Pop Culture Paper Toy Tubes

Designer and animator Eduardo Souzacampus has created a delightful series of simple paper toys which he calls "Tubeland". Each of the toys is assembled by rolling a single piece of paper into a tube, then gluing it in place. Pictured above are the paper toys representing Darth Vader, Carmen Miranda, and Nintendo's Mario. A wide range of pop culture characters are available including historical figures (Da Vinci, Mozart, etc), cartoon characters (Betty Boop, Flintstones, etc), and soccer players (Pele, Ronaldo Fenomeno). One of my personal favs is the Heath Ledger Joker paper toy. All 24 of the Tubeland paper toys may be downloaded here.

Sonic the Hedgehog Papercraft

Here's a Sonic the Hedgehog papercraft that was designed from scratch (no use of 3D models from video games here ^^). This paper Sonic was created by deviantARTist cheetor182 for a class at school. A download of the template for the paper model is available here.

Tron Legacy Papercraft: Clu Identity Disc

I have finished my third Tron: Legacy papercraft. This is the identity disc weapon of Clu, the main bad guy in the movie. Clu is the only character in the movie to have a dark yellow color highlighting his costume and identity disc. The 1:1 scale template for Clu's disc may be downloaded here. Looking ahead, I have gotten several requests to do Kevin Flynn's white identity disc, but I don't know if I can produce a papercraft version that will do it justice. We shall see... just don't hold your breath. ^^

Uncanny X-Men Paper Toys

Paper toy designer Luis Renato Kriegel has created a super cool set of X-Men paper toys based Brian Castleforte's Headkase paper toy template. Pictured above (left to right) are paper toys of Cyclops, Emma Frost (White Queen), Beast, Wolverine, Colossus, Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) and the alien dragon, Lockheed. Printable templates of each character are available in the "Free Papertoys" section of Kriegel's website. Scroll through the images to get to the goods.

UPDATE 12/14/24: Sorry, Kriegel is no longer offering these papertoys. :(

Thor Movie Papercraft: Mjolnir

In Marvel Comics' new Thor movie, the god of thunder's war hammer Mjolnir is given a more ornate look than the comic book version of the weapon. My friend George at the Behold the Geek! blog took it upon himself to create a full scale paper model of the movie version of the hammer. George based the construction of his hammer on my own 1:1 scale Mjolnir papercraft. The template for the movie Mjolnir is available here. Note: 11x17 size paper or cardstock is required to build the hammer full size.

Helicopter Papercraft: AH-64 Apache

The AH-64 Apache attack helicopter is used by the militaries of several nations around the world. This 1:72 scale paper model of the Apache comes in two color schemes. The first scheme is the woodland camouflage used by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF). The second scheme is the standard olive drab color used by the US Army. Templates and detailed instructions by Japanese papercraft designer Kushimaru may be downloaded here.

KH2 Papercraft: Port Royal Treasure Chest

This is my papercraft treasure chest offering for the month of May. It is the fourth chest in my ongoing series. As you may know, each area in the Kingdom Hearts 2 video game is based on a different Disney movie. This treasure chest is located in the Port Royal area of the game which is based on the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Your ally in that area of the game is none other than Captain Jack Sparrow! The template for the Port Royal treasure chest may be downloaded here.

Koi Origami

These koi fish by origami artist Sipho Mabona have lots of decorative possibilities. In the photo, several different colors of the koi are suspended from wires to give them the appearance of swimming in a pond. Folding the koi is relatively easy. An excellent stop motion video here by Mabona shows how the origami fish are each folded from a single square of paper.

Line Art Rabbit Paper Toy

Some papercraft can begin to approach fine art status. This line art rabbit paper toy might be considered one such example. Created by artist Cherdpong Sikkhajareon, the rabbit is covered with ink line work inspired by certain types of Thai art. A free template for the paper toy is available here.

Greek Island Church Paper Model

Pepachal has added to their collection of paper models of ruined churches. First in the series was an Irish stone church, followed by an English brick church, and now we have a whitewashed Greek church. I did some research and it appears that this model is based on a cemetery church near the village of Apiranthos on the island of Naxos. The PDF template for this church may be downloaded here.