If you’re into the designer toy scene, you’ve probably downloaded, printed out and assembled at least one papertoy/papercraft creation. But thanks to Matt Hawkins and his recently released 151-page book entitled Urban Paper – 25 designer toys to cut out and build…all you have to do is, well, cut out and build them. And while the title is rather self-explanatory, Matt has assembled a group of some of the biggest and best names to create papertoy templates.

Below is a list of those templates, as well as the artist’s name in parentheses:

No Anchovies Andy (LouLou)
Unit.2 (Bryan Rollins)
E440 (Ringo Krumbiegel)
Sizza (Nick Knite)
Max 95 (Jon Greenwell a.k.a. Jonny Chiba)
Boxy (Shin Tanaka)
Micro Toypaper (Rememberthelittleguy)
BigChief Toy (BigChief Design)
Burlabox (Atelier Alessio Blanco)
Thug (Filippo Perlin a.k.a. PHIL)
Freaky Tiki (Brian Castleforte a.k.a. NiceBunny)
Redy (Angelio Garcia Bassi a.k.a. Cubotoy)
Felty Boy (Jerom)
Nanidad and the Peeps (mckibillo)
Hotrod Dogbug (Sjors Trimbach)
Paperboy (Marshall Alexander)
Go Bananas (Horrorwood)
Barkley (Ben the Illustrator)
Rommy (Tetsuya Watabe)
3EyedBear (Maarten Janssens)
Antlor Securitv (Kenn Munk)
Criminal Toy (Carlo Giovani)
Krampus Squealer (Christopher Bonnette)
Ghostboy (Sharim Gubbles)
Son of a Grumm (Matthijs Kamstra a.k.a. [mck])

Below is Matt Hawkins showing off the book

The book begins with a “how-to” tutorial for making your own papertoy templates. It’s helpful if you are looking to bring some of your characters and creations into the 3D realm.  It also gives you a list of tips, tricks and tools that will be helpful in constructing the toys found within the Urban Paper book.

For each of the 25 designs, a Q&A with the artist precedes the template. That page also shows what the final product should look like. The actual templates are printed on high-quality paper sheets that tear out of the book (no need to cut up your book).

Urban Paper also includes a DVD that includes files of all of the designs in the book; bonus templates from Ben the Illustrator, Bryan Green (Paper Foldables), Christopher Bonnette, Harlancore, Jerom, Jonny Chiba, Marshall Alexander, Matt Hawkins, Ringo Krumbiegel and Tummie; blank templates to customize; basic shape templates; unabridged interviews; Urban Paper the Movie.

Our Opinion

This book is well worth the $20 it’s retailing for. That’s less than $1 per toy. And when you consider that high-quality printer paper can run a decent amount, and you’re using more than one sheet per toy, it makes even more sense. If it’s not in your collection yet, what are you waiting for?

You can pick one up at the following:

Custom Paper Toys: $20.00 - signed by Matt Hawkins (free US shipping)