Franko Top: how the personalized Saint Vitus statuette was born
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The best things almost always start as a joke.
During an episode of "Fuori dal comune", the SanVito.Me podcast, mayor Marco Ruggiero threw out an idea: what if every guest left a figurine of the person who was interviewed before them on the table? A small baton to pass from episode to episode.
The first one had to be Silvana Errico, who had led the city before him.
We were listening. And we raised our hand: we'll make that figurine.
FROM THE EPISODE TO THE WORKSHOP
Our workshop is on Via Annunziata, in San Vito dei Normanni, and up until that moment, it had printed luminaries, lamps, and doormats. Never a face.
Making it resemble someone is a different job from everything else: it's not enough for the model to be correct, it must be recognizable. A few wrong millimeters on the cheekbones or the hairline are enough, and the person is no longer there.
After Silvana came Marco and Giacomo. Three figurines, one collection: "Municipal Elections 2026".
WHAT FRANKO TOPS ARE
3D-printed collectible figurines, multicolored, with their own box.
The box isn't a detail: it's half the product. It’s what transforms an object into a collector's item, the one you keep closed on a shelf or open to take the little figure out. We print and customize it along with the figurine.
The color isn't painted on: it’s printed directly into the material, with our multicolor technology. It doesn't scratch off and it doesn't fade.
Like everything we make, they are in PLA — the bioplastic derived from corn starch that we use for luminaries and laurel wreaths.
AND NOW WE CAN MAKE YOURS
From three figurines born as a joke, a real product emerged, and the question everyone asks us is always the same: can you make one for me too?
Yes.
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For a gift no one expects. A milestone birthday, a retirement, an anniversary. It's the gift that ends up in all the photos of the evening.
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For a team, an office, a group. The colleague who is leaving, the coach, the professor. One or all of them at once.
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For a business or an event. The local mascot, the company founder, the character from a town festival.
We need a few photos — front and profile, the clearer the better — and the idea of how you want it: clothes, colors, objects in hand, what to write on the box.
WHY WE LIKE TELLING THIS STORY
We are two brothers under 25 with a 3D printing workshop in the province of Brindisi. It's not the place where you expect things to be born.
This was born from a podcast made in town, from an idea thrown out there by someone who might not have even thrown it out, and from the fact that we were there listening and said yes before asking ourselves if we were capable.
It seems like a good way to work to us.
🎁 Do you want your own personalized figurine? Send us a few photos and the idea you have in mind: we'll tell you how it's doable, how much it costs, and how long it takes. Write to us on WhatsApp.