History Main / MatterReplicator

* In Einstein's theories (the famous E=mc[[superscript:2]]), it is possible to replicate energy into matter and vice versa while still following that pesky law of equivalent exchange, just like [[Manga/FullMetalAlchemist alchemy]] and Star Trek's replicators, but in order to assemble 1 kilogram of matter, you need to consume as much energy as the detonation of 21.5 megatons of TNT. As a result of other conservation laws, you won't be able to get a kilo of ordinary matter -- instead, you'll get half a kilo of matter and half a kilo of antimatter (which, unless contained, will annihilate with ordinary matter yielding back most of the energy you started with and making the whole thing an exercise in futility).

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Alchemists are basically walking matter replicators, limited only by that [[EquivalentExchange pesky Newtonian law]]. While most Alchemists specialize in a particular kind of transformation, it's implied that with the right [[FunctionalMagic knowledge and transmutation circle]], an Alchemist can do practically anything... assuming you're willing to pay the price for a slim chance of success.
** Higher-tier alchemy is capable of matter replication techniques considered impossible by the rest of the world - but it scars the alchemist for life. [[spoiler:Ed has to live with the fact that he ''destroyed'' human souls. As a result, some of his alchemy occasionally produces small details of what looks like gold, which was supposedly impossible. Then, ''he sacrifices his ability to perform alchemy''. This is the key to resurrecting certain types of dead. And then, there was Aremestris' attempt at creating a feral clone army from nonliving base materials. They... aren't very effective (except when they're ripping unarmored non-combatants apart).]]
** The Philosopher Stone is the ultimate alchemy tool, as it can do everything above perfectly with an initially full energy storage capable of powering an entire country for ''centuries''. The only problem is making the damn thing. [[spoiler:In the original manga, creating a weak stone requires a few ''human souls'', which are still conscious and used as the power source. In the anime, creating a stone just requires the deaths of humans - an entire country per weak stone.]]
* ''Manga/ShadowStar'' has mons with the ability to replicate anything they see. Whether this is unlimited is questioned, but it is never explored in-depth.
* ''Literature/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'': Rimuru is a slime monster with a [[MinMaxing synergistic combination of skills]] that allow him to dissolve and analyze any object he eats and make exact copies from stored materials. He can also refine what he consumes into directly usable and highly potent resources.

* ''ComicBook/{{Thorgal}}'': Jolan is able to pull atoms apart with his mind thanks to his Atlantean heritage. The aged Atlantean who taught him to use his power could recombine them into different objects altogether, though Jolan hasn't reached [[StoryBreakerPower that level of mastery]] yet.
* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': One [[GadgeteerGenius Gyro Gearloose]] comic has him invent a replicator. To make sure that it can't be used for counterfeiting, he explains the machine always stamps his initials onto the copied product. The Beagle Boys steal it anyway.
* ''ComicBook/Supergirl1984'': In the comic-book adaptation of the [[Film/Supergirl1984 film of the same name]], both the Omegahedron and the Matterwand can create objects and even living beings out of air.
* ''Film/ValerianAndTheCityOfAThousandPlanets'' comic-book adaptation: The Grumpy Converter of Bluxte is a tiny creature that makes thousands of copies of whatever it ingests, apparently evolved naturally as a way to recycle the supply of fruit and seeds it eats. Its metabolism is comparable to a nuclear reactor, and when exhausted from copying it can be plugged into any energy source to "recharge". Nobody [[BlackBox knows how its physiology works]], because any examination tools dissolve when entering its body.

* Dubbed fabricators in ''Fanfic/WorldWarEtheria'', a RationalFic of ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' are products of the [[{{Precursors}} First Ones]]. Like many examples mentioned here they're treated as very sophisticated 3d-printers and as such are restricted to base materials on hand such as needing to make circuit boards out of sand and appropriate metals as need be, with the added caveat that they "pattern crystals" for the various sophisticated projects they can do. With this out of the way they can create sophisticated prosthetics, armor, weapons, vehicles even more versions of itself. Later shown that properly equipped ones can create edible organic food too, even beer, interestingly this can extend into creating organic replacements for limbs.
** Having access to these is a major industrial leveler for the Horde, once they find a way to reliably power them, when they're up against the magical OneManArmy that are each individual runestone the Princesses.

* ''Fanfic/AuroraFalls'': As per canon, the nano-fabrication technology enables Selkirk to bootstrap his way from sleeping in an EscapePod and hunting fish with a knife to riding around in a mini-submarine and living in a well-appointed UnderwaterBase.

* ''Film/ThePrestige'', [[spoiler:UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla's attempt to create a teleporter creates one of these instead; there is no explanation given for where the matter it uses to create its duplicates comes from, but in a rare event, the device is capable of copying an entire human being perfectly]].
* ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet'', Robbie the Robot has a replicator built in to his body, able to reproduce anything he's given a sample of. One of the crew quickly takes advantage of this and turns him into the world's fastest distillery.

* The Neo-Korean, UsefulNotes/McDonalds-like Papa Song's is shown rapidly 3D-printing food from sophisticated spray nozzles in the 2144-set part of ''Film/CloudAtlas''.
* ''Film/TheNudeBomb''. Maxwell Smart discovers that a KAOS scientist has invented an "instant cloning machine" that can replicate living people. In the climactic battle both sides use it to create an army of Control agents and KAOS villains to attack each other, before the machine is destroyed from overuse.

