3D print as one piece

Hello is the title suggests I'm trying to print my custom character not for commercial sale but for my personal and I'm trying to get them in a format to do so.

I was elated when I found out the hobby shop near me takes obj but it turns out obj does not merge all the pieces into a solid object which I should have expected to be honest. (IE as it was rendering it to print it was trying to print the toes and feet inside the shoe)

Then I wondered if fbx would allow me to merge it all into one body to print but I'm assuming I have to use blender but is there a way to get my model into blender that will allow it to keep its pose because that's one of the big things right now I've got going on is I'd love to put it into blender and then move it over to print. Surely it can't be as hard as I'm thinking it is or I'm making it out to be too hard than it really is.

Is there an easy tutorial or extension?