Too much support can be a bad thing!

So, I was trying to print this thing on our Afinia 3D printer. 

I knew it'd need some supports, but my first attempt included too much support and I wasn't able to get it all removed without damaging the object.

So, on attempt number two I used very few supports and it came out much better.

Here's the original design (from a Lusher visual arts student) and my attempt at recreating it in plastic.