The Ponoko blog reports on a rapid prototyper able to replicate itself.

The machine (called One Darwin) in fact replicates around 60% of it’s parts and you have to by the rest at a cost of approximately 500 euros, which is of course nothing comparing to the prices of standard 3d printing devices. What’s really interesting about it is that the whole documentation is available for free and there seem to be a whole community around the Rep Rap project, with their wiki and discussions forum. We might be witnessing a birth of grassroots digital fabrication movement.

A whole different approach to the topic is available through a link from Fab Lab Central: “The Fabaroni is a 3D printing machine that constructs 3D models with pasta dough.”

The approximate cost of materials for Fabroni is 1000$, a bit more than for One Darwin then. On top of that it seems that One Darwin is a bit more multi functional (and visionary).