Maharaja's Elephant Paper Toy

Agence Eureka continues to post delightful papercraft from past decades. This simple paper toy is entitled "L'Elephant Du Maharadjah" (English: The Elephant of the Maharaja?). I am not sure how old the toy is, but the graphics have a 70's feel to me. The two pages of the template for the elephant may be found here and here.

My Little Pony Papercraft: Soarin'

Soarin' is a male pegasus pony on the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic television show. Soarin' is a member of the Wonderbolts, a squad of eleven pegasus ponies that perform aerial acrobatics. This papercraft pony is one of many by deviantARTist Kna. The template may be downloaded here. Pie is included. ;)

Origami Valentine Shark

Valentine's Day is closer than you think! This aggressive shark valentine is part paper toy and part origami. The printable template and instructions by Jacque Lynn Davis are located here. Also available are an origami shark without the heart and a blank shark template you can color yourself.

Cute Papercraft Piggy Bank

This cute papercraft piggy bank is named "Shnekel" after the nickname for an Israeli coin.  Traditional piggy banks must be broken in order to get the coins out. This bank, however, must be cut with scissors. Denise, who lives in Israel, created the piggy in 2008. Its template may be downloaded here.

Yeti & Evil Sheep Papercraft

Hidden on the Snowdin website are four free snow related paper toys: A Saint Bernard rescue dog, a chalet, and my two favorites, Yeti and Evil Sheep. According to Snowdin: "The battle between Evil Sheep and Yeti is as old as the struggle between good and evil itself." Snowdin is chock-full of fun wintry activities. Don't forget to bring your 3D glasses along if you visit!

Relakkuma Mario Bros Tribute Papercraft

Relakkuma (Relax Bear) and his bud Kiiroitori get another papercraft makeover. This time they are dressed as Mario Bros. characters! These cute papercraft models are the work of deviantART member Ikarusmedia. The templates for the models are posted here. Previously, Relax Bear was given a heavy metal rock makeover.

Cubecat Paper Toy

This boxy cat papercraft is just the thing when you have the urge to build something out of paper but aren't in the mood for anything overly complex. This one piece paper toy is offered by the Goldenrusset blog and may be downloaded here.

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.