Then there are more existential threats, like a digital generation that favors 99-cent iPad apps over traditional toys, a shrinking number of toy stores and the looming concern that DIY 3-D printing will render premade plastic toys obsolete.

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But Hewlett-Packard, which is also making a big effort in plastic electronics using inkjet techniques, argues that the advantage of printing over stamping is that it makes it possible to produce customised circuitry more quickly and easily, with changes in design being incorporated instantly.

ECONOMIST: SEMICONDUCTORS: Move over, silicon | The

At age 24--among the first to use plastic strapping, instead of wire, to wrap newspaper bundles after they leave the printing press--he bought out his father's partner and relaunched the company as Power Industries.

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Work at Bell Labs has also shown that, besides printing and spraying, flexible circuits can be stamped continuously on to rolls of plastic.

ECONOMIST: SEMICONDUCTORS: Move over, silicon | The