* In “[[http://www.vb-tech.co.za/ebooks/Williams%20Ralph%20-%20Business%20as%20Usual%20During%20Alterations%20-%20SF.txt Business as Usual, During Alterations]]” by Ralph Williams, aliens drop a pair of matter duplicators that create an exact copy of anything placed on one of its pans, including another duplicator, in the middle of a city in order to [[HumanityOnTrial test humanity.]]
* In Creator/ArthurCClarke's ''Literature/TheCityAndTheStars'', the entire city of Diaspar has existed for a ''[[RagnarokProofing billion years]]'' thanks to the MasterComputer using this technology to both maintain the city in pristine condition, as well as to allow the inhabitants to alter their surroundings for aesthetics and comfort via mental commands. In fact, the Diasparans themselves enjoy virtual immortality by way of BodyBackupDrive, being returned to life in a new body at intervals of tens or hundreds of thousands of years apart just to keep things from getting too monotonous.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''FutureHistory'' timeline included a "Universal Pantograph" which could duplicate objects. It's mentioned in ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove''.
* Damon Knight's A For Anything (1959) had a rather primitive-looking "Gizmo" that could duplicate anything, including itself. No source of energy was mentioned, only that the Gizmo could only do one item at a time, including living people. This destroyed Earth civilization overnight, leading to a feudal slave-owner future where only human labor was valuable.
* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'', there are replicators for organic material called "protein vats" which can grow synthetic tissue given the right materials and genetic programming, but it's implied that traditional manufacturing is easier for metals.
* Creator/WilliamGibson's ''Literature/AllTomorrowsParties'' has the Nanofax machine, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin which transmits copies of]] ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin anything]]''.
* Creator/WilMcCarthy's ''Literature/TheQueendomOfSol'' series, fax machines can print copies of almost any object, as long as enough raw materials are on hand. These devices are a relatively rare example in that they can also print copies of people -- potentially multiple copies, which factors into the setting's society and laws. Combined with a solar-system-wide computer network, the faxes are effectively a form of TelephoneTeleport, medical facility, factory, and glorified refrigerator all rolled into one. They are also one of the few valuable objects in the setting's economy, as the print plate of a fax machine is one of the very few things that another fax cannot produce.
* Literature/TheCulture of Iain M. Banks's novels. The protagonist of ''Literature/UseOfWeapons'' complains when he asks a ship Mind for some rubbish to shoot at, and is instead given a block of ice. The Mind explains that it doesn't have rubbish -- just "matter that's currently in use, and matter that's available to be recycled and used for something else."
* ''Literature/TroyRising'' "fabbers", much like their ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' counterparts, can build just about anything you want very quickly as long as you've got the raw materials. Much like the Schlock Verse, the crushed remains of enemy ships are frequently fed in as the raw materials in question.
* Creator/AlastairReynolds' ''Literature/RevelationSpace'' universe has "Manufactories", which are essentially extremely adaptable factories ranging from the size of a washing machine to enormous kilometer wide constructs. The devices require matter, and some time to actually build the object, but they can build a huge amount devices. The first novel, ''Literature/RevelationSpace'', has the "Warchive" on the starship ''Nostalgia For Infinity'', which is a manufactory specifically designed to build guns, with an archive of millions of weapons from the modern age of the [[TheFuture 2500]]s back to pre-history. If given certain parameters, it will splice together different guns to get the desired elements. ''Literature/ThePrefect'' shows a manufactory in a space station that can build entire spaceships.
* Creator/LEModesittJr's ''The Fires of Paratime'' had time/space-traveling humans stealing matter duplicators from aliens called Murians. The duplicators were small, about the size of a suitcase (which was the limit that a human could carry back home, and the humans were users, not scientists or engineers), but anything put inside the doughnut-hole center of the device could be copied. Unless it was an electrical device and you left the power on, at which point the duplicator would explode with the force of several kilotons of TNT.
* In ''The House Left Empty'' by Creator/RobertReed, most homes after the [[BalkanizeMe collapse of most of the world's governments]] have their own miniature "factories" that contain [[NanoTechnology million of miniature robots]], which can manufacture a wide variety of goods when given a supply of matter; machinery parts and basic foodstuffs are common creations. The protagonist rides in a copy of a [[CoolCar 2021 Ferrari roadster]] which was built in pieces by a larger replicator. The story also shows the scientific uses of the devices - before the collapse, railguns fired what were essentially cannonballs packed with more powerful versions of the factory nanobots at distant worlds and asteroids, which would use solar power to break up minerals and use them to build up bases for future explorers.
* ''Literature/TheDiamondAge'' by Creator/NealStephenson has "matter compilers" that are essentially nanotech fabricators using matter from the "Feed".
* Literal "matter duplicators" capable of copying both inanimate objects and living beings featured prominently in ''Literature/PerryRhodan'''s Andromeda arc (issues #200 - #299). Since the downfall of the immortal overlords of that galaxy (involving a rather destructive all-out war raging through it towards the end), this technology with its [[GameBreaker obvious plot-wrecking potential]] hasn't been seen anymore and can be safely assumed to have been quietly and conveniently lost in the aftermath.
* The ''Literature/StarCarrier'' series uses nanotechnology to achieve this. ''Deep Space'' has a scene of a character ordering a coffee and having it basically 3D-printed by nanites. Starships are "grown" in record time by grabbing a nearby resource-rich asteroid and unleashing nanites on it. They strip-mine it and use the materials to quickly build a ship. [[{{Arcology}} Arcologies]] are "grown" the same way on Earth. It's pointed out that the reason the SpaceNavy can't replace old model {{Space Fighter}}s with new ones quickly isn't because they can't produce them fast enough. They can. It's just that the pilots' neural hardware and software is designed for the old models and needs to be adapted, and the pilots themselves need to be retrained. It's easier with new pilots, who simply get the latest implants and training. It doesn't help that they introduce new models, sometimes, mere months after the previous one. This is also why there are no big cargo ships prowling the space lanes. With nano-growing, it doesn't make economic sense to lug physical things light-years away. Instead, trade ships specialize in information.
