I should own a Dalek. A real one. A real BBC Dalek. Let me explain, when I was a youngster I "won" a competition to name a Dalek. I called it "Deckie". But instead of sending me a "real Dalek", they sent me an excuse, and a paper Dalek. What today would be called a papercraft Dalek. What a rip-off. It probably scarred me for life.
Of course I'd love to still have my papercraft Dalek today, but it didn't last very long. It was ruined almost immediatly, you see I had to try to stick my cut-out Dalek to cardboard, and we had crap cardboard, and no glue, so my mother made me use Treacle to glue it to the cardboard, and it all ended up a tear-soaked, sticky, mess.
So, anyway, it's all water under the bridge now, and I hardly think about Deckie the Dalek; much. Now, if you've seen my Rod McKie papercraft cut-out and keep doll, you'll know I do have an affection for these things. I'm a papercraft fan. I am, and it's all I can do to stop myself cutting up my Chris Ware books, believe me. Papercraft sculptures really add to a publication, don't you think? I think they do. I'm not saying he did, but my cousin Allen might have cut out all the papercraft girls that came with the Bunty Comic, and he might well have practised his counselling skills on them. There's a thought - and you thought they weren't practical...
Today's papercraft models are much better than those old ones, much more sophisticated and that's why, despite the fact that you can knock up a model on Maya or Lightwave or Rhino or Max, today, paper consctructions still command a lot of respect in the toy and game designing communities, and they are so popular with cartoonists and illustrators.
Japan, the home of Origami (oru and kami)leads the way, of course, with giant robot sculptures and an endless amount of practical and impractical designs, from cartoonists and illustrators and even from companies like Yamaha, Canon, Honda, and Toyota.
Of course I'd love to still have my papercraft Dalek today, but it didn't last very long. It was ruined almost immediatly, you see I had to try to stick my cut-out Dalek to cardboard, and we had crap cardboard, and no glue, so my mother made me use Treacle to glue it to the cardboard, and it all ended up a tear-soaked, sticky, mess.
So, anyway, it's all water under the bridge now, and I hardly think about Deckie the Dalek; much. Now, if you've seen my Rod McKie papercraft cut-out and keep doll, you'll know I do have an affection for these things. I'm a papercraft fan. I am, and it's all I can do to stop myself cutting up my Chris Ware books, believe me. Papercraft sculptures really add to a publication, don't you think? I think they do. I'm not saying he did, but my cousin Allen might have cut out all the papercraft girls that came with the Bunty Comic, and he might well have practised his counselling skills on them. There's a thought - and you thought they weren't practical...
Today's papercraft models are much better than those old ones, much more sophisticated and that's why, despite the fact that you can knock up a model on Maya or Lightwave or Rhino or Max, today, paper consctructions still command a lot of respect in the toy and game designing communities, and they are so popular with cartoonists and illustrators.
Japan, the home of Origami (oru and kami)leads the way, of course, with giant robot sculptures and an endless amount of practical and impractical designs, from cartoonists and illustrators and even from companies like Yamaha, Canon, Honda, and Toyota.
With sites like the Paperkraft blog and Papercraft Museum highlighting a range of designs you can pick your papercraft figures and link on to the originating sites for info'.
There is also a Japanese Paper Craft programme, Pepakura Designer, and a viewer, Pepakura Viewer, which I'm using here to show you a Gigantor guide and model and a timely Guy Fawkes mask.
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