Just to bump this thread, Sean Tasker of Emblem Robotics has kits available ($749) having spent the past 12 months improving and debugging the design.
Sean is the son of a long time friend and work collegue (David). Between the two they have improved the design and made the original design more robust. Sean has taken the time to evaluate and select the best software.
The Emblem Robotics system uses ABS
I've seen these kits in the flesh, the most impressive thing is that the ABS components themselves are printed (by Sean in Australia), almost all the plastic you see in the design is printed. I've also seen quite a few objects printed, I'd imagine once the printer was finished and working the most difficult part would be compiling the drawing files to print from.
I think I want one....
http://emblemrobotics.com/products/