* George O. Smith's [[https://archive.org/stream/Astounding_v35n04_1945-06_AK#page/n6/mode/1up "Pandora's Millions,"]] part of the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Equilateral Venus Equilateral]]'' series, is a detailed examination of the economic damage that could be caused by the invention of a matter replicator. The problem is only resolved when the protagonists invent a material that explodes violently when exposed to the replicator's scanning beam, which can be used as a medium of exchange.
* A variation is discussed in Scott Meyer's ''[[Literature/{{Magic20}} Spell or High Water]]''. Since reality is nothing more than a computer program, which a few people have learned to modify (to an extent) by literally editing a text file on a computer, a "sorceress" named Brit has figured out that she can write a macro that builds objects molecule-by-molecule, thus allowing for monolithic objects made of pure diamond, including the entire city of {{Atlantis}}. Since levitation and teleportation is best accomplished with monolithic objects (any complex object is actually seen by the program as a collection of separate objects), this works out perfectly for "magic-users".
** In Meyer's ''Literature/MasterOfFormalities'', bulkfabs are a typical example of this trope. Almost anything nonliving can be created using a bulkfab. A drink server typically carries a tray-sized bulkfab in order to make drinks on demand. In one case, several servants wonder why [[FeudalFuture House Jakabitus]] bothers employing chefs, since they can get identical food out of a bulkfab, the same way everyone else on Apios does. A sous chef tries to explain that no bulkfab can match a professional chef, pointing out that each meal a chef makes is unique and personal, while a soulless bulkfab just spits out identical meals (assuming the same thing is ordered). The other servant counters that a faulty bulkfab would produce the same effect. During banquets, the chefs typically prepare meals only for members of House Jakabitus and any visiting lords and ladies. The cooked food is then scanned into a bulkfab, and copies are produced for the rest of the guests. Apparently, no one on the Hahn Homeworld has ever heard of a bulkfab, which is justified by the Hahn reveling in ComedicSociopathy (i.e. it's much more fun to force someone to cook a meal rather than to use a bulkfab).
* Matter duplication is the core of the plot of Ralph Williams' "Business As Usual, During Alterations". Aliens testing humanity's ability to adapt drop off two duplicators that can make copies of anything, including each other, with a warning that they could destroy human culture. The remainder is about a department store manager dealing with the change.
* Literature/ChakonaSpace: They have a few minor limitations but still prove useful. Especially on the ''Folly'' during "Alternate Thursdays".
* Creator/MCAHogarth's ''Literature/{{Paradox}}'' universe has "genies" which are ubiquitous enough to be included in college dorms. Though the energy costs are high enough that it's often easier to go to a store.
* Used in the ''Literature/{{Eldraeverse}}'' to provide its post-material-scarcity NoPoverty, although somewhat limited by thermodynamics, conservation laws, etc. Unusually, they incorporate macro-scale construction tech alongside the NanoMachines, for efficiency's sake.
* Multi-material 3D printers are commonplace in ''Literature/ThePrideOfParahumans'', and nanofabricators are alluded to but not actually seen in the novel itself. In the later ''Literature/ParaImperium'' stories nanotechnological replicators are a staple technology of the interstellar Federation, and barred to colonies under memetic quarantine.
* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': Soulcasters, {{Magitek}} LostTechnology devices from the [[TheTimeOfMyths Shadowdays]], can turn anything into anything else, using [[{{Mana}} Stormlight]] stored in gemstones (the type of gemstone determines the type of transmutation). Their primary use is for EasyLogistics, turning rocks into food and waste into smoke, as well as materializing barracks literally out of thin air. Soulcasters aren't very detailed, however; food is bland and tasteless, while buildings are blocky and uniform. One trick is to carve something detailed using wood, and then Soulcast the wood to metal or stone. The Soulcasters are too rare to do that for everything, though, so blacksmiths and other artisans or miners still have their place.
* ''Literature/TheSunlitMan'': The primary means of manufacture on the world of Canticle is the Choruses, tanks full of imprisoned [[OurGhostsAreDifferent shades]] which can break down raw materials and then reassemble the molecules into complex parts if provided with clear blueprints.
* ''Literature/Armageddon2419AD'' The evil Han overlords live in megacities where all their food, clothing and materials are provided by "[[WeWillUseWikiWordsInTheFuture electrono-synthetic]] processes". With no need for mining and cultivation, the InvadedStatesOfAmerica are now covered by vast forests which hide LaResistance.
* A StoryArc in ''Literature/TheHistoryOfTheGalaxy'' series deals with a newly-discovered threat from self-replicating machines left over from an ancient race. It's not long before someone realizes that these machines have technology to convert matter into energy and back into matter using a preprogrammed template (the machines' original purpose was rapid terraforming and building infrastructure). However, one character explicitly tells an admiral that such a technology must never end up in the hands of humanity, as it would destroy the Confederacy's economy, and unity with it. After all, what's the point of planets maintaining ties with one another, if any planet can manufacture anything it wants using the dirt under their feet as raw material? And each planet can build a powerful armada virtually overnight with the tech. How long before some dimwitted politician starts the next galactic war over a mild offense? [[spoiler:The speaker himself wants to use the tech to create an external (but largely benign) threat to force humankind to evolve rather than become a society of consumers, entirely dependent on their technology to survive.]]
* In ''Literature/WeAreLegionWeAreBob'', molecular 3D printers are used to achieve a similar effect. Basically, if you have the correct raw materials ([[AsteroidMiners asteroid mining]]) and a ''ton'' of power (onboard fusion reactors), you can build any object molecule-by-molecule. The process isn't quick, and it only nets you parts of complex devices or structures, which must then be assembled the old-fashioned way. Food can't be replicated (not yet, at least, but Bill is working on printing organic matter). Still, this tech is essential to the success of the [[RecursiveCreators Von Neumann probes]]. The Heaven-series probes are equipped with several autofactories (an autofactory is basically a 3D printer with accompanying "roamer" robots used to deliver raw materials and assemble items from printed parts). However, in order to build something large, it usually requires the upscaling to a large autofactory. For instance, in order to build colony ships for humans (each colony ship holds 10,000 people in cold sleep), Riker and Homer first have to gather raw materials or salvage debris (which is actually better, since the materials are already refined), then start building smaller autofactories, then scaling them up to a full-sized shipyard. Finally, the shipyard can start building colony ships. How long? About ten years until the first colony ship comes off the production line, and that's an optimistic projection.

