Papertoy Monsters: 50 Cool Papertoys You Can Make Yourself!

This is a wonderful book. The monsters are super cute, and many are very cleverly designed, like the squid with articulating slits in the tentacles that allow them to bend freely. Each monster is printed on sturdy cardstock, the instructions are clear, and the templates are very well-produced: the perforations are generally very easy to separate, the fold lines are slightly scored to enable accurate creasing, and all tabs are clearly labelled with their targets. So even though some of the monsters are more challenging to assemble, the challenge isn't due to frustration with the materials themselves.There's a good range of difficulties, from easy to advanced. My 11-year-old daughter and I are having great fun going through and building all of them; she can mostly do them by herself, though she occasionally needs a little help with the advanced ones, or if some of the perforations aren't quite easy enough to separate. Younger kids with a little patience should have no trouble with the easy ones.A few tips:* For materials, I suggest tacky glue from an art store, toothpicks for spreading, and (if you have one) an X-acto knife.* Most of the perforations are easy to separate by hand. To avoid tearing a piece you're trying to punch out, hold down the edge of the piece near the perforation with one hand or finger, then gently pull outward (not upward) on the surrounding paper with the other hand.* Use the X-acto knife for perforations that don't separate cleanly, or for separating tricky bits like fingers that can tear easily.* For pieces that need to be curved, try gently scraping a fingernail along the underside of the paper, or rolling it around a dowel.* Use a toothpick to spread a thin, even layer of glue on both the tab and the gray area it glues to. Wherever possible, press the tab to the area firmly for a few seconds to let it set - this isn't always possible for every tab due to the construction of some models though. Wipe away excess glue as you go.Overall, this is amazing value for the price - the fifty monsters included will take plenty of time to get through. I hope they produce a sequel!

I bought several of these books for my "cedar chest" of things I get into when the grandchildren are with me. These paper monsters have been a hit with every age and gender I have introduced them to - from 5 to myself (65). They are comical monsters, beautifully drawn. Each monster comes with a story of their origin that are hillarious; imaginations run wild! The pieces are printed on cardstock; are well perforated so they punch out very easily and cleanly; they glue or tape together easily - depending on how much time you want to spend. I tend to glue them carefully like I was making a model car, my 6 year old granddaughter tapes them quickly because she can't wait to see the character come alive. Either way they are wayy cool. There are three levels of difficulty: easy, medium and difficult. If you put them together with plastic tape rather than glue as the book suggests, all the characters can be easy to make. Each character takes less than 30 minutes to glue together; much faster if you use tape. Since there are 50 monsters in the book it takes several sessions to get them all done. They are pretty resiliant so the kids (or adults) can play with them without worry about breakage. This is my go-to gift for just about everyone, including adults (adults like to play too if they get a chance). I am looking forward for Castleforte to put together more books like this.

The media could not be loaded. If you like this style of book then you might also enjoy a fairytale about a little girl and a haunted house: The Stumps of Flattop HillPapertoy Monsters is a collection of 50 cool paper monsters you can put together using scissors and glue. Each monster is rated by difficulty level, but I must warn you that even the "Easy" monsters could be challenging for the little kids. The monsters are perforated and the instructions are straight forward.Simply cut along the guides, fold along the lines and glue the labeled tabs to their matching areas. Since you are working with a sheet of paper, the complex monsters are smaller than you would typically imagine and folding and gluing them together could get messy. Patience is required.A bonus section in the back with blank templates gives you the creative freedom to draw and make your own monsters. There's enough variety of creatures here and a lot of thought was put in their design. A fun hobby that should last you a while.