Apex Band Carnival

Apex Band Carnival was a pretty cool day! Paper Poseables was invited to bring Poplocks toys and host an arts and crafts table for anybody to walk up and start building. This was our first outdoor event and was quite exciting.

Sharebot was there too, allowing builders to take photos so we could share on the net later. You can check out the flickr gallery of some of the photos right here.

Thanks again to Joe Diver for helping prepare and run the table. Also thanks to Pete Soper and Terri Pisasecki for inviting me to participate at the carnival. I'll see everybody there next year!

Skorpod

Skorpod has emerged from the most fearsome of robotic Netroid desert environments... to be downloaded and printed inside your home!

Phase Bots Wave 2

Phase Bots are James Fritzler's loving tribute to our favorite transforming robots. Now the population of these robots are doubled with Wave 2 of the Phasebots. The basic design of these bots is also pushed to the limit, with all new transformed vehicle shapes -- A-Train has 2 vehicle modes, train and starship!

Swave, A-Train, and S-Scream are here and ready to be built. You can download these remarkable paper toys from the Phasebot Google+ page!

Poplocks Snakebot

Snakebot is back and is now easier to make! Poplock Snakebot is a single template that you print over and over again to make longer and longer snakes!

Click "Read More" to see how to download, cut-out, and assemble Poplock Snakebot!

Poplocks Community on Google+

POPLOCKS PAPERCRAFT on Google Plus

Visit the Poplocks Papercraft Community on Google Plus to see and share more about Poplocks toys, designs, how-tos, or just talk. It is a publicly view-able message space, but in order to post, you will need to to be a Google Plus user and to sign up for posting privileges.

I'll be sharing images of prototypes and other sneak peeks before they get released here on the blog. Posts like this:

If you have something fun to share, or just want to see more ideas, give the community a quick visit!

Poplocks Pre-Cuts

While showing off Poplocks at recent events I've had people ask me if they could purchase some pre-cut pieces to take home. I am now offering Poplocks Pre-Cuts to fulfill these requests!

Each pack contains 10 sheets:

5 sheets of Basic Shapes (13 pieces on each sheet)
3 sheets of Extra Shapes (20 parts on each sheet)
1 sheet of 128 Poplocks (good for 64 strong connections)

Right now, there are single-color packs and a random rainbow pack. Each pack contains enough parts to build many small toys or 2-3 larger toys. This pack saves you roughly 90 minutes of hand-cutting time for the same number of print-at-home Poplocks pieces.

Check out my shop at paperposeables.bigcartel.com!

Sharebot

Sharebot is a photo-taking mini computer, powered by a Rasperberry Pi and a Raspberry Pi camera and assembled and programmed by my friend Joe Diver. We've taken Sharebot to Engineer's Day at the Durham Museum of Life and Science and the Burlington Mini Maker Faire. We let parents and children take pictures of themselves or their Poplock creations and the pictures are then shared on a flickr album for everybody to see!

One of the coolest user features is that the picture-taking is triggered with a Wii Remote. The Raspberry Pi receives Wii Remote input using a Bluetooth adapter and an open-source program call CWiid.

See the pictures Sharebot took at the Burlington Mini Maker Faire! Check out the album.

Some custom creations photographed by Sharebot!

We will be bringing the Sharebot to SPARKcon in Raleigh on Sunday Sept 15th. More info on which tent we will be in soon!

Phase Bots

My friend James Fritzler is the first to make custom art for my new un-released "blank" paper toy form. Phase Bots are some very clever usage of Poplocks to make paper toys that quickly change from robot to vehicle. These are, of course, tributes to the G1 Transformers we both grew up with, though they are emblazoned with a stylish "PH-B" sigil and bear non-trademarked names.

If you'd like to download and print and make your own Phase Bots, visit The Phase Bots Google+ page and get started!

