With the Minecraft movie out, our house has been deep in block mode.
Sidewalk chalk, roleplay, fortress blueprints. We’ve basically lived in Minecraft for two weeks straight.
So when my son asked, “Can we 3D print a Creeper?” I wasn't surprised.
We fired up Tinkercad and got to work. Started with a Creeper, moved to a Zombie, then drifted into Singing Monsters and Minions... pretty standard around here.
Over creative? Maybe...
Over engineered? Absolutely!
Two days, lots of trial and error, and a semi-jammed Bambu printer later, we had a few takeaways:
3D filament isn’t as strong as bedrock (or obsidian for that matter)
Print characters flat to avoid wasting filament on supports
Push the limits and you end up with a pile of spaghetti plastic
We kept adjusting. Tweaked the shapes. Simplified the designs.
He wasn’t thrilled about toning down his ideas. But when the final print came through and he held it in his hands, he understood.
Somewhere in that process, my mind wandered to work.
You think of an idea. It looks great on your screen. But once it hits the real world, that “solid” part crumbles. The flashy detail? Nobody notices.
Whether it’s toys or tech, we’ve all felt that moment.
We don't have to look that far back to see real examples of this.
Kairn launched with polish, but users didn’t stick. They trimmed down and doubled down on what actually mattered.
ElevenLabs launched strong with voice AI, but had to rebuild key parts to address safety and scale. And they still have a long way to go.
And then even Notion got it wrong at first. Their calendar launched with a lot of hype, but users bounced. Recently, they came back with something faster, cleaner, and more useful.
So 2025 has been wild. AI changes weekly. Markets are twitchy. Noise is everywhere.
But one thing still holds true.
Startups are a process. You start with a big idea. It never plays out how you imagined. But if you’re willing to adjust, test again, and learn as you go, you’ll get there.
Just don’t be afraid to reprint.