Rat Chef Origami

Here is a delightful origami piece by Nguyen Hung Cuong which he calls "Rat Chef" (an homage to Disney Pixar's Ratatouille perhaps? ^^). The rat, the chef hat and the spoon were each folded from separate piece of paper. The folding pattern for the rat (spoon and hat not included) may be downloaded from Cuong's page here.

Heavy Metal Relax Bear Papercraft

Popular Japanese characters Relakkuma (Relax Bear) and Kiiroitori are given a Heavy Metal music makeover by Ikarusmedia. The papercraft template even includes a Les Paul guitar! Look for the download link for the PDF file in the upper right corner of the page here.

Koi Origami

These koi fish by origami artist Sipho Mabona have lots of decorative possibilities. In the photo, several different colors of the koi are suspended from wires to give them the appearance of swimming in a pond. Folding the koi is relatively easy. An excellent stop motion video here by Mabona shows how the origami fish are each folded from a single square of paper.

Line Art Rabbit Paper Toy

Some papercraft can begin to approach fine art status. This line art rabbit paper toy might be considered one such example. Created by artist Cherdpong Sikkhajareon, the rabbit is covered with ink line work inspired by certain types of Thai art. A free template for the paper toy is available here.

Easter Bunny and Chick Paper Toys

It's the time of year for cute bunny and chick paper models. :) These easy one piece Easter paper toys are offered on the Hungarian website, scamp.hu. Each toy consists of a single piece with only one glue tab. I like the simplicity of the design! A download of the template for these is available here.

Star Wars Papercraft: Tuantuan

One of my favorite animals in the Star Wars universe is the tauntaun. Tauntauns first appeared in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back. In the film, rebel soldiers take to riding the beasts on the ice planet of Hoth when the weather proves too cold for their vehicles. This tauntaun paper model was created by Sukhoi Noturna who based his papercraft on a 3D model from the Star Wars: Battlefront II video game. The zip file download for the tauntaun includes both PDF and PDO templates as well a separate template for a rebel soldier model that fits on the tautaun's back.

Papercraft Rainforest Animals

These free paper model animals are offered by the Scholastic company (a distributor of children's books) as a way to educate kids about the rainforest biome. The six models offered include a parrot, a chameleon, a fruit bat and three different colored tree frogs. The templates for the animals are in PDF format and may be downloaded here.

Marcelo the Friendly Bat Paper Toy

You can't help but love this adorable paper toy bat by illustrator Erik Madera. Officially titled "Macelo the Friendly Bat", this glue-less paper toy is part of a campaign to promote awareness of the preservation of bats. Madera has an image of the template for Marcelo posted here as part of his online portfolio.

Cute Animal Papercraft Finger Puppets

Here are some cute animal finger puppets from the Japanese website "Terra Cotta". In addition to the cat, dog, penguin and duck shown here, there is also a "smiling" grey cat puppet available. The construction of these papercraft animal puppets is very simple and consists primarily of hollow paper cones and tubes. Look for the download links under the pictures of the puppets here.

Papercraft Wetland Animals

As a way of educating the public about wetland habitats, Ducks Unlimited Canada offers ten free 3D paper models of wetland animals. Pictured above is a painted turtle, a leopard frog, a largemouth bass and a yellow spotted salamander. Also available are models of a mallard duck, a great blue heron, a great horned owl, a beaver, a red fox, and a dragonfly. Templates for each of the animals are available here.

Winged Reindeer Christmas Ornament Papercraft

According to the instructions for this Christmas ornament papercraft, this winged reindeer is none other than Comet, one of Santa's eight reindeer. Ohh, so that's how they fly! ;) This papercraft reindeer was created by artist Shane McDermott for the 2009 holiday season and may be downloaded here.

Chibiterasu Papercraft

Here is an awesome Chibiterasu papercraft by Lyrin-83, one of the most talented papercrafters on DeviantART (in my humble opinion ^^). Lyrin created the 3D model and the textures for the papercraft template all "from scratch" rather than using a 3D model extracted from a video game. Chibiterasu is the young wolf from the Nintendo DS game Okamiden which is a sequel to the Playstation 2 and Wii game, Okami. Lyrin has provided a link to the template for this paper model here.

Papercraft Rockhopper Penguins

These papercraft rockhopper penguins look a little grumpy. Maybe they are upset about being on the endangered species list. ;) There are several different species of rockhopper penguins, which are also called "crested penguins" (for obvious reason). These papercraft ones look most like the northern rockhopper penguin species. The templates for the two penguins are available for download here.

Horse Illusion Papercraft

Here is a horse to add to your collection of illusion papercraft animals. ^^ This illusion was created by the OSA-IFISC Student Chapter for a 2009 Science Fair on Menorca Island, Spain. OSA-IFISC Student chapter members are Ph.D. students with a common interest in optics. If you are not familiar with this type of paper model, it creates an optical illusion as you move about the room that the head and eyes of the animal are following you. The template for the horse is located here.

Other Illusion Papercraft Animals

Dragon Illusion Papercraft

Robot Dog Illusion Papercraft

Cat Illusion Papecraft

Cute Animal Papercraft

Here are some super cute papercraft animals by Japanese designer Ryo Tokisato. You gotta love them! In addition to the penguin, shark, chameleon, and rabbit shown here, there are also available a fox, a boar, a sperm whale, mice (in six different colors), and two different cows. The PDF templates for each of these may be downloaded at Tokisato's web page here. Once at the web page, click on the photo of the animal to download the template.

Karatsu Kunchi Parade Float Paper Models

Karatsu Kunchi is a three day festival that takes place each November on the Japanese island of Kyushu. Each day of the festival there is a parade in which large floats are drawn through the streets by families who live on the island. Each of the floats was originally built in the 1800's. Pictured above are papercraft models of three of the floats. From left to right are a red lion, a green lion and a red bream fish. Templates and instructions for each of these paper models may be downloaded at the bottom of the page here.

Evil Cartoon Animal Automata

These cantankerous automata critters were created by Juan Diego Sanin. Turn the cranks on their backs and their arms wave and the stars on their chests rotate. From left to right we have Gato Satanico (Satanic Cat), Oso Maloso (Bad Bear), and Conejo Malgenio (Cranky Rabbit). The free papercraft templates for the evil trio may be downloaded here, here and here.

Pokemon Papercraft: Boxy Pikachu

Here's a simple one piece Pikachu papercraft by Lee Urn Lun of Malaysia. As everyone knows, Pikachu is one of the main characters in the Pokemon video games and the Pokemon animated television show. This papercraft is a modification by Lun of his paper model bunny template. A download of the Pikuchu template is available here. The model in the photograph above was built by my young daughter. ^^

Lord of the Rings Papercraft: Shelob

For whatever the reason, Lord of the Rings papercraft is a rare thing. This Shelob paper model is one of the few examples around. Shelob is described by author J. R. R. Tolkien as being an "evil thing in spider form" whose food was "all living things". In the books, Shelob first appears in the second book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Two Towers, however in the movie trilogy her appearance is delayed until the The Return of the King, the third book in the series. This papercraft was created by "Kangu" and the Pepakura PDO template is available here. When building this model it should be noted that the gluing tabs for the legs may need to be trimmed down some in order to get the legs to fit together properly. [via Bongo Papercraft]

Cow Buggy Papercraft

This papercraft cow buggy may represent some real festival or it may just be a fanciful creation by the artist, but either way it sure is cute. ^^ Japanese artist Geco Hirasawa calls her work a "moo moo buggy". A template is available on Geco's DeviantART page here. Be sure to check out her collection of excellent paintings while you are there.