▲ 1 r/SideProject
My friend and I have been building a designer toy for a few months: a motorized life-sized rotating ramen bowl on a temple base, meant as a desk collectible. It rotates on a hidden motor while the temple base stays still. Aesthetic is kind of Studio Ghibli meets Pop Mart.
Where we're at:
- Final 3D design locked in, we have full Blender and OBJ/STL files
- Talking to manufacturers in China, real cost quotes coming back
- Validated that small batches don't make economic sense: mold costs alone run $1k+, so we need real pre-launch demand to justify scale
- Strategy: launch on Kickstarter to test demand before committing to manufacturing
- Built our own rotation animation in Blender after teaching ourselves the basics
The problem: We've posted 9 times across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and gotten ~5k total views with zero signup conversions. Feeling stuck on how to break through with no audience and no ad budget.
Would genuinely love feedback on:
- Does the concept resonate as a desk collectible at $50 retail?
- What would push you from "cool concept" to "I'd back/buy this"?
- For anyone who's launched a Kickstarter, what was your pre-launch unlock?
u/Hyxpro — 17 days ago