
When I was a kid, I had a few Star Wars figures, but none of the really cool vehicles like the At-At or the Millennium Falcon. So, seeing these paper models online sent a little thrill through my toy-loving soul. And even better? Like so many of the paper toys out there, they’re free. Free! (Unless you count the printing costs or the hours upon hours of construction time.)
People in the paper toy community are amazingly generous with their talents. Check out this guy who designed paper replicas of the Haunted Mansions at Disney World/Land/Whatever-the-heck-they-call-the-French-one-these-days:

There are also a bunch of artists who are either making their own paper toys or are putting their designs on toys that others have made. Some good sites to check out are Nice Paper Toys, Speakerdog, and Shin Tanaka.


I discovered that last one on a recent episode of Toy Break, a video podcast about designer/art toys. Ah, how I love Toy Break. That could be a whole post on its own. I’m totally addicted to this show, even though it focuses almost completely on vinyl (which I don’t care about at all) and only rarely covers plush (which I care about way too much).
Anyway, this episode of Toy Break is a good introduction to paper toys. If you want to skip right to the relevant part, go to the 10:30 point. And the At-At shows up just before 27:00. (Please note that despite the presence of the word “toy” in the title, this is not a show for kids. There is some swearing and general grown-up snarkiness.)
So, that’s it, you’re all set to go make some toys. Unfortunately, I’m not. I got so fed up with my finicky, ink-guzzling bohemoth of a printer that I gave it to Goodwill. Hmph.
But there’s some good news for the printerless. There are a couple books of paper toys out there that look yummy. Including one by Marilyn Scott-Waters, whose lovely site also includes free downloads.
And I’ve picked up a fair number of old ones at library book sales (stockpiling against the day the Officially Awesome Kid can be trusted with scissors.)
P.S. to my Muppet pals: With a few alterations to this King Kong model, you could build yourself a fine Gorilla Detector.
