Toro Papercraft

I'm a bit late on this one, but Toro (井上トロ) aka. Sony Cat, Sony Computer Entertainment's cute and lovable fictional character celebrated it's birthday last May 6. And with that celebration they've put up an official papercraft model for it, there's a lot of other good versions floating around the net, but this one is probably the best one to date.

For those in the dark, you've probably seen Toro at some point in your life but you might have thought it was a Hello Kitty knock-off. It's an anthropomorphic white cat with an over-size head, triangular ears, rectangular body, and a variety of facial expressions. It first came to life way back in 1999 as a video game character in the game Doko Demo Issyo ("Together Everywhere") for the PocketStation, if you missed that one because it was ages ago, another version of the game was released for the PSP back in 2004. You can browse around their web site (Japanese) for some fun flash games, wallpapers, and some other good stuff related to Toro or you can check out the links below to go straight to the Toro papercraft model. Have fun kids.

Toro Papercraft [Dokodemoissyo]
Toro Papercraft [via Mediafire]

Xbox 360 Papercraft + HD-DVD

So, with E3 winding down today, I've ended up with a deluge of downloaded game demos, trailers (in HD), and some themes - I've pretty much downloaded everything in the marketplace that's E3 '07 related, my XB360 is nearing full capacity. I've started to test out some of the demos so I could start deleting them afterwards, one game in particular that I've been playing over and over was Blue Dragon (ブルードラゴン), designed by Final Fantasy creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi. After about four hours of repeatedly playing the demo, my XB360 croaked, and gave me the very infamous RROD. Luckily Microsoft recently extended the warranty on it by 3 years, so I'll be missing it for a few days.



In relation to my sad story, here's an Xbox 360 papercraft from Sonicscape / Pimpinthe36o/Paperartgadgets blog, I did the base model only but you can check out their site for more creative designs, also included is the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player. Have fun.

Xbox 360 Papercraft [Pimpinthe360]
Xbox 360 HD-DVD Papercraft [via Box.net]

Famicom Papercraft

The Famicom, also known as the Nintendo Family Computer, was one of the earlier consoles that reminds me of my childhood spending long hours with my dad and my brother playing Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Twin Bee, 1942, Lode Runner, Contra, and many more. It's still fresh in my memory, the days when we fight over who gets the first controller, (sigh), those were the days. Ok, enough of my reminiscing, here's a Famicom papercraft model from dfnt.net, quite simple to build, it's boxy so it's pretty straight forward. Cut, score, fold, and glue then wait for that induced feeling of nostalgia.

Famicom Papercraft [dfnt]

Lassie Papercraft

Considered by many as probably the "World Most Famous Dog", Lassie has put the Collie to the top of the popularity chart for years and has associated their breed with quality traits such as loyalty, courage, intelligence, and also being protective and kid/family friendly. The Lassie character came to life way back in 1938 from a short story by Eric Knight titled "Lassie Come Home". The book was an overnight sensation and paved way for a movie of the same name which first featured Lassie's mug for the first time on film (1943). You can learn a lot more of Lassie's history by going to their official site.

This Lassie papercraft model is a very easy one, simple cutting, a few glue tabs here and there and your done. If you've been wanting to do papercrafts but got intimated by some of the more intricate or detailed models you've seen around the net, this is a good model to start with that you can actually finish within a few minutes or so.

Lassie [Download]

Davinci Code Papercraft Cryptex

Are you a fan of Dan Brown? you know, the guy that wrote the bestselling novel "Angels and Demons" and more recently the very controversial "The Davinci Code"? Are you interested in cryptography, keys, codes? Today we have the papercraft model (replica) of Dan Browns' "cryptex", which was mentioned in his book and also used in the blockbuster movie of the same name starring Tom Hanks.

"The word cryptex is a neologism coined by the author Dan Brown for his 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code, denoting a portable vault used to hide secret messages. It is a combination of the words cryptology and codex; "an apt title for this device" since it uses "the science of cryptology to protect information written on the contained scroll or codex" – although actually a "codex" is a term for early forms of what would now be called a "book", as opposed to a rolled "scroll". It is claimed in the novel that the original design came from the secret diaries of Leonardo da Vinci. In reality, there is no record of him having designed such a device". - wikipedia

This should keep you busy for the week, have a safe and fun 4th of July.

