Amongst all the free paper craft downloads around the Internet, there are lots of simple, fun and decorative paper figures made by artists and designers. These paper figures are easy to put together, and the detail is in the graphics. These figures can often be downloaded in several fun and versions, including blank templates, for people to apply their own graphic, paint or draw on. They are perfect for kids (and adults) of all ages.

I have made a small list of some of the very cool and simple paper craft figures that I’ve come across lately. If anyone’s got more of these that they’d like to share, please leave a comment!

• Speakerdog - simple, fun and available in lots of different versions made by different graffiti artists, illustrators and graphic designers.
• Readymech - cool, simple and charming figures.
• Gloo Man - choose sex, hair type, belt buckle and other details before downloading your personal Gloo Man!
• NANA - cool and detailed figure with removable helmet. (Click second preview from the left to see the figure. Click arrow to download PDF.)
• Flicker Monkey’s figures - simple and cute.
• Custom Paper Toys Owwwl - fun, detailed (cool skeleton on its back) with movable parts. Besides the owl there is four other free downloads.
• e440 - Cool squirrel figure. Five versions (at the time being), including a blank template, all are available for free by contacting the blog author.
• Cutnejo - charming rabbit.

One of Hasbro’s cool Transformer movie tie-ins is the Optimus Prime Voice Changer Helmet, which changes the users voice to sound like Optimus Primes!

Besides changing the users voice the helmet has two other modes, one with sounds of Optimus Primes battle phrases and one with the sounds of Optimus Prime transforming.

The helmet fits adults (yay! ;)) and kids over five years of age. It can be bought through the Hasbro Toy Shop.

I have recently become aware that there are huge amounts of incredibly detailed, and completely free, paper crafts available at different websites. It seems to be common to offer models as PDFs free to download. Especially the Japanese seem love to make all kinds of cool stuff out of paper, and they are pretty good at it too!

Finding crafts that will interest and challenge older kids can be difficult, especially when it comes to boys, but I bet it’s possible to find something interesting and quite challenging for most older boys and girls, amongst all the free models available out there. I’m talking spaceships, trains, planes, cars and robots with amazing details and shapes, some even have movable parts.

Yamaha has an amazing collection of paper models free to download, in different colors or white. They not only have lots of different motorcycles, motors, and other parts for bikes and garage, but they also have a great selection of animals, insects and seasonal paper models.

One of the ultimate paper craft models to make is probably the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars, which can be found at SF PaperCrafts. It has exceptional details, and looks amazing when done. SF PaperCrafts also offers other models, like the U.S.S. Enterprise from Star Trek and the Star Wars AT-AT Snow Walker with movable parts! They’re all available for download at SF PaperCraftGallery, ready to cut, glue and assemble.

For the Battlestar Gallactica fans out there you should take a look at the paper models of the Battlestar Gallactica Viper at Papertoy Box. They also offer other planes, a train, cars and a robot, and everything is available for download, ready to cut out, fold, glue and assemble. At the site you’ll find image instructions of how to do the assembling.

A couple of “simpler” paper craft models of the X-fighter and the Millennium Falcon, can be found at CFSL. These are made from Parisian Metro Tickets, or heavy paper in the same dimensions, which can be found in the descriptions. Even though simpler, they are still pretty amazing!

Now there is no lack of characters either. At the Japanese website, Piro model, there are lots of detailed characters from e.g. Star Wars. Some of the characters are formed as Lego figures with movable arms and legs.

If you got as excited about this models as I did, and have the time and urge to make models of your own, there is even a program, Pepakura, available as shareware, (Some features, Saving and Exporting are restricted to the bought version.) that allows you to turn 3D models into paper crafts! Nice! There is really tons of free and educational fun here! Also, remember to check out the Pepakura gallery where people share pictures and links to their own models.

Via Toysrevil

Creature Mix by MGA Entertainment is a series of vinyl toys with interchangeable body parts. There are 12 fun animals to collect, all with nice cartoonish shapes, fresh colors and clean cartoon like patterns.

Creature Mix are sold in groups of three or as singles. When sold as singles each pack includes extra parts and when sold as groups there are four various groups to choose from;

• Panda, Lion and Rhinoceros
• Gorilla, Giraffe and Pig
• Elephant, Zebra and Hyena
• Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops and Pterodactyl.

All the animals have interchangeable noses, airs, legs and tails, and anyone lucky enough to have all 12 will have a huge amount of parts to choose from!

All four groups and a few singles are available at Amazon.com.

Via Thingamababy

Pinkie Pirate by Dooodolls is a super cute designer plush doll. It’s the kind of doll that not only mommy would love to give to her girl because of the cuteness factor, but daddy wouldn’t mind it either because of the toughness factor in the black eye patch.

I guess it kind of sends a great message to little girls; you can be both super cute and a bit tough at the same time

A couple of other cool dolls which kind of sends the same message are the plush dolls SANDy and Mozzarella from Tokidokis. Soon to be released.

You’ll find Pinkie Pirate at Juvie, a great shop where they have cool toys, clothes and accessories for older kids. Not to many of those shops around.

The Character Chess Set from Emma Jefferson is a beautiful detailed board game made out of wood. The chess pieces have fun faces and personalities which, in contrary to regular chess sets, might make it easier for children to comprehend the game and the role of each piece.

It is available in a pink/purple girl’s version and a blue/white boy’s version, and both versions will work just as well as ornamental pieces in the kids room.

The game comes in a calico case with individual pockets for each piece and the board itself. The case provides excellent protection both during travelling and storage.

Besides the chess set Emma Jefferson offers a great selection of wooden toys and accessories for kids. The store offers mirrors, games, shelves, trinket drawers, money boxes, door stops, cupboard knobs and peg boards amongst other things, and everything is made with lots of adorning details and fresh colors.

Zolo Play Garden from Kushies is, like all the toys in the award winning Zolo range, a very engaging toy for babies.

The entire toy is made out of fabric and all the pieces are soft and comfortable for the baby to play with. Zolo Play Garden consists of a garden covered with green fabric grass and brown fabric dirt and eleven small soft shapes with magnets, which allows the baby to stack and build an imaginary garden. All the pieces and the garden itself are full of colors, shapes and patterns which stimulates the baby, and the building and stacking helps develop coordination and creative skills.

All the Zolo toys are very unusual looking and the shapes and figures are often more otherworldly than earth-like. This fact, the way the toys encourage engaging activities, the colors and all the patterns makes the Zolo toys lots of fun.

Zolo Play Garden is available at UncommonGoods.

Trousseliers wooden music boxes are not only fun toys but also very decorative and colorful, which makes them fine decorative pieces for the kid’s room or the nursery. They are made out of wood and painted in lively complementary and contrasting colors making them stimulating to look at for small kids. The simple and clean design is very modern but there is also a feeling of heirloom quality over the Trousselier musical boxes.

The boxes are magnetic and this causes the two figures on top of each box to dance to the rhythm of soft and relaxing music when it is winded up.

Some of Trousseliers wooden musical boxes are available at Decoccinelle.

The Sole pull cloth is a very exclusive silver ball with different colored fabric pieces for the baby to play with. It comes in an exclusive white and natural colored wooden box and was designed in 2005 by the Italian company De Vecchi.

It is a beautiful toy which might be best left to serve as an ornamental piece.

The Sole Pull Cloth is available at Moss, where the Sonaglio rattle and the Carillon musical toy of the same style, and probably collection, are also available.