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Fantastic paper model toys sites

  • Feb. 18th, 2008 at 7:54 AM
animated totoros
I've been nutty for papercraft websites lately-- crazy creative places where you can download and print out model sheets for paper models, pop-up toys and paper automata (paper machines and toys that move) -- free! I've pulled my automata kits from Flying Pig and Walter Ruffler out of hibernation now and hope to actually finish one. (Link to previous post.) Even though I may never attempt the models at these sites, it's fun to look at them and marvel at the ingenuity and creativity of the many toy designers.

PaperKraft.net rocks with frequent blog postings about paper models based on videogames, anime, cartoons, movies, kawaii characters, comics and other fandoms. You really need to use the search engine to poke around. For example, here are some of the Studio Ghibli films-related paper toys I found there: Totoro and Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro, Kodama from Princess Mononoke, No-face and No-Face 2 from Spirited Away, Howl's moving castle, Jiji the cat from Kiki's Delivery Service, and a dragon from Earthsea.

Paper Museum has colorful, detailed Japanese paper diorama sets. Scenes include outdoor market, stores, cafe, rooms in a house.

Sasatoku is a Japanese site with cheerfully bright model sheet downloads for objects, dolls, vehicles, animals, cards, and paper automata.

Handmade Papercraft Club is a Japanese site with beautiful, uncolored intricate designs. Downloads for pop-ups and mobiles.

The Toymaker
A variety of cute, colorful paper toys. Boxes, models, moving toys, puzzles, cards.

Paper Crafts at Yamaha Motor
Realistic models of motorcycles, animals of the world, rare animals, animals from Japan, and seasonal paper crafts. Dioramas, mask, buildings...

Two other excellent resource blogs for papercraft models are Paper Forest, Papercraft Paradise, Papercraft World

ETA 2/24/08: Another page I found through Darthverso on my del.ici.ous network is a review of some of the the best papercraft toys. My eyes were popping out of my head. 100 Free Paper Models and Toys

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Comments

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[info]a_single_dream wrote:
Feb. 18th, 2008 12:00 pm (UTC)
Oh, thank you so much for giving me a new obsession. LOL Those are so awesome. I collect paper dolls. I especially like the ones that you can color in yourself. I suppose I'll never grow up. ;)
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[info]snuffykin wrote:
Feb. 18th, 2008 10:55 pm (UTC)
Yer so welcome! (sneaky laugh) I like looking at paper dolls, too. Have you seen the historical ones by Tom Tierney?
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[info]a_single_dream wrote:
Feb. 18th, 2008 05:24 pm (UTC)
http://www.sonicteam.com/chao/en/gift_papercraft_menu.html

A few cute things here.

And here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/acCategoryAll?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&extcat=toysstickerspuzzles&page=acCategoryAll&

The one papercraft community on LJ that I saw is sadly no longer active. :\


Edited at 2008-02-18 07:50 pm (UTC)
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[info]snuffykin wrote:
Feb. 18th, 2008 10:59 pm (UTC)
Oooh, that first link with the karate tournament game! Ahhaha! People are so clever with paper. Thanks for the links. I've got to get the color inks working on my printer NOW! You could start a new comm? Maybe there's a Flickr photo sharing comm. Will go looksee.
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[info]hopefullytrying wrote:
Feb. 18th, 2008 08:12 pm (UTC)
wow!
That is sooo cool.
Opens up a whole new world of obsessing over a new hobby!!! LOL!!!!
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[info]snuffykin wrote:
Feb. 18th, 2008 11:02 pm (UTC)
Great! I love infecting people with new hobbies! Heh, heh! I daydream about making my own pop-up book. :)
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(Anonymous) wrote:
Feb. 21st, 2008 01:46 am (UTC)
Paper dolls
Thanks for the great links. If you like paper dolls, you should check out Legacy Designs Paper Dolls http://www.paperdolls.com/ for some really beautiful ones.
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