Toy modifications and content
May 2022 - July 2024
3D printed gel blaster modifications, grew to >1.2M views but was outcompeted by overseas manufacturers.
tldr
- Role
- Solo founder: designer, seller and marketer · high school, 2022–2024
- Built
- Designed and sold 3D-printed attachments for gel blasters (toy blasters), marketed via TikTok, YouTube and cold emails to reviewers; switched to selling files when copies hit Amazon
- Result
- >1.2M views across platforms and 1k YouTube Shorts watch hours; the printer paid for itself
- Tools
- CAD, calipers, FDM 3D printing, short-form video, online sales
When I bought my first 3D printer as a high school sophomore, I wanted to make it pay for itself. I had an equal desire to prove that I could achieve all the same things dropshippers could, but without feeling like I was ripping people off with buy-low-sell-high junk.
My solution? Printing Nerf gun-style attachments for 2022's hottest new toy: gel blasters. After a stop by Walmart with some friends, I invested in my reference model and went to work with a caliper. I designed adapters for existing Nerf mods, rails for airsoft/paintball mods, storage clips and handles for gel balls, and more.
In parallel, I started a TikTok account and posted a number of retrospectively embarrassing videos while cold emailing YouTube creators to get them to review my mods. Quickly, I had my first sales and thousand followers.
My Ender 3 rapidly paid for itself, but the post-processing of supports, reprinting of failed parts, and packaging slowly became a headache. Unbeknownst to me, overseas manufacturers were copying what I was doing, and within a few months Amazon had a new niche of unofficial "gel blaster attachments." I also encountered my first scammers copying my account and reaching out to my audience to scam them with fake giveaways.
It wasn't soon until I stopped selling prints and listed my files online where they continued to sell through the traffic my YouTube and TikTok accounts generated. By the time I privated everything and closed this chapter of my life, I'd amassed over 1.2 million views across platforms and 1k watch hours on YouTube Shorts.
This wasn't a very technical project, but it was a lot of fun to engage with a community, grow on social media, and ship something simple that brought people joy.