* ''Series/ComeBackMrsNoah'': [[SpaceStation Britannia Seven]] has a multi-billion pound wonder of British technology that, after [[OverlyLongGag excessive button-pushing]], ejects the item requested (or something they didn't request) with a [[ToiletHumor farting sound]].

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E105ValleyOfTheShadow Valley of the Shadow]]", the citizens of Peaceful Valley, UsefulNotes/NewMexico can replicate any object provided that they have its atomic structure on file. Dorn demonstrates this to Philip Redfield by replicating a ham sandwich on white bread with mustard. Philip later uses it to create a .38 special.
* ''Series/TheOrville'', being an homage to ''Franchise/StarTrek'', has replicators. Kelly credits their invention as the backbone of the Union's post-scarcity economy. The series has some fun with the concept by having the most frequent items requested be booze and recreational drugs (cannabis, specifically). The ship also has a separate room with larger replicators featuring flat tops that are used to replicate large or awkwardly shaped objects. Late into the series, "Future Unknown" explains that the Union is post-scarcity because it was already committed to economic equality before inventing matter replicators, not the other way around -- a capitalist culture gifted such technology would see the rich and powerful developing ways to keep it to themselves so that they ''stay'' rich and powerful, even if it leads to civil war and self-destruction. The Union knows this from experience, and it's the reason for their equivalent of the Prime Directive.

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* ''Series/SesameStreet'': In a very early episode, Mr. Hooper shows off a machine that can create ten copies of anything, although it was designed to only work on very small objects, such as jelly beans. Bird Bird, not knowing what the machine is for, finds it unattended and messes around by testing it on a trash can. The machine manages to produce ten copies of the trash can, only for it to blow up in the process.

[[folder:Radio Drama]]
* ''Radio/XMinusOne'': In "[[Recap/XMinusOneE069ProtectiveMimicry Protective Mimicry]]", an [[AudioAdaptation adaptation]] of Creator/AlgisBudrys's "Literature/ProtectiveMimicry", a galactic treasury agent investigates the source of some credit notes that appear to be genuine save that they all have the same serial numbers, and since the printing process is so fiendishly complicated he believes that someone invented a matter duplicator. [[spoiler:It turns out the counterfeiter found an alien tree that made copies of whatever "attacks" it, like a paper airplane made from a 50 credit note. And during the final fight the agent runs into said tree, making it a bit difficult to get tickets back home for all of him.]]
[[/folder]]

