The folks at WobbleWorks had an idea – a 3D printer reduced to the size of a pen that anybody can use. They went to Kickstarter to ask for $30,000 to fund the idea, and had already raised a little over $70,000 in a few hours. I predicted they would get about $300,000 over the course of a month, but the project has raised double that amount in just a day.

The 3Doodler has absolutely shattered its initial Kickstarter goal by raising over $500,000 in just a day. As of now, the project has 7,826 people pledging $692,878. Every single tier of 3Doodler, except for the $10,000 has sold out. The team at WobbleWorks have added another 5,000 pens available at either $75 or $99, but these are also going incredibly fast.

Here’s the latest update from the team:

The aim of this Kickstarter was to create a first run of 3Doodlers, set the foundations in place to scale from there, and create an early 3Doodler community. Well we’re about 30hours in and we’re pinching ourselves. We are honestly gobsmacked! 3Doodler has now raised over $500,000 and has more than 5,700 backers! Thank you all, each and every one of you.

We are now announcing a further run of 3Doodlers, and we have expanded the 3DOODLER backing level as well as the COLOR-TASTIC backing level. The main difference is that these new levels, while priced the same, will ship a month later than the previous levels. i.e. NOVEMBER 2013.

As we have mentioned in the Comments section of our campaign, we purposely chose a production partner that would allow us to start small and then scale up. That is exactly what is happening now. Can we still deliver the first run on time? Yes. Will the additional quantities slow things down or make things harder for us? No. In fact scale helps in this case, as long as we schedule production and delivery accordingly.

The success of the 3Doodler proves yet again that 3D printing is incredibly popular among consumers when the price is right. Sure, the 3Doodler isn’t technically a “3D printer,” but it’s a close approximation that has exceeded all of my, and I’m sure the inventors’, expectations.

I won’t be making another prediction for fear of looking foolish yet again, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it raised over a million before all of this is over. It’s already half-way there, and there’s still 32 days to go.

[h/t: The Verge]