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IdeaPrints
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Designed by a Year 8 student

Turning Ideas Into Real Toys

I'm a Year 8 student in New Zealand and I design toys. Every one starts as a pencil sketch in my notebook, becomes a 3D model on my tablet, then comes off my printer as something you can actually hold.

Shop the ToysRead My Story
  • Printed to order, dispatched in 2–4 days
  • Plant-based PLA, sanded by hand
  • NZ$1 from every order to UNICEF

01

Drawn

02

Built

03

Printed

04

Yours

A Year 8 maker sketching toy ideas beside a 3D printer and a row of finished prints
16
Toy designs, all drawn by me
7
Filament colours, on every toy
6
Categories, and still growing
NZ$1
To UNICEF from every order

Fresh off the printer

A few of the newest designs from my workshop — each one printed to order in the colour you pick.

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1

Animals

1

PLA · 1 cm

$1.00

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The maker at a desk with an open sketchbook, a tablet showing a 3D model, and a printed toy

The kid behind the printer

Meet the maker

I've been drawing made-up creatures since I was about six — dragons with too many wings, robots with wonky arms, whole notebooks of them. When I finally got to use a 3D printer, I realised the drawings didn't have to stay on the page. I could pick one up.

My first dragon snapped at the tail. The next one came out with a droopy wing, and the one after that fused to the print bed. Fixing the same toy over and over turned out to be the real skill — the drawing is honestly the easy part.

Now I want IdeaPrints to be bigger than my own notebook. That's why the Dream Lab exists, so other kids' drawings get printed too, and why NZ$1 from every order goes to UNICEF Aotearoa.

What I've learned so far

  • Patience beats speed — A print that takes twice as long usually comes out twice as neat.
  • Failures are just drafts — Version four is normally where a toy starts working. Never version one.
  • Design for hands, not screens — If a part is too thin to squeeze, it's too thin to print.
Read the whole story
Dream Lab

Your drawing could be the next toy

Any kid, anywhere, can send me a drawing of a toy they've imagined. Each month I'll pick one, model it in 3D, print it for real, and show it here with the child's first name and age — only if a parent says yes.

Send a drawing

Nothing gets published without a parent saying yes first.

1

Your Drawing

Pencil, crayon, glitter pen — however you drew it.

2

3D Model

I rebuild it on my tablet, keeping the bits that make it yours.

3

Real Toy

Printed, sanded, photographed — and one is posted to you.

The first drawing gets picked soon — yours could be it.

NZ$1 an order, straight to UNICEF

Every toy helps another kid dream bigger

Every order sends NZ$1 to UNICEF Aotearoa, the New Zealand arm of the UN children's agency, for children's education, health and creativity. NZ$240.00 has gone across so far — all of it from the monthly giving my family already had running, until the first order lands — and every donation is dated and published.

See how the pledge works

Education

School supplies and learning programmes for kids who don't have them.

Health

Clean water, nutrition and medicine for children who need them most.

Creativity

Art materials and making spaces, so more kids get to build their ideas.

We're brand new, so right now the amounts are small. I'll publish what's been given as soon as there's something real to report.

What your toy is made of

No mystery plastic. Here's exactly what comes out of my printer and how it's finished before it's packed.

Plant-based PLA

PLA is made from cornstarch rather than oil. It's hard-wearing, low-smell and BPA-free.

Sanded and checked by hand

I sand off the print lines and check every toy for sharp edges before it goes in the box.

Pick your colour

Dragon red, harbour blue, sunset orange, mint green, cloud white or midnight navy — pick yours on the toy's own page.

From the Maker Journal

Prints that worked, prints that flopped, and what I changed in between.

Design6 min read

The dragon wings that kept snapping off

The first four Pocket Dragons all lost a wing, and two of them broke before they even left my desk. The problem was that I had drawn the wings the way they look in my head — thin, spread wide, sticking straight out — which is exactly the shape a printer is worst at making. Here is what I changed, and why version five survived being thrown across a room.

Printing4 min read

When a print fails at 90%

Eight hours in, the last layer of a triceratops shifted about two millimetres and the whole head came out crooked. There is no fixing that — you scrape it off the plate and start again. I wrote down what I do in the ten minutes after a failure, because getting good at that part turned out to matter more than getting good at the printing.

Dream Lab7 min read

From a kid's drawing to a real toy

A drawing has no back. That is the first thing I hit every time a Dream Lab submission lands — the child has drawn the front of their creature and I have to decide what the other side looks like without inventing something they did not ask for. I walk through the whole process on a narwhal with a sparkly horn, from tracing the outline to the first test print.

Questions parents ask

The practical stuff: materials, safety, shipping, and what happens if something turns up broken.

What are the toys made of?

Every toy is printed in PLA, a hard plastic made from cornstarch instead of oil. It's BPA- and phthalate-free, has almost no smell out of the box, and holds up to normal play. The colour is in the plastic itself, so there's no paint or coating to chip off.

Are they safe for young children?

They're made for ages 3 and up. Some designs have horns, posable arms or other small parts that could break off and become a choking hazard, so please keep them away from babies and toddlers. If you want one for a younger child, email me and I'll tell you which designs are the chunkiest and least breakable.

How long until my toy is dispatched?

Nothing sits in a warehouse — your toy is printed after you order it. Most orders leave the workshop within 2 to 4 working days, though printing happens after school and at weekends, so a busy week runs closer to the longer end. You'll get an email with tracking the moment yours ships.

Where do you ship, and what does it cost?

Tracked shipping anywhere in New Zealand is a flat $6, and it's free on orders over $75. Most NZ parcels arrive 1 to 3 working days after dispatch, a little longer for rural addresses. Shipping to Australia and most other countries is a flat $18.

What if something's wrong with it?

If your toy arrives broken or doesn't look like the photos, send me a photo within 7 days and I'll print a replacement or refund you — your choice, no arguing. Changed your mind instead? Post it back unused within 30 days and I'll refund the price of the toy. Return postage is on you unless the fault was mine.

How does the Dream Lab work?

Draw a toy, photograph the drawing, and email it to me from the Dream Lab page with the child's first name, their age and a parent's email address. Each month I'll pick one drawing, model it in 3D, print it for real and post the toy to that child. Nothing goes on the site until a parent has said yes, and everyone who sends a drawing gets a reply from me, picked or not.

Ask me something else

Contact Us

Take one home, or send me one of your own

Every toy here started as a pencil sketch. You can pick one off the shelf, or send me a drawing and I'll try to make it real.

Shop the toysSix designs, printed to order in the colour you pick.Send a drawingOne idea gets modelled and printed every month.