Saturday, September 8, 2012

Super Combiners - SERIES 2!


IT IS HERE! All four of the Series 2 Super Combiners are ready for their PDF debut! Pictured below is the fourth member of the combiner crew, GRP-S (Grips). Click Read More to see more details and to see how to acquire these bot patterns!


Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Vortex Flyer


Here is a very simple flying toy. Just like with the classic fold-and-tape paper airplane design it is based on, this simple flying ring is thrown straight ahead and given a little spin.

You don't need to throw it hard, and you don't need to spin it too fast. A gentle forward throw will make the vortex flyer travel in a straight line more than 12 feet (3.65 meters)! This paper toy is light enough for safe, indoor play.

Build this really easy paper toy with pieces from the free Poplocks Free-forms template and the free Page of Poplocks.

Click Read More to see the instructions.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

WE-LE - Super Combiner


And here's SK-8.... oh wait a minute... this is a very similar but completely different little robot! It's WE-LE ("wheelie"), the robot who likes to dance on it's four wheel/legs and beep out songs it makes up on the fly. Maybe there is a limit to how bright and cheery a robot should be.

WE-LE will be the third robot in the second Super Combiners set. Number 4 is coming up soon!

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Free Forms - Poplocks Toy Kit




Poplocks Free Forms are a very simple set of shapes that can turn paper into all types of fun toys! Download the PDF - print out the sheets you want on thick card stock - cut out the parts and connect them with Poplocks to create toys that are easy to assemble and customize! Keep checking this blog for new toy ideas made with Free-Forms!

An easy helicopter 

Click here or "Read More" to download the Free Forms PDF and for detailed instructions!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Paper Robots by James Ronald Lo


James has featured my paper toy book on his website... so it's time I returned the favor! "Construct Your Own Paper Robots" just came out a few months back, and it's packed with 35 cute die-cut paper robots ready for assembly - just use glue! 

All of the robots are made from a single piece of paper. Some even have special features - movable mouths, stacking, or limbs that can be re-positioned.

Check out his book (with links to buy) on his website at Paper Toy Adventures.

Below are my two favorite robots from the book, but as with "Papertoy Monsters", all of them are worth building!

PIKO

RANDY

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Page of Poplocks - Free




A slimmer Poplock


Do you need a bunch of Poplocks, now? Print out these pages of Poplocks Slims and get your scissors cutting! You can choose the basic circle-pattern or use the blank design, all in the same PDF.

Print these on US Letter or A4 paper sizes -- no re-sizing necessary! The pages are black and white line art only, so print these out on color card stock, or open the PDFs in your favorite, compatible vector art program to make your own Poplock patterns.

Poplocks can actually have different shapes. These slimmer Poplocks work just as well as the previous design. More can fit on a page now! These sheets of Poplocks are designed to be easier to cut out too!


► DOWNLOAD - Poplocks Sheet - Letter/A4 PDF (159 KB)

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Pocobot Birthday Surprise



Paper crafting friends are great! They don't need to go to the store to get you a birthday card. Instead, they make even cooler cards like this one above! Tracey knew her friend Susan loves robots, so she included both of my Pocobots inside of this deluxe birthday card. I am happy that my robots were well-received!

See more of the incredible projects that Tracey does at her blog, Adventures in Papercrafting. Susan's blog is also chock-full of paper crafty goodness at Susan Blue Robot.

Pocobot, Sweet Robo, and the Poplocks Super Combiners make great gifts. One sheet of card stock paper and a little bit of your own time will show you care!

Monday, July 30, 2012

Poplock Freebie - X-PLR and BLOCK RACER!


I am very excited about this latest "Freebie" release! The Block Racer is my first PopLocks vehicle and I managed to fit all of it and a Face Block driver (X-PLR or "Explore") onto one sheet of card stock! As you can see above, the racer vehicle looks very nice when two or more colors are used. Print on colored card stock, 65lb. or heavier for the best results!

One other thing to note - the Poplocks on this sheet are slimmer, but they still work just as great as the wider-flapped version. Slim Poplocks allow more, larger parts to fit on the page!

Click "Read More" to grab this PDF from the Download Link and also see what's up when Face Blocks get their race on!

Sunday, July 15, 2012

RK-ND the Spider Bot



Well now, the studio is back in action! Out pops another bot! RK-ND (rachnid), a Series 2 Poplocks Super Combiner and it will be available for purchase soon, along with the other new Super Combiners. Even before that happens, you will see another surprising Face Block Freebie release. Stay tuned!

