Paper Dinosaurs

by Alan Folder

Paper Dinosaurs by Alan Folder is a nice little origami book which I would recommend to anyone who enjoys paper arts and dinosaurs. So, that encompasses quite a lot of people including many children.

The models in this book are relatively easy to make and, amazing as it may seem, they do look like paper dinosaurs. Be warned though, many of the models (8 out of 10) require either cutting, glue, or more than one piece of paper. Most children will think this is fine; however some origami purist will cringe to think that glue and such aids are used.

The Snapping Raptor (white) requires one small cut and forms the head of a generic dinosaur. You can press the piece and it will make biting motions. It is one of the most rewarding models to make since it is super easy and produces a movable toy. The Pterodactylus (red) is also relatively simple to fold. Both are what we call action origami because they have moving parts.

Elasmosaurus (orange) and the Dinosaur Egg (yellow) are both made from one sheet of uncut paper each. The Elasmosaurs has a few tricky steps, but they are not technically difficult.

The Apatosaurus (blue) uses two sheets of paper. One sheet is for the front legs and the second sheet is for the rest of the dinosaur. This dinosaur is easy to make and once you’ve mastered it, you can then proceed to Triceratops (pink), Stegosaurus (green) and Dimetrodon (lavender). The latter 3 dinosaurs use the Apatosaurus for the body and then uses a third sheet of paper to make the details (the enlarged head of Triceratops and the back plates for Stegosaurus and Dimetrodon).

Baryonyx (green) may look like Apatosaurus, but the folding sequence is not the same. Baryonyx uses two sheets of paper: one for the legs and one for the body. Connecting the body to the leg is an exercise in mental flexibility. The folding sequence for Tyrannosaurus rex (purple) is completely different compared to the other vegetarians. It uses two sheets of paper: one for the bottom legs and one sheet for the rest of the body.

Summary

This book makes a great gift because the models are relatively easy to fold and the results are good enough to generate a sense of “wow, I made this!” The back of this book includes tear-out sheets of origami paper that have scale-like patterns. So, if you use these papers, your dinosaurs will have eyes, toe nails and such detailing. They will look more like this:

• buy Paper Dinosaurs here
• see more book review here
• see free dinosaur origami diagrams here
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