The kid behind the printer
It started with a very bad dragon.
I'm a Year 8 student in New Zealand, and I design toys. Every one of them starts as a pencil sketch, becomes a 3D model on my tablet, and comes off my printer as something you can actually hold. This is the whole story, including the parts that went wrong.
My first collaborative experience took place in an ice cream shop.
That day, I came out of the library, wanting to grab a bite to eat, so I went into FUGITOTO. While paying, I noticed some adorable mascot stickers displayed near the cashier. The 3D printer my mom had promised to buy me was almost here, and a thought suddenly popped into my head: wouldn't it be fun to turn these flat characters into three-dimensional ones?
So I mustered up my courage and asked the shop owner: "Can I try making these into 3D? Like fridge magnets or keychains?" The shop owner smiled and said,"If you can really make them, I'll buy you ice cream." And so, I began my first real experience of researching, modeling, printing, and revising an idea.
Of course, there were times when I failed, but in the end, the flat characters that existed only on stickers truly became 3D works of art that you could hold in your hand. Later, my creations actually appeared in FUGITOTO stores. That was also the first time I realized that a small idea, if you actually put it into practice, could have the chance to enter the real world. This was my first collaboration.
From notebook to shelf
No dates, because I genuinely lost track. But this is roughly the order it all happened in.
01
Where it started
A notebook full of sketches nobody had asked for, drawn mostly in the last ten minutes of class. Some of those pages are still my best ideas.
02
The first printer
A second-hand machine on a desk that wobbled, and a long stretch of failed prints while I worked out what every setting actually did.
03
The first real toy
A pocket-sized dragon that finally came out clean, stood up by itself, and survived a whole week of being carried around in a school bag.
04
Letting other kids in
Friends started handing me their own drawings to model, and their ideas were better than mine. That's where the Dream Lab came from.
05
Opening the shop
Six designs I'm genuinely happy with, a promise of NZ$1 to UNICEF Aotearoa from every order, and this website.
Where the toys get made
The workshop is a desk in the corner of my room. The printer sits on a paving slab with a foam mat underneath, because otherwise you can hear it through the whole house at eleven at night. Around it: filament in a sealed tub with a bag of silica gel, a set of calipers, sandpaper in three grades, a jar of colour test cubes, and the notebook. There's a lamp aimed straight at the print bed so I can check the first layer without lying on the floor.
A print day usually starts the night before, when I slice the model and set it going. The first layer decides everything — if that goes down wrong, the next eight hours are wasted. Small pieces like the tug boat take a couple of hours; the triceratops takes most of a day, so that one gets started in the morning and I try not to think about it until after school. When it's done the real work begins: snapping off supports, sanding the seams, running a thumb over every edge to check nothing is sharp, and holding it up to the window to look for gaps. Anything that doesn't pass goes in the reject box on the shelf. That box is fuller than I'd like, and it's the reason the ones I post out are good.
What I try to stick to
Made by hand, by a kid
Every design here is drawn, modelled and printed by me — nothing is bought in and re-labelled.
A parent handles the boring adult parts: the money, the postage and the emails.
Honest about the limits
These are 3D printed toys. Up close you can see the print lines, and no two come out perfectly identical.
If a print takes longer than I said or a design isn't ready, I'll tell you instead of pretending.
Give a bit back
NZ$1 from every order goes to UNICEF Aotearoa, and every donation gets published on the Give Back page.
A small number honestly reported beats a big number I can't show you a receipt for.
Come see what's on the shelf
Have a look at the toys I've made so far — or send me one of your own drawings and I'll try to make it real.