Tuesday, August 27, 2013

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!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

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!



Monday, August 19, 2013

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!


Sunday, August 18, 2013

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!


Sunday, August 11, 2013

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: