Awesome Cardboard

Sure, you can go out and buy an off-the-shelf replica of Iron Man’s infinity gauntlet from Avengers: Endgame, but there’s something so satisfying about building your own. Seanscrafts shows us his DIY gauntlet he made using cardboard, a glove, hot glue, and paints.

Have you ever gotten a box from Amazon that’s way too big for the item packed inside? The CMC Cartonwrap 1000 solves this problem by scanning the item to be packed inside, then making a custom-sized box for it. It’s not ideal for fragile items, though it looks like they’re working on that.

YouTuber GaffeGuy built himself a massive revolver out of cardboard. The finished papercraft weapon measures in at about 10 feet in length. He claims it can actually fire, but he saved showing that off for the last couple of seconds of the video.

Like many other makers, SKM loves to build things from cardboard. This time, he used what appears to be an off-the-shelf template to create a model of Iron Man’s iconic helmet, though this one is guaranteed to offer absolutely no level of protection to its wearer.

The Q show off another one of their awesome low-budget builds, a robot arm that’s made primarily from cardboard and popsicle sticks, and controlled by plastic syringes filled with colored liquid. If there’s anyone we’d want to be stranded on a desert island with, it’s these guys.

It might look like a stool, but this is actually a book. Designed by Mike Mak, Bookniture’s cardboard honeycomb structure can hold over a ton, and folds up into a book for storage when not in use. Measures 13.5″h x 14″ dia when in use, 13″h x 7″w x 1.5″d when folded.

While SKM’s cardboard typewriter doesn’t actually work, it’s still an impressive build, with lots of neat details, a cantilevered keyboard, a turning roller, and a hidden compartment that lets it output a pre-typed page for fun.

Serial maker The Q used over 530 square feet of cardboard and more than 100 hot glue sticks to build this 1/3rd scale model of a Formula 1 race car. After he finished building the structure, he went on to give the car a proper racing livery.

While you can certainly just go buy a Hot Wheels set, Mini Gear thinks its more fun to build your own track from scratch. He proves yet again that with cardboard, popsicle sticks, hot glue, and rubber bands, you can make just about anything with enough time and effort.

Do-it-all craftstman The Q shows us how he made a huge machine gun using mainly cardboard, wood, and lots of glue. It has an electronic mechanism that lets it fire long paper bullets, as well as a swappable cartridge.

While we’re not convinced that Davie504’s handmade cardboard bass guitar will hold up to extended playing, we’re still impressed that it sounds as good as it does. It’s good to know there’s another use for all of those Amazon boxes we get every week.

Kiwami Japan is back with another ridiculously improbable knife construction – an impressively-sharp kitchen blade made from pressed cardboard. We weren’t quite sure what he was up to for the first few minutes and thought we were watching HowtoBasic.

Boston Pizza is changing the pizza delivery game with its invention. It came up with a pizza box that lays flat and has two legs that pop out and lock in place, so you can head straight to bed with your pizza. They recently offered a limited run, but hopefully they will make more.

To prove just how versatile cardboard can be, Houston-based Victory Packaging turned up to a tradeshow with a 16-foot-tall gear-driven sculpture reminiscent of the space travel portals from Stargate. This isn’t the only time they built something awesome with cardboard.

Prop weapon maker Blackfish shows us how to build the least dangerous rocket-propelled grenade ever, using cardboard, wooden skewers, rubber bands, wire, tape, and glue. It doesn’t just look cool either – it can actually fire a projectile that explodes on impact.

Interested in Nintendo’s Labo cardboard kits for the Switch? Let the big N tell you more. This video explains what you’ll get with each kit, how you’ll put the toys together and how you can create your own interactive cardboard toys.

Nintendo Labo are upcoming video games for the Nintendo Switch that have a DIY component. The games come with flat pack cardboard objects that work with the Switch’s sensors to become controllers. There’s a variety kit and a robot kit. Drops 4/2018.

SKM has shown us some pretty awesome things you can make from cardboard. His latest build is a model of a quadcopter made entirely from cardboard and hot glue. Sadly, it doesn’t actually fly, but perfectly balancing it would probably be quite challenging.

The Q shows us how to create a battery-powered trap that can safely catch a rat or other small creature behind bars, using cardboard, wooden sticks, hot glue, and a simple electronic trigger. We’re sure a rodent could chew through it quickly, but it’s still a neat build.

It’s not exactly the most mechanically complex build, but we still love the idea of YouTuber Goober’s (we made a rhyme!) spring-loaded cardboard and hot glue vending machine which can dispense up to five of your favorite candies with the push of a button.

After showing us how to make a sweet cardboard Skee-Ball machine, Seanscrafts is back to build another fun machine to add to your low-budget home arcade. As an added bonus, you can just reach in and grab the prizes if you get frustrated with the claw.

Do you love playing those Skee-Ball machines at Chuck E. Cheese’s? YouTuber Seanscrafts shows us how to build a scaled-down homebrew version of the game using sheets of cardboard and marbles. It looks like a simple enough weekend build, so get to it!

As long as you don’t get it wet or put it near fire, cardboard is a strong and versatile building material. The guys at Mini Gear show us how to make a number of nifty desktop vending machines using cardboard, rubber bands, and hot glue as their primary materials.