Saturday, June 23, 2012

ZP-R - Free Poplock Toy


It's been a while, but here's the first of four new Poplock Super Combiner Series 2 bots. ZP-R (zipper) has giant, compound eyes and is very swooshable when you fold back the wings.

In a week or two, I'll have a photo of the next one up, and each of the last two will show up shortly after. In the meantime, click on the link below to get ZP-R for free! Series 2 will have a couple of pages of bonuses as well, wait till you see!

DOWNLOAD!


Click (read more) to see the instructions:

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Poplock Freebies - 03


Fresh off the assembly line, it's the Poplock Freebie pack, number 3! This one-page set features two new Face Blocks with two new sets of legs and both leg sets are easily used to augment the details of larger robots from the Super Combiners Series 1 set.

Print out these characters on thick card stock. I used 65 lb. color card stock for these bots, but you can use plain, white card stock too. Easier to use markers or pencils to color those bots!

DOWNLOAD!


Click (read more) to see the instructions:

Thursday, June 7, 2012

R-MZ Three Page Build


This is Rn-dR (Run-deer), my first Super Combiners 3-page build. I combined 2 orange and 1 yellow R-MZ bots to make this long-legged loper. Another feature that keeps this creature standing tall - a single foot/antenna piece acts as a support strut between each set of legs. This gives Rn-dR a springy way to stay upright. Zoom in on the pic above to see the strut located between the front legs!
Rn-dR has more than a little skill in balancing.
Okay, that's enough showing off now. Can you do anything  useful?
The Face Blocks enjoy a quick mode of transportation. 

Get a copy of the Poplocks Super Combiners Series 1 collection and you can make your own Rn-dR, or try to make something even bigger! You can purchase and download these templates by clicking the button below. You get four robot templates plus a page of bonus parts! Print out as many as you can make!


Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Gallery 006

Even more images from Susan Blue Robot! I am completely delighted by the work she has done on these bots. Be sure to visit her blog to check out more Poplocks pics and to see all of her other fine creations!

Modified R-MZ and HV-R models
Microbot! From "Build Your Own Paper Robots"


Jim Camenga found a most interesting way to capture every angle of his Gupp-E toy! I want my next apartment to have all walls with mirrors like this!

Gupp-E in the dazzling spotlight

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Poplock Freebies - 02


Here comes the second set of freebie Face Blocks! More parts are packed on this sheet, giving each Face Block four poseable feet! These blocks are, again, based on the RM-Z template from Super Combiners Series 1

This PDF is seriously PACKED with parts, but don't worry, all of the parts are margined to print out on US Letter or A4 sizes of paper.

Use two feet together to make a gripping claw for larger bots!

DOWNLOAD!


Click (read more) to see the instructions:

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Gallery 005


TRON-inspired!


Susan BlueRobot has even more pics of her 2-PH builds! Marker, Embossing and Cutting tools were programmed to shape and remove these forms from card stock. It's exciting to see these patterns modified so much! Visit Susan's blog to see all of her other varied paper creations. More to post soon!

Hand-decorated!


Monday, May 28, 2012

Gallery 004

Susan BlueRobot does some very awesome papercrafting. Check out her blog in my Paper Toy Links below - she is a great experimenter and tries out all sorts of advanced techniques.


Susan turned my Pocobot pattern into a machine cuttable pattern and printed, scored, and cut it out on her Zing cutter/plotter! Both Pocobots are custom colored and patterned and have cool 3d elements making up their faces! I love it! I can't wait to see more.


You can see more on Susan BlueRobot's blog. If you use Inkscape to design your patterns, you are going to find lots of inspiring projects and tutorials!

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Poplock Freebies - 01


More free Poplocks toys for you to download, print and build! This is the Face Blocks 01 set, and it's pretty simple - you get parts for building two blocky faces. The construction is different from the body block on 2-PH as these blocks are made with two pieces. 

Why two pieces per body block?  
  • It may be easier to cut out and make (comments are welcome!)
  • More parts can more easily fit on a single page!
  • Build body blocks made with two colors!
DOWNLOAD!


Click (read more) to see the instructions:

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Super-Combiners Double Arms


With the release of the Poplocks Super Combiners PDF (only $2!), there's more to build now! And lookee here, it's another double build - this time, with the R-MZ paper toy.