* Jesus "feeding the crowd with fish and bread" might actually qualify.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has Standard Template Constructs (STC). Extremely powerful replicators, able to create anything from kitchen utensils to buildings to gigantic, artificially intelligent robots. The STC themselves are capable of scanning any environment it is placed in and listing what schematics could be made with the resources available. These were given to human colonies tens of thousands of years before the start of the franchise's timeline, allowing humanity to easily colonize any world it settled on. STC now are considered the most valuable and important parts of ''LostTechnology'' by the Adeptus Mechanicus, as having a fully functional STC and a fully completed database of schematics would allow humanity to easily reconquer the galaxy has they had many eons ago. To put it in persepective: two IG scouts discovered an STC schematic for a slightly different combat knife. They were given a ''planet'' as thanks. Each. However, there's a massive case of DependingOnTheWriter around them and outright replicators (as opposed to automated factories or databases with easy-to-follow instructions) is now EarlyInstallmentWeirdness.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' features nanofaxes, what with it being a melting pot of cyberpunk tropes and all. Though they're very expensive.
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'':
** In ''TabletopGame/GURPSUltraTech'', they're balanced by truly massive power demands that require "cosmic" energy sources to be economical.
** ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'' has universal 3D printers, which are very expensive, in the $200,000-1,000,000 range [[note]]in real life you can get a plastic printer for a couple hundred and a metal printer costs thousands. And TS is still over 80 years from now.[[/note]]

** "New" economies, which run on favors and formalized reputation scores, don't restrict their public nanofabs, they just give everyone a daily ration of raw materials, and blueprints are crowdsourced and open sourced to the public. This doesn't come without its own set if problems, since items requiring rare elements or huge allotments need to be paid off with favors and rep. Particularly dangerous items or components will alert the authority analogues, and the user could face some serious consequences if they can't answer some awkward questions.

* In ''TabletopGame/HcSvntDracones'' stores have largely been replaced with "Buyspots" where one can order something that the owning MegaCorp produces and a 3-D printer will make it on demand. Manufacturing centers can also be added to spaceships. And there's the Spontaneous Assembly Machine which is the size of a baseball and contains a bunch of NanoMachines and super-compressed foams for rapidly constructing things without moving parts in the field (like cover).
* In ''{{TabletopGame/Lancer}}'', "Printers" are a key component of Union's PostScarcityEconomy. Simple objects like disposable tools, hard cover panels, and replacement blades can all be "flash-printed," while an entire mech, complete with a full complement of weapons and wargear, can be printed from scratch over the course of 10 hours. This allows a lancer to replace a destroyed mech at no in-game cost, but upgrades require licenses that act as the game's ClassAndLevelSystem.

* ''{{VideoGame/Borderlands}}'' features Digistructing, a digital process that allows any constructor system with an oculus the size of a baseball to construct entire battlefield robots, cars, and guns. The process is a ''key gameplay mechanic''; vending machines not only manufacture product on-demand but are wirelessly updated with new digistruct schematics every twenty minutes, each character has a [[HyperspaceArsenal Storage Deck]] enabling them to carry at least a dozen guns and hundreds of rounds for each, and the [[RespawnPoint New-U Stations]] resurrect characters when they die (though this last one explicitly doesn't exist [[GameplayAndStorySegregation in-story]], to explain how PlotlineDeath can stick). Those same stations even act as the [[WarpWhistle fast-travel system]].
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''[='s=] ''Dead Money'' {{DLC}} utilizes this in the form of the Sierra Madre Vending Machines created by Big MT. They can turn casino chips into other things like ammo, food and medicine. These chips are made from just plain scrap metal and some form of fissionable material, if the crafting window is to be believed.
** WordOfGod says that the Vaults also have matter replicators, though only to create vault suits. One of the vaults was set that the suit replicators [[NakedPeopleAreFunny failed six months after closing]]. And it was populated with [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} Mormons]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'', described in surprising detail in the fluff. Basically, it's a very high-tech 3D printer that can work with any material. Aside from justifying the RidiculouslyFastConstruction seen in the games, it also justifies repair ships (small-scale precision version projecting matter to mend fractures and seal hull breaches) and even the CommandAndConquerEconomy (reversing the beam to take matter apart instead of projecting it, then separating and sorting chemical elements by atomic mass, resulting in 100% efficient mining with no waste).
* ''VideoGame/HostileWatersAntaeusRising'' has nanotechnology that acts like this as one of its themes. Creation engines were invented that could build anything from ''nothing'', atom by atom. Attempts to regulate the technology by corrupt governments led to a planetwide socialist revolution, and 20 years later the world is a war-free post-scarcity {{Utopia}}. The eponymous ''Antaeus'' carrier caries a powerful creation engine that allows it to manufacture helicopters and tanks in the space of seconds when given a supply of scrap metal.
* The VAL 9000 in ''VideoGame/TheJourneymanProject Buried In Time'' is this. You have to use it to buy items from a future shopping service to get through the game, and the replicator creates them after they're purchased. It also has an "Auto Chef", but it can't be used in-game.
* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'': Samus' Chozo-built suit seems to use this technology. It can turn into energy when not in use, can change back and forth from a spherical shape, and it has storage capacity for more missiles and bombs than the suit should physically be able to hold. In ''Fusion'', upgrades for Samus' suit are sent to her as computer data and are downloaded into her suit.
* ''Videogame/PlanetSide'' has replicators in many flavors. Equipment terminals and vehicle terminals in both games manufacture armor/weapons and vehicles, respectively, right on the spot and almost instantaneously. "Lockers" in the first game are actually replicators; stuff an enemy's weapon into a locker and you'll be able to retrieve it at any locker in any friendly base even if it has no power. The Adaptive Construction Engine in ''[=PS1=]'' is slapped into the ground or a wall and converts [[NanoTechnology pure nanites]] into useful equipment; [[SentryGun Spitfire turrets]] and [[AntiAir its derivatives]], motion sensors, boomers (C4), mines, etc. The larger Field Deployment Unit can convert itself into manned turrets, tank traps, and cloaking fields.
* ''VideoGame/Prey2017'' has the slightly more real-world Fabricator, and its logical counterpart, the Material Recycler. Put any kind of matter into the Recycler—cigar butts, plant leaves, soda cans—and it will spit out cubes of compressed raw material. Put those cubes into the Fabricator and upload a print plan, and it will recycle the raw materials into whatever you want: guns, bullets, medkits, and more. There are also Recycler Charges, which are grenades that recycle anything in their blast radius—including, as one unlucky researcher found out, part of a person's ''foot''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Startopia}}'': Combined with an EnergyEconomy, you could replicate raw materials, furniture and entire buildings from your energy stores. You also have a teleporter that works on inanimate objects from trash and bombs (which freezes the countdown) to scuzzer droids. The teleporter doesn't work on living things.

