Anycubic draws hobbyists with faster multicolor printing and larger resin machines

Two desktop trends, one very clear message

Anycubic used RAPID+TCT 2026 to lean into the parts of desktop 3D printing that matter most on a real bench: faster multicolor FDM and bigger-format resin. The company said Booth #1035 drew sustained interest from makers, creators, and advanced users, and that attention was amplified by pre-show coverage from CNET, TechRadar, and Tom’s Hardware.

RAPID+TCT, founded by SME and Rapid News Publications Ltd., describes itself as North America’s largest additive manufacturing and industrial 3D printing event. The 2026 show ran April 13-16 in Boston, with exhibits April 14-16 at the Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center and more than 400 product and service providers on the floor. That scale matters here because Anycubic is not just showing concepts. It is using one of the biggest industry stages in North America to argue that the next round of hobbyist upgrades is about convenience, not just raw specs.

Kobra X pushes multicolor printing toward the mainstream

The headliner for FDM is the Kobra X, which Anycubic says first debuted at Formnext 2025. The company positions it as an entry-level multicolor printer with four filament channels integrated into the printhead, a design meant to shorten the molten filament path and cut down on the time and waste that usually come with color changes. In a market that has already been shaped by Bambu-style multicolor systems, that matters because the daily frustration is rarely the idea of color printing itself. It is the purge waste, the extra hardware, and the workflow friction around every swap.

Anycubic’s own Kobra X page adds more specific claims. The ACE GEN 2 architecture is said to reduce multicolor filament change length by 81.25%, shorten the distance between the filament cutter and nozzle to 35 mm, and lower print time and purge waste in test examples compared with other printers. It also supports 4-color built-in printing and can expand to 19 colors with the ACE 2 Pro accessory.

That combination tells you exactly where the company is aiming. The Kobra X is not trying to be a science project for color work. It is trying to be a built-in, no-external-color-system solution for beginners and enthusiasts who want multicolor prints to feel like a normal part of the workflow. Tom’s Hardware’s review listing called it an “excellent, entry-level four-color printer,” while TechRadar described it as a feature-packed option for beginners and enthusiasts.

The practical takeaway is simple: if multicolor printing has felt like a premium add-on in your setup, Kobra X is trying to make it feel like a default capability. The smaller filament path, the claimed purge reduction, and the built-in four-color setup are the kinds of changes that can save time on ordinary prints, not just on showcase models.

Photon P1 Max is built for the size ceiling that keeps showing up in resin shops

On the resin side, the Photon P1 Max is the more obvious answer for anyone who keeps running into build-volume limits. Anycubic says the printer extends the Photon P1 platform into larger-format use cases, with an 18.3L build volume, support for models up to 300 mm tall, a 1.9L thermal-controlled resin vat, and a 14-inch 12K screen with 24.8 × 24.8 μm square pixels.

That matters because the everyday pain point in resin is rarely just resolution. It is the constant compromise between part size, batch size, and print reliability. A machine that can handle larger display pieces, props, or bigger mini batches without immediately hitting the ceiling is a genuine workflow upgrade, especially if your current setup forces too many split parts or too many print cycles.

Anycubic also says the Photon P1 Max launch was pushed from an original March 16 target to mid-May because the company was still performing final optimizations and additional testing. That delay is a useful signal in its own right. It suggests the company is treating the larger-format resin machine as a maturity play, not a rush job. Tom’s Hardware’s April 3 review listing for the earlier Photon P1 noted features such as a heated vat and Wave Release technology, and Anycubic says the Photon P1 line also uses industrial-grade ball screws and linear guide rails with repeat positioning accuracy claimed at ±0.01 mm.

Put together, the Photon P1 family is being framed as a cleaner, more controlled resin platform rather than just a bigger one. That combination of heat management, motion hardware, and larger volume is exactly what resin users tend to want when they start printing more demanding parts and care less about novelty than consistency.

What actually changes in a daily setup this year

If you are deciding which of these launches could matter first, the answer depends on your biggest bottleneck. For multicolor FDM, the Kobra X is the more immediate workflow shift because it brings color handling into the printer itself and promises less wasted filament on every switch. If your current multicolor setup still feels accessory-heavy or wasteful, that is the upgrade most likely to change how often you use the feature.

If your pain point is resin size, the Photon P1 Max is the one to watch. An 18.3L build volume and 300 mm height ceiling are not abstract spec-sheet wins; they are the difference between splitting parts and printing them in one go. That is the kind of change that can make larger models and bigger production runs feel routine instead of awkward.

The larger story from Anycubic’s RAPID+TCT showing is not that it brought two products to a trade booth. It is that both products point in the same direction: more capability is being packed into setups that hobbyists can realistically live with every day. Multicolor FDM is getting easier to integrate, and resin is moving toward the larger, more creator-friendly formats that have been missing from a lot of desktop workflows.