting beat by cheap machines that can do multi-colourcheaper and faster like the snapmaker (wich is a great machine but it comes from what bambu lap set in motion), so they should keep ahead of that because im invested in their brand and eco system, thats my opinion, clarification: I dont sell multicolour articulated dragons etc on etsy , I make prototypes of products and batch print parts for companies etc and they never want multicolour prints , I like printing multicolour prints to for fun for gifts as a side hustle etc but thats not how I make my money to give an idea what my perspective is on multicolour printing 
the things they should focus on imho is things like, improving the software and hardware with cool new features or maybe even investing to pay royalties to concepts and patents , like brick-layer lines that makes 3d prints a lot stronger, there are so many ideas in the past also that can be improved upon, like I said things like non planar printing, multiple axis toolheads, hell I even like the idea they had to incorperate a laser engraver and cutter in their h2d (not the best idea ever but still I love those things things the competition are not doing)
Ok, and what would you like them to improve exactly, what new cool features do you think are missing
They aren’t going to want to pay other companies licensing fees for features so we aren’t likely to see anything that would be gated behind 3rd party patents that aren’t absolutely essential
Yeah snapmaker already did it first though Snapmaker Artisan 3-in-1 3D Printer - Snapmaker Global and most people don’t do it because its not really worth it for most consumers
Not really something the mass market cares about, because remember, bambu caters to the normies for the most part
Also not likely given the target demographic
All of these things cost money, add to complexity and make it harder for newbies to fix issues
You are actually a bit wrong about that. Each second you can shave and each gram you save matters in prints that have lots of color changes. And there are models where you can’t split parts out for non-AMS (or whatever) printing in single colors.
Even if you don’t care and don’t want to hear about faster, purgeless, or whatever filament swaps others do.
You made an elegant but unconvincing case for an opinion that many others do not share.
I’ll ask politely: Is this just an opinion rant, or is there a goal to the topic?
The purpose of a discussion is often to exchange opinions, bring about change or achieve a goal. This just reads like an opinion rant, with little room for discussion or consideration of other points of view.
You claim to have a lot of experience and your own print frame, yet here you are comparing a Snapmaker U1 with the Bambu H (or P) series without acknowledging the differences and recognising that they are in completely different leagues with completely different applications. It seems that you lack the experience to view them differently.
To help you get started. A U1 is primarily a PLA printer. Anything beyond that reaches its limits, to the point of being “impossible.”
Personally, I don’t use multi-color printing either, but I know that new developments often make their way from the H series to the P series a few years later. So why should that be a negative trend? It would be great if the P series had a nozzle change system like the Vortek.
Overall, I don’t understand the post or the exchange of opinions if they are already so firmly established. I also have to criticise, there is a tiny little bit lack of knowledge.
Let’s say we had this thought process about not improving on things some people don’t find important - how many innovations and improvements do you think we would never have gotten that we take for granted now?
I didn’t buy the H2C for multicolour printing. I bought it for multimaterial printing. And I always have a 0.2 and 0.6 nozzle in the printer and can select them with a click in the software. And in the hope that it will soon be possible to print with different nozzle sizes in a single model.
And multicolour or multi-material in a compact, CLOSED, heated, filtered build space that doesn’t grow in all directions with PTFE tubes.
And that’s from a manufacturer I’ve been happy with since the beginning. So why would I be interested in something like the U1 …
With this kind of thinking, we’d still be taking photos with black-and-white cameras… or worse, scraping charcoal on cave walls like prehistoric graphic designers.
Bambu plays the long game like a grandmaster in 4D chess. Sure, the U1 is fast today with its four colors — but where do you go from there? Nowhere. It’s already at the ceiling. Next year it’ll be about as future-proof as a flip phone.
Bambu’s multi-nozzle approach is different. H2C is basically their “research and development on wheels.” It’s a work-in-progress platform designed to test and refine serious tech. Right now we’ve got six inductive nozzles on one side. They’ll run them, stress them, fix what needs fixing — and when it’s perfected? They can scale it to 24 nozzles. Then pair that with a much faster, more robust AMS… and suddenly they match or beat U1 speed while unlocking completely new printing possibilities.
I design multicolor models, and honestly? Four colors just isn’t enough to justify the effort. It’s a compromise — a nice compromise, but still a compromise. Bambu knows this. U1 doesn’t. A U1 physically cannot print five colors. Anyone claiming it’s “better” probably hasn’t designed a single multicolor model from scratch.
Objectively, H2C is the best printer right now — love it or hate it. And if it performs like the H2D, then it’s game over. And let’s be real: next year Bambu will probably release something that reshapes the entire lineup again.
After seeing the Bondtech INDX on Prusa at Formnext, I immediately knew the race was over before it even began. It looks… let’s say “industrial chic,” and the long PTFE spaghetti tubes make printing soft TPU or engineering materials basically impossible. Those bends are tighter than my budget in college. It’ll be an expensive nine-color PLA-only machine.
Bambu is thinking long-term. No question about it.
I hear you. I have 2 AMS units for 8 colors and am considering another AMS to go to 12 colors max. Only thing is more AMS units limits the audience but for my own purposes I like Technicolor!
I won’t be upgrading to any printer that can’t do at least 8 colors. That’s an absolute requirement for me now.
Added - the announcement on the new printer says it can use AMS units too so just like others when changing out filaments not dedicated in the printer.
The H2C contains innovative new features. I’m not sure if they’re firsts, but probably first to mass market.
Wireless hot end? Has anyone else ever thought of this let alone brought it to mass production?
Auto-changing hotend mechanism? They’re using a different mechanism than a standard tool changer. Has something like that ever been done?
Like others have said, multi-color is only one part of using a tool-changer or hot-end changer. I use my AMS more for multi-material than color; using PETG/PLA or PAHT-CF/ABS combo to give a support interface that just peels off is fantastic! I can do that with my H2D, but having a Vortek would allow me the ease of keeping several material hotends loaded.
I’m confident that BL is working on other advancements behind the scenes, and that we’ll learn about them after they’ve done the work and testing to mass produce.