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' has the Star Forge, an enormous and ancient Force-based space station powered by a star, and capable of creating more or less anything in the hands of someone strong enough to master it, with Revan and Malak using it to build an unstoppable battle fleet. Unfortunately, it's an EldritchStarship created by the Rakatans, ''the'' AbusivePrecursors, who powered it with the Dark Side of the Force. It corrupted them even further, and played a part in destroying them. And it's implied to be alive. While the redeemed Revan ultimately destroyed it, he kept a fingernail sized fragment that wasn't corrupt, and gave it to a group of Ongree, his former servants, instructing them to feed it more or less anything, including dead bodies, and to dedicate themselves to it. In return, it would make them literally anything they required, growing over three centuries from a fingernail to about half the size of a grown man. In his diaries, Revan called it The Infinite Engine, and mused that using the Star Forge to create fleets and assassin droids was a criminal waste of technology that could create ''anything'' - eventually, given time and fuel, they could use it to build their own galaxies.

* ''Videogame/{{Subnautica}}'' features a variety of devices that use replicator technology. Fabricators (tools and supplies), Habitat Builders (buildings and large devices), and Mobile Vehicle Bays (vehicles). These allow for humans to quickly settle newly discovered worlds as long as they have the raw resources to make them. Fortunately the player's EscapePod is equipped with a Fabricator that can build the other devices once he has the schematics. The player is also equipped with a Scanner, allowing them to scan wreckage and technology to make more schematics for their fabricators.

* In ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'' (and its SpiritualSuccessor, ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander''), your two resources are Mass and Energy. Mass is mined by specialized facilities, and Energy is produced by, what else, power plants. Factories use energy to 3-D print mass into MechaMooks and buildings. There's even machines to turn energy into mass.
* ''VideoGame/{{Superliminal}}'': The gimmick for one sequence of the game is that, instead of picking up and altering an object, you make a copy of it at whatever distance away you could have perceived it to be.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' The fabber is an odd case of a Matter Replicator that uses mechanical labor. Full-scale fabbers have arrays of tools capable of building things as large as starships or as fine as [[spoiler:bodies with blank brains.]] Smaller units use Nanotechnology instead of human sized robots seen in the very large fabber facilities.
** In addition [[spoiler:[[PortalNetwork Wormgates]] could copy exactly anything that passed through one of them using matter from stars. The Gatekeepers primarily used it to abduct clones of the richest percent of the galactic population and interrogate them.]]
* In the webcomic ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', the Alchemiter can combine objects to form many different tools. It can also receive copys of codes that can create weapons, food, and various mundane objects. Most of the characters use Alchemiters to obtain the things they need in life.
* ''Webcomic/AMiracleOfScience'', Mars gives most of the major nations of the Sol system "Autofactories" that can produce nearly anything from basic raw materials. Martians themselves can use the NanoMachines in their bodies to alter physical objects and most of their buildings are made of "smart matter" that can rearrange itself at will.
* The tongue-in-cheek comic ''Real Life'' has evil scientist Tony Flansaas making a duplication chamber out of glass and off-the-shelf electronics in just a few hours in his friend's garage. The cloning machine could make infinite copies of anything placed inside of the six-foot-by-three-feet tube, including live people such as Tony himself, and Tony once re-set the controls to have the machine duplicate itself so he could take a copy with him. Tony also stated that the cloning machine could dematerialize any matter placed inside the chamber back into energy if needed. (Which he did, to destroy hundreds of clones of himself.)
* ''Webcomic/{{Spacetrawler}}'': Space debris, garbage, and dead bodies get dumped into the spacetrawler. Anything the user wants--from food to complex machinery--comes out. It's noted that spacetrawler-produced food tends to [[TastesLikeFeet tastes like asteroids]].
* ''Webcomic/QuentynQuinnSpaceRanger'' has replicators like Star Trek, but with sufficient resolution to duplicate living things. The ethics and mechanics of this device are an important plot point, as the level of ingenuity is only surpassed by its potential for sheer torture.
** The second episode had Quentyn ranting at some Holier-Than-Thou Star Trek expies that matter replicating yourself (teleportation) is literally suicide because it kills the user and then reconstructs a clone made of their vaporized atoms at the other end. The captain then insults him back by asking what the big deal is when matter-replication teleport and interdimensional warping have the same result, only matter-replication is faster. Cue the mutated engineer who took one teleportation trip too many.
** One senator found a way to satisfy his murder fetish by being the perfect gentleman to a naïve little girl, and then replicating her entire body down to the neurons in her brain, the original unaware that he made a sex slave copy of her. Cue rape stomp slaughter. He did this to multiple girls multiple times, and at first he took them on dates only to have them leave straight into the matter replicator to be vaporized without realization.

