Anycubic Kobra X 3D Printer

You have a model with four colours in it, and every printer you have owned so far makes that a weekend project: manual filament swaps, paused layers, a pile of purge blobs on the floor. Or you have looked at multicolour setups and seen a printer plus a separate feeder box that costs more than the printer itself.

The Anycubic Kobra X takes a different route. Four filament paths are built into the printhead, the spools sit on top of the frame, and colour changes need only 30 mm of retraction. You get a 260 mm build cube, 600 mm/s top speed and an AI camera watching every layer.

The headline benefit is simple: proper four-colour printing at single-colour printer money, R8,999.99, ready to grow to 19 colours when you are.

Native 4-colour printing | Expandable to 19 colours | 600 mm/s max speed | 260 x 260 x 260 mm build volume | LeviQ 3.0 auto-levelling | 720P AI camera | Power-loss resume

Who the Anycubic Kobra X is built for

The hobbyist Maker who wants colour without the complexity

Your job is turning ideas into finished objects without post-painting. The Kobra X prints four colours natively, so name plates, tabletop terrain, two-tone figurines and kids' toys come off the bed looking finished. LeviQ 3.0 levelling and preloaded Anycubic Slicer Next profiles mean you spend your evenings designing, not tuning. A full set of four-colour board game tokens or a 250 mm tall multicolour terrain piece prints in a single overnight run.

Schools, universities and makerspaces

Educators need a machine learners can use safely and one that does not dominate the room. At 48 dB or lower in standard mode, the Kobra X runs during a lesson without raising voices. The 720P camera flags spaghetti failures and foreign objects on the bed, and the Anycubic App lets a teacher check progress from the staffroom. A class set of 20 colour-coded molecule models or labelled design-and-technology prototypes is realistic in one school day.

Small print farm and side-hustle sellers

If you sell keyrings, signage or branded giveaways, purge waste is a direct cost. Anycubic's ACE GEN 2 system cuts filament change length by 81.25% compared with the Kobra 3 V2, which means more sellable parts per kilogram. At R8,999.99, three units cost less than many single enclosed machines, and object skipping saves the rest of a full plate when one part fails. A plate of 30 two-colour logo keyrings is a comfortable morning job.

What sets the Anycubic Kobra X apart

Four colours without a separate feeder box

Most budget multicolour FDM printers bolt an external feeder onto a single-colour machine, then push filament through long tubes on every change. The Kobra X integrates Anycubic's ACE GEN 2 directly into the printhead. Four independent filament paths, each with its own drive gear, feed straight down from four spools mounted on top of the gantry. Retraction during a colour change is only 30 mm, and the cutter sits 35 mm from the nozzle. Anycubic's own test of a four-colour cube shows 178 g of material against 358 g on a conventional system. When four colours are not enough, add ACE 2 Pro units with filament hubs to reach 19.

Print speeds that change how you plan your week

Speed only matters if quality holds, and the Kobra X is tuned for both. It runs at a recommended 300 mm/s with 10,000 mm/s² acceleration, and peaks at 600 mm/s and 20,000 mm/s². Vibration compensation, a form of input shaping, suppresses ringing at those accelerations, while automatic flow calibration and pressure advance (Anycubic's term for linear advance) keep corners sharp and walls consistent. Anycubic quotes a complete Benchy in about 14 minutes. In practice, that turns a two-evening functional part into something you start after supper and pull off before bed.

Auto-levelling that gets the first layer right the first time

Most failed prints die on layer one. LeviQ 3.0 probes the bed automatically and sets the Z-offset for you, so there is no paper test and no knob twiddling. Area levelling probes only the zone your part occupies, which saves minutes on small jobs. The PEI-coated spring steel plate heats to 100°C and grips PLA, PETG and TPU firmly while hot, then releases parts with a gentle flex once cool. For a newcomer, this is the difference between a first print in fifteen minutes and a first print after a frustrating afternoon.

A camera that watches so you do not have to

The built-in 720P camera does more than stream. Anycubic's on-board AI watches for spaghetti failures and pauses the job before a bird's nest wraps the hotend. Foreign object detection spots a forgotten scraper or leftover part on the bed before printing starts. Filament runout and entanglement detection catch spool problems, and object skipping lets you cancel one failed part on a full plate without scrapping the rest. Through the Anycubic App you get live view, remote control and automatic time-lapse videos, over dual-band 2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi or a local LAN mode if you prefer to keep data off the cloud.

Loadshedding does not cost you the print

In South Africa, a 9-hour print that dies at hour seven is a real risk. The Kobra X stores its position and resumes automatically after a power interruption, picking up where it stopped once supply returns. The universal 100 to 240V power supply runs directly on the local 220V grid, so there is no transformer to buy. Pair it with a small UPS or inverter if you print during scheduled outages, and the open-frame design means the bed cools quickly enough that resumed layers still bond reliably on PLA and PETG.