Normally, he's a pretty stand-up guy, but when you combine two R-MZ (Arms) and put on their eye mask, they assume the role of R-MND-0 (Armando), the annoying practical-joke-playing robot that shows up at parties uninvited.

R-MND-0 can be a real pest. He sneeks up on his monocular brethern and surprises them with a hug. Sadly, R-MND-0 isn't programmed to be aware of personal space and doesn't have appropriate force sensors on his arms... the unexpected can and does occur.

You can print out and build your own R-MZ Poplock bots and combine them to make your own R-MND-0! For only $2 gets you all four Series 1 Super Combiner bots plus a bonus page of parts. Check out the details by clicking on the icon below. What can you build?

Rob Ives - Posing Dinosaurs!

Rob Ives, famed paper engineer and automata designer, has put his tools to work making dinosaurs of a poseable nature. Check out these beasties here -Tyranosaurus Paper Toy - and here - Apatosaurus Paper Toy !



These dinos are really cute and super poseable! I'm glad I have a membership to Rob's downloadable projects! Get yourself a membership too!

Friday, May 25, 2012

Poplocks Super Combiners - Buy & Download!


There's a new way for you to get some Poplock toys onto your desktops -- $2.00 USD gets you a template file with 5 pages of parts:
  • 4 pages of Poplocks Super Combiners paper toys: 2-PH, HV-R, SK-8 and RM-Z
  • a bonus pages of parts including 2 rotating connectors and 4 cube connector bars.
I'll email the PDF file to you soon after you order. Once this operation gets bigger, automated downloads will become the standard.

I recommend using 65lb. or heavier colored card stock. You can buy this at your local craft store or office supply store.

Print out as many as you want! Make super combiner bots as BIG as you want!






Saturday, May 19, 2012

Poplocks Video Review



Adam was nice enough to post a review of my Poplocks paper toys. You can download and print out the same toy templates Adam has made from this post - First Free Poplock Toy!

This is the first video product review of a toy I've made and it's a great thrill to see the Poplocks demonstrated and explained! Great job, Adam - I think you covered everything!


One fair criticism that is brought up - cutting out all of the holes can be really annoying. I make it way less annoying by using a MARVY Uchida 5/8 inch craft punch, but it's getting very hard to find this particular size in stores. For $6 (+ shipping) direct from the manufacturer I highly recommend getting one - it's a great time-saver! It has a cutting edge depth of ~3/8" so it can reach all of the holes for the Super Combiners poplock toys. Cro-Bolt and Gupp-E have larger body boxes, and those holes are too far inward for this hole puncher.

Another crit, yes... shipping pre-printed/pre-cut Poplock toys internationally is way expensive. I will be setting up a digital download store for Poplock patterns next week - Poplocks Super Combiners Series 1 will be $2.00 for 4 toy templates. Series 2 will follow as I get more free time (the bodies are done and just need some new decoration)

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Noslon - Poplock Combiner

"Sniff, Sniff"
 It's another Toof Combiner toy - Noslon has a giant sensory apparatus not unlike a nose, used for detecting all sorts of things. As you can see though, no mouth! I just need to make a small extender piece that allows the mouth to sit comfortably between two cubes. Isn't it interesting how a foot can become a nose, just because of where it's placed? Surprised me too!

Next up, a multi-Toof build using three Toofs! Remember, this is a toy you can download and print out as many times as you like! Why stop at three?
"Ya smell sumtin dere, Nosey?"

Friday, April 27, 2012

Super Crate Box - Skull Heads

Large Skull Head monsters from the indie game, Super Crate Box by Vlambeer. Each one is just one sheet of paper (fits on US Letter or A4!), and they use elegantly simple rotational pivot tech designed by Alex Gwynne.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Gallery 003

Green Pocobot built by Ken

Ken was awesome enough to post images and reviews of completed paper bots on his blog, SuperMega.tk. There are two firsts here: the first image of a Chompy Bot to appear on the web and also, the first critiques of my models. Thank you for both, Ken!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Super Combiners


When Alexander Gwynne and I developed Poplocks, this is one of the concepts we started with - taking two individually designed models and being able to swap the parts with each other. Here, you can see 2-PH and R-MZ kludged together to create something more... well, "something" for sure.