Mass customization: What is your Hrunting?

We are not used to things being unique any more. Anything is available in countless, extremely similar variations. The only originals we see are buildings and art (and people - so all services by definition are unique).
In an age where anything can be produced 10 % cheaper by someone in China, originals are either expensive or made by poor people, because they could not afford the mass produced ones. And then we are talking really poor - on th e level of african farmers. Anything can be produced in millions of exact copies in a couple of days. And they can be affordable. It is cheaper to ship something from China to Sweden than it was to truck it from England to Sweden when I was young. So anyone can have anything.
As long as it is not unique. Even buildings, when mass-produced, are less expensive - and less desirable. Who wants to live in a house that you do not feel is your own? Here in Japan, where buildings are regularly torn down every 70 years and rebuilt, because the lease on the land terminated, owners take great pains to customize buildings, with plaster statues, concrete pillars, and so on. Buildings are pre-fabricated, yet made unique. In essence, they are made in a series of one - but from pre-fabricated elements, all the way down to the design in the computer. That is customization.
People want to be unique. But they also do not want to be too different. Someone who has realized this is the fashion industry. Just take a walk down any street with a couple of shoe stores, especially womens shoes. There are hundreds of variations, yet anyone who has even a little experience with plastic molding realizes that they are made from a small series of shapes, which are varied with colours and coverings. No two women need to have the same shoes, and if they do, they will anyway have different clothes.
That was how it was before mass production. Then, everything was unique, produced in a series of one. That was Adam Smiths revolution (specialization in a craftmanlike way had already taken place). It was a specialized swordsmith who made Hrunting, the sword of Beowulf, which was unique. He must have made more, but that was his best, and most magical.
Someone who has not realized this is the car industry, and this is part of the reason why they are in such trouble. Cars are made in infinitely long series (the VW Bubble was still produced a couple of years ago). Their margins are slim, and they will not become economic until they are produced in large series - is the argument of the car industry. Which has spawned another industry, of customization (just watch "pimp my car" to see what can be done with a standard car). That also blows a large hole in the standard argument of the car industry, that cars have to be designed in a certain way to be certified safe. Evidently there are large variations possible - so why not build them into the cars from the start? If you can brag on your home page about how "the customers" car can be produced and let him follow the production, why not take it all the way and let him buy all the options of the customizers? That would help the margins. But it would be extremely hard for someone who is used to sell millions of something boring. Be they executives, or resellers.
Now, for next time, let us think about this: What other industries have not got how mass customization works, and who has?