Burlington Mini Maker Faire

Just this Saturday August 17th, at the Holly Hill Mall in Burlington, NC... a group of my friends and myself set up tables to represent Splat Space, Durham's hacker space! We had three activities geared towards kids:

• Squishy Circuits - using dough to easily connect electronic parts!
• Sharebot - A Raspberry PI computer and camera that takes pictures using a Nintendo Wii Remote.
• Poplocks - Children build robots and plant creatures and more selecting from piles of parts!

The Sharebot Mini Photo Booth - as seen
at the Museum of Life and Science 

Children and parents sat down to build and then take pictures of their creations with Sharebot. More on Sharebot in the next post!

Patrick keeping the parts piles organized while builders create!

Joe Diver, Patrick Craig and Robben Medlin helped out at the table - at times doubling and tripling our power to demonstrate Poplocks building techniques!

• The Times News photographer, Scott Muthersbaugh, took some great photos of the event - two of them from the Poplocks table with me demonstrating how to build the characters.

• The Alamance Makers Guild (host of the mini-Maker Faire) have a photo album showing how easy it was to be overwhelmed by the creativity of so many makers!

• Last but not least (and to be featured in the next post), the pictures taken by users of Sharebot in a convenient flickr album. If you brought your Poplock creation over and took a picture, find it and share it with your friends and family! 

It was seriously super fun seeing what everyone wanted to build! If you are looking for more Poplocks-making fun at a location near you, I'll have a tent at SparkCON in Raleigh, Sept 14th and 15th.

You can also register for the "Let's Make Paper Toys" workshop at the Durham Arts Council. The workshops are from 4:30 - 6:00 pm, Sept 17th, Oct 15th, Nov 12th and Dec 10th. Choose Fall 2013 for the Program Group, "Josh Buczynski" as the Instructor, then search and select!

Essential Hole Punch

The Marvy Uchida 5/8" Hole Punch will make your Poplocks paper crafting much more enjoyable.

If you are interested in printing and cutting out many of the paper toys from Paper Poseables, a 5/8" hole punch is something you will absolutely need!

Right now, the best way to buy these hole punches is direct from www.uchida.com. Each punch is $6.00 + shipping.

Read on for more information about these essential Poplocks tools!

Engineer's Day

Yesterday, I presented a Poplocks building activity at the Life and Science Museum in Durham, NC. It was a hit! Children and their parents could start building with Poplocks, either following guided instructions or by building on their own! Joe Diver helped present the toys and led building activities for half of the children when the table work-space became shoulder-to-shoulder. Thanks, Joe! Thanks also to Splat Space, Durham's hacker space, for providing space and help during the show.

The feedback was tremendous! Thank you everybody for your kind words, excitement, and your playful attitudes!

I'll be doing this again next Saturday, August 17th at the Burlington Mini Maker Faire in Burlington, NC.

Check out http://burlingtonminimakerfaire.com for more info.

Here are just a few of the things children and parents built during the day:

Frogtastic Time

Just this past week, I was fortunate enough to again present my paper toys to a number of young artists at the Durham Arts Council. This was during the DAC's daily summer afternoon artist camp. Thirty-five campers got pre-cut patterns for a Poplocks froggy toy, built them, and then went crazy with the decorations!

When I've run similar sessions, I was always surprised by the creativity that wells up in such a short time. This time around I saw frogs hopping, flying and being rebuilt into flashier creatures. One young lady wondered if I had brought a glue stick... for sticking some spots onto her frog's legs. Ten minutes later, there were so many other frogs that were totally transformed! So yeah, a crazy good time!

Another guest artist visit will be on August 6th with a new bat paper toy. All of the pieces are already cut out and ready to be assembled - I can't wait to see how these bats are built!

Check out some of these sweet poses! So many characters!

Cobrok

Another Netroid sidewinds onto the scene! Cobrok is a great, coiled snake toy by James Fritzler. With a massive hood, menacing rattle tail and even some mythically-inspired wings, this snake provides for a wide variety of play!

