Big week: Bambu Lab drops the X2D at $649 and shakes up the market. Plus: Color Mixing in Bambu Studio changes the multicolor game, a reminder about our free Field Manual, and a recap of RAPID+TCT 2026. Let's dive in. 🔥
🔥 Featured
🖨️ Bambu Lab X2D: dual extrusion starting at $649 — the X1 Carbon successor is here
Bambu Lab officially launched the X2D on April 14th — the true successor to the legendary X1 Carbon. The headline feature: dual extrusion (direct drive + Bowden) in a single compact printer. Pricing starts at $649 base / $899 Combo with AMS — well below what the community was expecting.
Major upgrades include: active chamber heating to 65°C, triple HEPA filtration, 31 sensors, hot-swappable nozzles compatible across the entire X2/H2/P2 lineup, and print speeds up to 1,000 mm/s. It's a perfect setup for printing supports in a secondary material and pulling them off without a trace. If you've been following the multicolor war we kicked off with the Snapmaker U1 in Weekly #002, the X2D is Bambu's direct answer to where the industry is heading.
How does it stack up against the P2S or H2D? We've put together a full breakdown with specs, comparisons, and recommendations. Read the full review on the blog →
💻 Software
🎨 Color Mixing in Bambu Studio 2.5.3: hundreds of colors from just 4 spools
The community has been asking for this for years: Bambu Studio 2.5.3 now lets you blend 2 or 3 filaments directly in the slicer. With the official CMYK kit (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) you can dial in hundreds of shades from just 4 spools. You can also create smooth gradients across the full height of your model.
Where it shines: dual-extruder printers like the X2D and H2C (minimal purging). Where it falls short: single-nozzle setups (30–80% more filament wasted on purge). If you want to start experimenting, we've got plenty of compatible PLA filament to play with. We walk you through how to enable it step by step. Full guide on the blog →
📚 Mr Resin Special
📘 Anycubic Resin Field Manual: your free ebook with everything you need
If you print with Anycubic resins and haven't grabbed this yet, this is the ebook that will save you dozens of hours of trial and error. 48 pages packed with recommended settings by resin type, printer-specific tips, and fixes for the most common problems.
Best part: it's completely free. Use code MANUAL-GRATIS and download the PDF to keep it handy whenever you need it. Download the free ebook →
🎪 RAPID+TCT
🎺 Anycubic flexes its muscles: Kobra S1 Max Combo + new large-format 12K resin printer
Anycubic showed up to RAPID+TCT 2026 with two major launches. On the FDM side, the Kobra S1 Max Combo: a large-format version of the popular S1 with multicolor support and expanded capacity for advanced creators and makers.
And on the resin side, a prosumer printer with an 18.3 L build volume (models up to 300 mm tall), a 14" 12K screen (11520 × 8640 px), and a 1.9 L resin vat with active thermal control to maintain stable viscosity during long prints. We'll share pricing as soon as it's available. In the meantime, the Anycubic resins we already have in stock are the natural companion for this new machine. Full coverage →
🔬 Industry
🏆 The 7 rule-breaking printers at RAPID+TCT 2026
All3DP walked the floor of North America's biggest additive manufacturing show and picked the 7 machines that are genuinely changing the game in 2026. Highlights include the new HP MJF 1200 (industrial printing that's smaller, faster, and more affordable than ever), the fully automated BigRep ONE.5X (which we covered back in Weekly #004), and several standouts from the Startup Showcase.
The show's clear message: 2026 is the year industrial and desktop 3D printing start to seriously converge. What used to cost $50,000 now fits in a workshop. Full coverage at All3DP →
💬 Our take this week
The X2D at $649 is Bambu Lab being Bambu Lab: pushing prices down while pushing quality up. Three years after the X1 Carbon, we've got a printer that's better, smarter, and cheaper. The rest of the market needs to respond — or get left behind.
Add Color Mixing, Meshy on MakerWorld, and Chitubox AI… and the FDM workflow in 2026 is almost unrecognizable. Less friction, more creativity. Meanwhile, we're right here with the resin and free tools to help you print without the headaches. 💪