** Another arc revolves around a WellIntentionedExtremist trying to make a clone of his dead wife from a replicator template, then download her neural template into the clone. [[spoiler: However, the replicator template was made at such a precise resolution that the clone came out "alive", with a copy of the original's memories and personality at the time of the scan, before she'd met her widowed husband. Downloading the template would have destroyed the existing mind, which is classed as a form of murder, and the template itself helped the clone escape to prevent that happening.]]

* ''Sev Trek'' spoofed the scene where the crew of ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise NX-01 Enterforaprize]]'' discover a replicator on an alien space station. "Now we don't have to [[RecycledScript recycle our plots!]]"

* ''Website/OrionsArm'' has the [[https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/45eafe5718a34 autofab]]. It's mentioned that many autofabs are specialized for creating a certain type of product (e.g. mealfabs are specialized for making food), for greater efficiency.
* ''WebSite/AtomicRockets'' gives the hard-scifi version of this the amusing name of "SantaClaus Engine," on the grounds that you can ask it for anything and you'll get it as long as you don't ask for anything "naughty" and get put on the blacklist, just like sending a letter to Santa. It involves using a fusion reactor to flash-vaporize raw materials into plasma, and using a series of magnetized plates to capture the purified elements. These are boxed / bottled up and used to feed an automatic factory, called a "fabber" (and the fusion reactor can be used to power the whole thing to boot). Since this makes it exceptionally easy to manufacture illegal substances (not just recreational drugs, but highly-enriched fissile materials for making nukes), these would need to be strictly policed by a special branch of the military (Santa's elves, if you will), referred to as the "Santa Guard."

* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' Frylock's Cloner. If it's used too much, CloneDegeneration turns the replicated objects weird. Creator/DavidLynch weird.
* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'': Ma Vreedle used a giant machine in one episode to combine [[InstantPeopleJustAddWater cloning mix and salt water]] in a bid to create 4 billion Vreedles that would have used the entire oceans of earth.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'': The episode "Dough Ray Me" features a duplication ray that Gyro invented, which can seemingly produce a copy of something out of nothing. An unknown side effect of the device results in anything that's been duplicated to then self-duplicate itself upon being exposed to the chime of a bell. Huey, Dewey and Louie duplicate a coin a few times to buy ice cream, but the sounds of downtown Duckburg cause the coins they spent to continuously keep duplicating, until the streets are ''flooded'' with coins. The abundance of coins leads to hyperinflation, and ultimately become a burden to everyone. Eventually, Gyro theorizes that the unstable molecules of all the duplicate coins will eventually cause them to all implode back into the original coin.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Fangbone}}'' has "The Kat of Munching", where Fangbone and Bill eat fudge made from the pixels of Munchie-Kat. The fudge was supposed to give you a magical nice sweet feel and scent.

** "Benderama" introduces the "[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banach–Tarski_paradox Banach-Tarski]] Dupla-Shrinker," an invention of Farnsworth's that works based on [[GeniusBonus the titular theorem involving disjoint subsets]]: basically it scans objects and creates two smaller replicas, though it has to be fed a proportionate amount of matter. Since [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Bender is technically an object]], he [[MesACrowd abuses]] [[GrayGoo this]].
** "Forty Percent Leadbelly" achieves this using a highly advanced 3D printer to make fully-functional replicas of any object using complex layers of nano-plastic. The input source can be as simple as a digital photograph; Bender snaps a picture of a guitar and is able to make a facsimile that's identical down to sound quality. [[spoiler: After the program is accidentally left running without severing the wireless link to Bender's internal "folk song directory," the printer starts churning out functioning versions of ''fictional characters from a folk song Bender is working on,'' meaning that an entire crowd of robots he falls in with to generate material for his songwriting all turn out to have been manifested by the printer based on his lyrics. Because he added a vengeful version of Fry to his song to make it up to Fry for a dispute between them, the printer even creates a [[RobotMe replica of Fry]] good enough to fool Bender himself, and it's only the duplicate Fry's OutOfCharacter behavior that tips Leela off to what's going on.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'': In "Cosmic Rust", one of the key ingredients for Perceptor's Corrostop compound (which undoes and protects against corrosion) runs out. There does not appear to be any more left. Because the Decepticons accidentally caused an outbreak of the titular disease, this is something of a problem. So Perceptor and Wheeljack have to work their butts off to get Wheeljack's Matter Duplicator to actually work so that the Autobots can produce all the Corrostop they need from a tiny remaining sample.

