Monkey vs. Robot Papertoys

I mentioned in a previous post that I have a fondness for monkeys and robots. Here is a papertoy set with both! :) This pair is from the "Brickboy" papertoy series. Together they are a set titled "Monkey vs. Robot". What I like best about the battling duo are the whimsical details like the robot's escape hatch on top and the monkey's bare bottom. These easy to build papertoys were designed by Sjors Frimbach, Netherlands, 2005 and can be found here.

UPDATE 8/10/2011: Frimbach is no longer posting his paper toys, so the link above is dead. An alternate site to download this template may be found here.

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Papercraft Skull Dice

Here are two unrelated pairs of papercraft dice with skulls. The red pair on top are the Oogie Boogie's dice. Oogie Boogie is a villian from the 1993 Disney movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Oogie also is a reoccurring character in the Kingdom Hearts video game series.

The black pair of dice are a weapon called "Demon Dice" from the video game American McGee's Alice. When these dice are cast in the game a demon is summoned who then attacks your enemy.

The Oogie Boogie Dice are by Robert Nava, USA, 2008 and can be found here. The Demon Dice are by Rick the Webdude, USA, 2007 and can be found here.

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Volkswagen Papercraft - Two Tone Beetle

VW Beetle Series, Part 5
This has to be my favorite build out of the five papercraft VW Beetles I have completed so far. All the parts had a very good fit and whoever drew the template added some nice touches of shading. I was unable to determine who created the template or how old it is. The two page, sixteen part template is available on this web page. There you will find several other Beetle templates in addition to this one.

PS. If you missed the previous Beetle builds in this seven part series you can view them here.

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Spirited Away Papercraft - Kaonashi Mask

I have finally finished another papercraft design: a full size Kaonashi mask. Kaonashi (a.k.a. No Face) is a masked, cloaked spirit who feeds on the emotions of others in Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 animated film, Spirited Away...

Template Info
Scale: 1:1 (approximately)
Finished Size: 6"(15.2 cm) x 9.75"(24.8 cm) x 1.5"(3.8 cm)
Number of sheets: 2
Number of parts: 13
Difficulty: 3/5
Download: Here

I tried to keep the joints and fold lines to a minimum which can make fitting the parts together tricky if you are not careful with the accuracy of your build. For best results start building from the center and work your way outward.

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Astronomy Papercraft - Globe Puzzle

This fascinating globe puzzle has been on my "to do" list for a long time, but I can't seem to find the time to build it. The puzzle is made out of 60 rectangular pieces which are slotted together and held in place with a small amount of tape to form a dodecahedron globe. The creator of the puzzle has a template and easy to follow instructions posted here. Using the same construction technique, the author has also created a "panorama sculpture" in which a panoramic photograph has been mapped onto the globe instead of an image of the Earth. The results are very cool. The panorama sculpture can be seen here.

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HAL 9000 Model Build

Here are some nice build photos of my HAL 9000 Interface model. These photos came from Arkaron at deviantART. More of his papercraft builds can be seen here, including several builds of Zelda papercraft. Good job Arkaron!

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Tron Bit Papercraft - Alternate Templates

Based on some comments I received after posting my Tron Bit papercraft design, I have created some alternate templates.

First, I have re-colored templates of the Yes Bit. For the original Yes Bit template I had sampled the color from a digital image of the Bit which gave me a dark orange color. Some Tron fans feel the Yes Bit's true color is closer to yellow than orange, so I searched through other digital images from the movie until I found a more yellow image and then sampled it for the re-colored template. The image and the resulting model are shown on the left. It is still a little orange in my opinion, but much closer to yellow than the original model.

Secondly, I have created versions of the original temples with all fold lines eliminated except for the fold lines at the gluing flaps. This will allow more experienced papercrafters to build cleaner looking, lineless models if they desire.

A zip file of the re-colored Yes Bit templates (with and without fold lines) may be downloaded here. A zip file of the three original templates without fold lines may be downloaded here. If you missed the original post for the lined templates of the Bit, you can see it here.

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Volkswagen Papercraft - Cabriolet Beetle

VW Beetle Series, Part 4
Here is a simple Convertible Beetle papercraft with only three parts. Judging by the notes on the template, the model must have originally appeared as a supplement in a Marabout-Junior book. Marabout-Junior was an imprint of Belgian publisher Marabout that featured adventure novels for young adults. It is likely that this paper model was created in the 1950's or 1960's making it one of the oldest papercraft designs I have built to date. A scan of the template can be found here.

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Star Wars Papercraft: Metro Ticket Spacecraft

Here are some cool miniature Star Wars papercraft made from Paris Metro tickets. I really admire tiny papercraft builds like this because I don't have the patience to attempt something this small! Want to give it a try but don't have a Metro ticket? No problem. The designer has a photo of a Metro ticket posted including the ticket's dimensions. Both the X-Wing Fighter and the Millennium Falcon models were designed by Hubert de Lartigue, France, 2005 and can be found here and here.

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Tron Papercraft - Bit

"Bit" is a character from the 1982 Disney movie, Tron. Considered by some to be the first CGI character in a movie, Bit communicates by speaking only "yes" or "no". The orange shape above is the form Bit takes when answering "yes". The spiky red shape is the form when answering "no" and the blue shape is Bit's "neutral" form when not speaking. Here is a film clip showing Bit in action...

Even though this is the fifth papercraft design I have released, it was actually one of my first designs. Development of the design took a little longer partially because it is actually three models, but also because it took some time to create simplified templates for the complex geometry. For those out there who care about such things, the "yes" Bit is a octahedron, the "neutral" Bit is a compound of a icosahedron and a dodecahedron, and the "no" Bit is a second stellation of a icosahedron. Template information for each of the models is as follows:

Bit - "Yes" Configuration
Finished Size (with base): 7" (17.8 cm)
Number of Sheets: 2
Number of Parts: 4
Difficulty: 1/5
Download: Here

Bit - "Neutral" Configuration
Finished Size (with base): 7" (17.8 cm)
Number of Sheets: 4
Number of Parts: 26
Difficulty: 2/5
Download: Here

Bit - "No" Configuration
Finished Size (with base): 8" (20.3 cm)
Number of Sheets: 4
Number of Parts: 34
Difficulty: 5/5!
Download: Here

UPDATE: Lineless templates and a re-colored template of the Yes Bit are available now here.

Other Tron Papercraft:
Sam Flynn's Identity Disc
Full Size Tron Helmet
Lightcyclist Bust
Sark's Identity Disc

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Tron Lightcycle Scene Recreated in Paper

Due to my interest in all things paper, I have become aware of the phenomenon of “sweded” movies. The term “sweded” was coined in the 2008 comedy film, Be Kind Rewind, in which two friends create abbreviated, amateur, ultra-low budget versions of classic movies. The resulting films are invariably amusing. What sweded movies have to do with papercraft is that often the props in these movies are made out of paper and cardboard. Below is one of my favorite sweded films, a recreation of the lightcycle scene from the 1982 movie, Tron, complete with cardboard lightcycles. This also gives me the opportunity to mention that I will be posting my own original Tron papercraft design soon! Stay tuned…

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