Update: Some naughty people have edited the version that we've shown before but now we've confirmed that this papercraft model was designed by Deutsch papercrafter Skubu and he has presented us with a better quality version, in other words, the original pattern. Dankt Skubu!

Davinci Code Papercraft Cryptex [via mediafire]

Mr. Gruff Papercraft

"Atheism, as a philosophical view, is the position that either affirms the nonexistence of gods or rejects theism. When defined more broadly, atheism is the absence of belief in deities, alternatively called nontheism. Although atheists are commonly assumed to be irreligious, some religions, such as Buddhism, have been characterized as atheistic."

Source: Wikipedia

From the Christian? site objectiveministries.org comes this simple papercraft model aptly named Mr. Gruff the Atheist Goat, designed by Mr. Kutsushima of the Happy Origami Ministry in Japan. This model is very much the same design and format as the Jesus papercraft that we've posted before. The head and arms still move, but now, this one is holding a mug - you can also check out some other models on their site like Ruby the Lioness, Lambuel, and many more.

Mr. Gruff [Download]
Objective: Ministries [Site]
Mr. Kutsushima [Site]

Frog Papercraft

Nothing much going on today, just waiting for winter to come, this Texas heat is unbearable. Here's one for you, a realistic looking frog from our friend Keiji Kawaguchi at Raspera.com, pretty much every papercraft model in their site has good form, very easy to build, and looks realistic - none of that blocky effect that you hate so much. Raspera requires membership, which will set you about 30 bones, I think it's worth it for all those models. There's also some samples to give you a taste of his work - a chameleon, a golden retriever, and a booby. Have Fun!

Realistic Frog Papercraft [via Mediafire]
Raspera [Site]

Felis Catus Papercraft

Here's a new one for the feline lovers out there, it's a cute papercraft cat from epark.co.jp - is currently being hosted at Yahoo Kids Japan along with other easy papercraft models. They have different kinds of animals, vehicles, and buildings that will surely keep your kids busy this summer. To the cat lovers, I think this post should balance out the dog vs. cat thing that you've been e-mailing me.

To those who've requested the Gock/Magock chokipeta papercraft, I'm still looking for it, I know I've saved it before and I've also made a print/scan copy of it for my archives. I did all those while I was still living in Cali and hopefully it wasn't lost when I moved here to H-town.

Also, I'd like to thank our Korean friend, Snake, for the Wind Waker Link papercraft he sent in, and if you could please send the password to the Tetra file, Hangul is really not my forte :)

Cat Papercraft [Download]

Papiroflexia

Papiroflexia (Spanish for "Origami") is the animated tale of Fred, a skillful paper folder who could shape the world with his hands.

Created by Joaquin Baldwin at the UCLA Animation Workshop, 2007. Original Score written by Nick Fevola.

Papiroflexia [Site]

The Uphill Roller

Today we'll be having a papercraft automata model of a mechanical paradox that was first presented in 1694 through a published recreational volume called "Pleasure With Profit". You may know it by familiar names such as, the Uphill Roller or Double Cone Incline. In it we have a set of shapes which is comprised of a cylinder, a double cone, and an inclined plane. First we tested the cylinder, and it rolled down the incline, just as gravity would dictate. But when we put the double cone on the bottom of the incline, it seems to defy the rule of gravity and it actually rolls up. This kind of thing might look magical to the untrained, but for those of you who where present in class when this was taught or discussed, then you already know the simple explanation to it.

Ok, I'll try to explain it as easy as can be, this apparent paradox is explained by demonstrating the property of the center of gravity of bodies, which tends naturally to move downward. Since the rails diverge, the center of gravity of the double cone, placed on the axis of rotation at the maximum diameter of the device, does not rise when the entire body seems to move up; on the contrary, the center of gravity descends. For a more detailed and better explanation, with video and trigonometry equations - check this page. And here's the papercraft automata version, from our good friend at paperpino.net

Anti-Gravity Double Cone [Download]
Thanks to Cliffy for creating the short video.