* In Einstein's theories (the famous E=mc[[superscript:2]]), it is possible to replicate energy into matter and vice versa while still following that pesky law of equivalent exchange, just like [[Manga/FullMetalAlchemist alchemy]] and Star Trek's replicators, but in order to assemble 1 kilogram of matter, you need to consume as much energy as the detonation of 21.5 megatons of TNT. As a result of other conservation laws, you won't be able to get a kilo of ordinary matter - instead, you'll get half a kilo of matter and half a kilo of antimatter (which, unless contained, will annihilate with ordinary matter yielding back most of the energy you started with and making the whole thing an exercise in futility).
* The advent of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing 3D printing]] has brought this trope one step closer to reality. NASA is already funding research to see if it's possible to use a 3D printer to make food that it is difficult to prepare in zero gravity (Pizza, for example - shredded cheese is quite messy to work with in zero-g).

* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}} and the Lake of Sharks'' features a semi-functional duplicator developed by Professor Calculus, and HilarityEnsues when Rastapopoulos steals it and attempts to use it for his own ends.

** In ''TabletopGameGURPSUltraTech'', they're balanced by truly massive power demands that require "cosmic" energy sources to be economical.

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}: Ultra-Tech'' They're balanced by truly massive power demands that require "cosmic" energy sources to be economical.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' has the [[https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/45eafe5718a34 autofab]]. It's mentioned that many autofabs are specialized for creating a certain type of product (e.g. mealfabs are specialized for making food), for greater efficiency.

* ''Film/ThePrestige'', [[spoiler:UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla's attempt to create a teleporter creates one of these instead; there is no explanation given for where the matter it uses to create its duplicates comes from, but in a rare event, the device is capable of [[CloningBlues copying an entire human being perfectly]]]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'', described in surprising detail in the fluff. Basically, it's a very high-tech 3D printer that can work with any material. Aside from justifying the RidiculouslyFastConstruction seen in the games, it also justifies repair ships(small-scale precision version projecting matter to mend fractures and seal hull breaches) and even the CommandAndConquerEconomy(reversing the beam to take matter apart instead of projecting it, then separating and sorting chemical elements by atomic mass, resulting in 100% efficient mining with no waste).

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'', Flint Lockwood invents the FLDSMDFR, a food replicator that works by [[TechnoBabble taking in water and using microwave radiation to mutate the food DNA of water molecules into those of other foods]]. It's a very soft science work.

* ''LightNovel/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'': Rimuru is a slime monster with a [[MinMaxing synergistic combination of skills]] that allow him to dissolve and analyze any object he eats and make exact copies from stored materials. He can also refine what he consumes into directly usable and highly potent resources.

* Subverted in ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager''. Captain Janeway complains that a huckster tried to sell her a replicator that could "create water from thin air", [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome but it was just atmospheric water condenser.]]

Note that the name "Matter Replicator" is itself somewhat misleading; it's rare to find one that can actually make [[ShapeshifterBaggage something out of]] [[NoConservationOfEnergy nothing]] (that [[EquivalentExchange one law of thermodynamics that usually can't be broken]] without breaking WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief as well). A Matter Replicator can use ''pre-existing'' matter to replicate something else, or perhaps use it to [[{{Transmutation}} transmute]] something into entirely new. Creations made of HardLight need not apply here, but {{Nanomachines}} often do. If the characters are using it to replicate ''humans'' or other sentient or living beings, see MakeMyIndexLive

* ''[[Series/BlakesSeven Blake's 7]]''. In the episode "Moloch", the inhabitants of Sardos have this technology controlled by their MasterComputer Moloch, ranging from small demonstration models that can replicate a handgun to ones big enough to copy starships. When President Servalan turns up to claim the technology from the military unit that captured it, she discovers that a lowly section leader has now replicated a battle fleet [[TheStarscream that outnumbers her own]]. [[spoiler:Turns out Moloch is actually a LittleGreenManInACan created when the unit's commanding officer tried to replicate the UltimateLifeform. It didn't end well for him.]]
* ''Series/ComeBackMrsNoah''. [[SpaceStation Britannia Seven]] has a multi-billion pound wonder of British technology that, after [[OverlyLongGag excessive button-pushing]], ejects the item requested (or something they didn't request) with a [[ToiletHumor farting sound]].
* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' had an episode where a villain used a wrist mounted version to "twin" people. Including the protagonist John Crichton.
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' episode "Think Like a Dinosaur" had an alien interstellar matter transmitter machine on the Moon that transported people instantaneously across interstellar distances by copying them. Thus two identical people would exist: the original on the Moon, and the one transmitted elsewhere. The problem was [[spoiler: the saurian-like aliens insisted that only one duplicate be allowed to exist in the universe, so each time the machine was used, the person at the "transmitting" side had to be disintegrated or killed. Sure enough, an accident happened where they could not confirm the receiver for several hours, resulting in a dilemma for the humans being allowed to use the alien device under supervision. ]]

* ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "Demons and Angels" features a matter replicator, with a caveat: all the virtues of the replicated object go into one copy, all the evils into another.

** In ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space 9]]'' we get told about Industrial Replicators that are being sent to the Cardassians. By inference, these are the industrial complexes to the cottage industry of the shipboard replicators, as a small number of these is the Federation's answer to rebuilding Cardassia Prime.