Awesome Cardboard

DanCreator has made some pretty amazing cardboard objects over the years. Now he’s gone and built not one, but three full-size vending machines out of the corrugated brown paper. Not only do they look like the real thing, but the soda fountain, can dispenser, and instant ramen machine are fully functional.

After buying a remote-controlled model of a Bugatti Divo, master of papercraft Dan Creator decided he’d prefer to drive a truck. So he got to work stripping down the scale supercar, removed its body, and reconfigured its chassis and drivetrain to ride beneath a cardboard model cargo truck loaded with tiny Amazon boxes.

In this video from The Q, he shows us how he made a hand-cranked machine for displaying animations using cardboard, rubber bands, and a few pieces of hardware. The zoetrope-like device has a series of 25 animation frames on each of its tiers, creating the illusion of movement when it spins.

DanCreator is back with another cardboard NERF gun. This time, he created a Fortnite-inspired sniper rifle that can shoot foam darts. He built it almost entirely from cardboard and hot glue, with a handful of dowel rods and some stiffly bent wire for its springs. It uses a pair of small motors to accelerate and fire each dart.

DanCreator is a master of making cardboard props. His latest build is an incredible replica version of Chainsaw Man’s killer Gatling gun. It has a moving chain with plastic teeth and rapid-fires airsoft pellets using a mechanism that works like a baseball pitching machine.

Amr MCI shows off another neat cardboard weapon build. This one-handed launcher doesn’t fire actual grenades, but it does produce satisfying explosions as it bursts skinny balloons filled with baby powder. Now we want a revolver version that can pop multiple balloons.

DBZ fans might be familiar with the Hovercar, first driven by Ox-King, then by many others. DanCreator thought he should have his own hovercar, so he built one from wood, cardboard, pool floats, and leaf blowers. It glides over smooth surfaces with ease, though we wouldn’t suggest taking it in a swimming pool.

Ghost in the Shell fans will recognize this spider-like mech as Tachikoma. The walker-roller tank turned up in the Stand Alone Complex universe, offering personnel transport and a mobile weapons platform. DanCreator built a giant cardboard version of the mech. Like his Scopedog, it’s big enough for him to ride inside of.

The Rival Khaos is one of the coolest toys that NERF has ever made. The $200 shooter has a 40-round magazine and a quick-firing motorized mechanism. YouTuber Amr MCI shows off a fully-functional replica of the toy gun that he made mostly from cardboard, fiberboard, and glue, along with motors and springs to make it fire.

Raphaël from Epic Cardboard Props shows off another awe-inspiring build – a replica of a Predator’s head made almost entirely from Amazon boxes, craft paper, and toilet paper. You can purchase the template to make your own Predator mask from his website, and you could be donning those dreadlocks in time for Halloween.

Carpenter John Heisz of I Build It typically makes things out of wood. But given the ridiculously high price of lumber these days, he decided to use cardboard boxes for his latest build. We appreciate the attention to detail he put into crafting this multi-drawer parts storage unit.

We never watched the anime Armored Trooper Votoms, but it looks pretty awesome. The main mech in the series was the ATM-09-ST Scopedog. Feeling inspired, maker DanCreator got to work building a cardboard replica of the mech’s cockpit that’s big enough for him to sit inside of. Now he needs to build a torso and legs.

In 2020, more than 120 billion pieces of cardboard were used to pack and ship items in the U.S. alone. It’s also one of the world’s most successfully recycled materials. New Mind digs into the history, science, and success of the ubiquitous corrugated paper material.

Cardboard seems like a bad material to build a vehicle out of, but if you laminate together enough of the corrugated paper, it’s quite strong. Engineer James Bruton fabricated a working electric bicycle with wheels and frame parts made out of the stuff. Though he did cheat with 3D-printed plastic parts to hold everything together.

The guys from Signal Snowboards teamed up with Ernest Packaging to create a custom electric guitar and drum kit made from cardboard. The Cardboard Sessions hands those instruments over to talented musicians to perform in impromptu jam sessions. Though they didn’t manage to make a cardboard brass section.

Artist Greg Olijnyk makes incredible sculptures and dioramas out of cardboard, glue, and toothpicks (with a little help from coffee and whiskey.) Among his creations is David vs. G 2.0, a retelling of the David vs. Goliath story with a tiny cardboard samurai taking down a gigantic robot. His robot assembly line is fantastic too.

Heavy-duty cardboard tubes are used to protect rolled goods in transit and provide forms for concrete construction projects. SBS Tube shows off the production process behind these large tubes, which involves gluing together numerous individual strips of brown paper around a metal roller.

If you’ve ever received a giant box from Amazon only to find a tiny item rattling around inside, you’ll appreciate this video. What you’re about to see is a Sparck Technologies automated packaging machine that first takes a precision scan of an object, then cuts and folds a custom box that fits perfectly, reducing waste.

NERF weapons are normally made from plastic with a few springs and maybe a motor. DanCreator made a working replica of a NERF Elite 2.0 blaster mostly out of cardboard. It has a slide-action mechanism that reloads darts into the chamber from a spring-loaded magazine.

The S has a thing for building matchstick-powered rocket engines. This time, their goal was to create two flame-shooting vehicles out of cardboard, then crash them head-on into each other to view the fiery wreckage. It took a few attempts to get them to launch at the same time, but the money shot was worth it.

We always figured if you were going to upgrade the plastic case on a handheld game system, you’d want to go for aluminum or maybe carbon fiber. But Peter Knetter is a bit of a contrarian, so he downgraded his GameBoy Advance SP by building it a case, buttons, and D-pad out of cardboard.

There are lots of tutorials how to recycle paper to create handmade paper. XYZAidan shows how the pulp extracted from cardboard can also be molded into sturdy 3D objects. The resulting pieces are reminiscent of egg crates or Starbucks drink trays. You can download his 3D printable mold designs on Thingiverse.

DanCreator continues to wow us with his awe-inspiring cardboard creations. This time out, he built a fully-functional miniature forklift out of the stuff, then used it to lift a bunch of tiny Amazon boxes on cardboard shipping pallets.