I’ve owned a few 3d printers over the years. I started with a little Fabrikator Mini, then moved to a Cetus3D, then a Cetus2. The move from the Mini to the Cetus3D was fine, but had issues. I didn’t learn from that and ended up kickstarting the Cetus2, which was not great. Finally I was like “I’ve had it with these unsupported printers and companies, let’s buy a real printer”. I first was looking at a Bambu Lab A1 Mini, then the A1. They definitely looked appealing, but I’d seen some stories that made me wonder if they were going to do a Tiertime (let people buy the printer, then not offer support in the long run). Talking to a coworker, they said I should look at the X1 Carbon, which I said “I can’t afford” but then realized maybe I could. At that point, I thought “if I can afford an X1, maybe I can afford a Prusa…”. I knew the CORE One had been recently released, and I knew from years of following Prusa had offered years of “Upgrade your current printer to the new version” kits. Something I knew Bambu or others wouldn’t ever offer. So, realizing all that, and seeing the kit for the CORE One was available, I went ahead and ordered a Prusa CORE One kit back in February (2025). I thought mistakenly I’d have the printer quickly, but no, the kit didn’t show up until late May (which is good, honestly, as I was saved from the worst of the tariffs from the EU (which ended up being close to $140 invoice from Fedex a few weeks later that was the tariff as well as Fedex charges).
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