Quiet enough for a study or classroom

Anycubic's in-house motion control uses active noise reduction, and the top-mounted spools double as a damping mass that soaks up frame vibration. The result is 48 dB or lower in standard mode and about 45 dB in silent mode, measured at one metre. That is closer to a quiet office than a workshop. You can run an overnight job in a home office or a lesson-time print in a classroom without anyone asking you to switch it off.

Anycubic Kobra X full specifications

How the Anycubic Kobra X compares to the rest of the entry-level multicolour range

At the same price as the A1 Mini Combo, the Kobra X gives you more than three times the build volume. Against the SparkX i7 and A1 Combo it is the only machine here with a hardened steel nozzle as standard and a growth path beyond four colours. Browse the full 3D printer range or the Anycubic collection if you need an enclosed machine.

Materials and software for the Kobra X

Filaments this printer handles

• PLA (200 to 220°C): the default for multicolour work. Our Cron PLA runs well at 300 mm/s; keep part cooling at 100%.
• PETG (230 to 250°C): tougher and more heat resistant than PLA. Use a glue stick on the PEI plate to stop it bonding too strongly. Shop PETG filament.
• TPU (210 to 230°C): the extruder lowers drive force for soft filament; print slower, around 50 to 100 mm/s. Shop flexible filament.
• PVA (190 to 210°C): water-soluble support for complex PLA parts. Keep it sealed, it absorbs moisture fast in coastal humidity.
• ABS and ASA (240 to 260°C, bed 95 to 100°C): possible on small parts, but the open frame makes large parts prone to warping. Shield the printer from draughts. Shop ABS filament.
• PLA-CF and PETG-CF (220 to 250°C): the standard hardened steel nozzle handles abrasive carbon-fibre composites. Find them under speciality filament.

Slicers and software

• Anycubic Slicer Next: the recommended slicer and the only one with full ACE GEN 2 multicolour support and cloud sending.
• OrcaSlicer: works well for single-colour jobs with Anycubic printer profiles; send files by USB or LAN.
• Cura and PrusaSlicer: usable for single-colour G-code with a custom profile; print via USB.
• Creality Print and Bambu Studio: not supported. Use Anycubic Slicer Next instead.
• Anycubic App: remote monitoring, live camera view, time-lapse and print control from your phone.

What's in the box with the Kobra X

• Kobra X gantry frame and printer base
• PEI spring steel printing board
• Power cord
• Spool holder shafts (4) and spool holders (2)
• PTFE tubes (4)
• Purge wiper with M3x8 screw
• M5x30 assembly screws (8), cable clip and cable cover
• Decorative covers (2)
• Magnetic hex keys (4.0 / 2.5 / 2.0 mm)
• Nozzle cleaner, grease and application brush
• Filament samples
• User manual

Ordering, shipping and support for the Kobra X in South Africa

We ship the Anycubic Kobra X by courier to any address in South Africa, or you can collect from our Centurion or Boksburg branch. The printer carries a 12-month warranty, handled locally through either branch, so there is no shipping a machine back to China. For help, log a technical support ticket. Replacement nozzles, Anycubic spare parts and filament are stocked locally. See our shipping and returns page for delivery times.

Frequently asked questions about the Anycubic Kobra X

Is the Anycubic Kobra X better than the Bambu Lab A1 Combo?

For most buyers, the Kobra X offers more for less: it costs R2,500 less, prints faster (600 vs 500 mm/s), ships with a hardened steel nozzle and expands to 19 colours where the A1 Combo stops at four. The A1 Combo is the better choice if you already run Bambu Studio and other Bambu machines and want one software ecosystem.

Can the Kobra X print TPU and carbon fibre?

Yes, it prints both. TPU from 95A up to 68D is supported, and the extruder reduces drive force on soft filament to stop it buckling. PLA-CF and PETG-CF are supported because the standard 0.4 mm nozzle is hardened steel. It can also combine PLA with TPU 68D in a single multi-material print.

How long does it take to set up out of the box?

About 15 minutes for assembly, and under an hour to your first finished print. You bolt the gantry frame to the base with eight M5 screws, connect the labelled cables and mount the spool holders. LeviQ 3.0 then levels the bed and sets the Z-offset automatically, and the on-screen wizard walks you through loading filament.

How often does the nozzle need replacing?

Rarely on standard materials, because the stock nozzle is hardened steel rather than brass. With PLA and PETG it can last hundreds of print hours. Abrasive carbon-fibre or glow-in-the-dark filament wears it faster, so inspect it when extrusion becomes inconsistent. The quick-release design makes a swap a two-minute job without tools.

Will the Kobra X work on South African power, and is there local warranty support?

Yes on both counts. The 100 to 240V power supply runs directly on the 220V grid, and power-loss resume continues a print after loadshedding. Confirm the supplied plug matches your socket when you unbox. Warranty claims are handled locally through our Centurion and Boksburg branches, not overseas.