Visit Netroid Universe to download your own Cobrok PDF pattern for printing and making your own Cobrok paper toy.

Poplocks Free Forms Extra Shapes

Click to Download!

Here is a new PDF page of Poplocks "Free Forms" to download and print and cut out! On this page, you'll find simple part outlines useful for adding some details to your creations. It would be easy to use these parts to accentuate a robot character, but birds and other flying things are easy to make too!

"Caaooo-kookoo!"

"SQWAARK!:

►DOWNLOAD Poplocks Free Forms Extra Forms PDF (Letter and A4)

Gallery 007

Seth's Super Combiner - a mix of parts from 3 bots!

Jame's Chompy Crew (from "Build Your Own Paper Robots") are ready to be deployed!

James and his son figured out that Gupp-e 2.0 is capable of flight! I had no idea!

Thanks Seth and James for pics of these awesome builds!

Ango

Arms in the air, people! Ango just busted in, ready to transform the way you play with paper! James Fritzler has produced this incredible transforming paper toy, and has again made Poplocks do new and interesting things! Ango's head can be tucked down into his torso (like a turtle). Position the arms and legs just right to put him into flight mode.

Check out the Netroids Universe to download your PDF copy of Ango. Check out the Ango photo gallery to see what this bot can do!

Gupp-E 2.0

Gupp-E 2.0 is now available in my online store! Gupp-E 2.0 is a revision of my first released Poplock toy and is now easier to make and more fun to play with! For now, it is available as a PDF file for you to print and assemble.

Downloadable PDF emailed to you - great if you like to "DIY"

The PDF can be printed on US Letter or A4 paper sizes. Use of a 5/8" hole punch is highly recommended, otherwise use a craft knife to carefully cut out the holes on each piece.

Glue or double-sided tape is needed to complete Gupp-E's hands.

Instructions for making your own Gupp-E are right here:

Click to Download Instructions (2 MB)

Lago

Netroids are evolving! One day, you're a simple bionic rabbit. The next day, you're flying between planetary orbits in a tricked out spaceship... that you transformed into!!! Lago is the exceptional, new Netroid Universe toy by James Fritzler with the ability to go from rabbit mode to sleek spaceship. Click on the pictures above to go and download the pattern to print out and make your own Lago!

Gupp-E Teaser 2

Gupp-E has gotten a significant upgrade -- move-able eyes! Gupp-E will be available soon as a downloadable PDF and as a pre-cut kit set, both for sale at my online webbe shoppe.

Drago

An incredible new creature from the Netroids Universe! Drago is a beast of a paper Poplock toy with massive amounts of pose-ability and play-ability! Check out some more great poses on jimbox31's Netroids Universe site and download your own copy of Drago!

Netroids Universe

Gupp-E Teaser

Gupp-E is getting a  re-release reboot! My first Poplock Toy, Gupp-E is now crammed onto 2 pieces of card stock, has more move-able parts and is easier to make. More pics and info coming soon!

CMP-S Build 01

I was delighted to find this image while browsing Google image search. Ichiro Miyazawa and his son built their own CMP-S toys! These two bots look like they have just returned from creating some mischief, laughing about it on the way back to their battery charging stations. Thanks Ichiro!

Poplocks CMP-S

This is the biggest Poplocks toy yet released, CMP-S (Compass), the adventurer robot! A little over 8.5 inches tall! Made with parts from 4 pages of card stock. Extra poseable and full of emotive quality. Click "Read More" below to download and learn how to build your own E-MOS CMP-S!

Netroids Universe

James Fritzler has, in a surprisingly short amount of time, created his own universe - the Netroid Universe! 

Download and make your own fantastic creatures to print, cut out, and assemble using Poplocks. In addition to making Poplocks do things I haven't seen before, Netroids are full of new techniques for glue-lessly joining paper. Check out the waist connection on Stall and Stego for instance!

Go visit the Netroid Universe and start building your own piece of it!