Dogs is one of the most requested animals since the first series was released and it’s almost here! This time around I’ve tried to make the illustration and building of the toy a little more detailed. I’ve also made some slight changes to the tabs which should help with gluing, I’ve been finding one large tab can get stuck sometimes.

As I mentioned I’ve planned series 4 though 6, worked out their sizes, stats and species. Series 4 you know is dogs, series 5 is the next top request, birds and series 6 will be bears. The release schedule may be a little sporadic, but with good reason. Sure I could knock out all three series really quickly, but toy numbers isn’t why I’m doing this, I want the project to evolve. I’m actively seeking out new paper creation techniques and different directions I can try with each series. I definitely want to give you something more than the same templates with different designs and I want to deliver nine standard series total.

Anyway enough talk, below you’ll find some snippets of my early sketches for the canines. They’ll be out for your scissors and glue soon.

Use this guide -along with your printed instructions, to give you tips on building better toys.

You will need the following to build each toy:

a. a Deadly Furry Cute toy downloaded and printed,
b. a pair of scissors,
c. a stick of paper glue (UHU, Prittstick or similar),
d. a cutting board (Memory-board, Kitchen or similar),
e. a craft knife (optional, knife work can be done with scissors),
f. a roll of sticky tape (optional, to help with cutting accidents).

1. Cut around toy and any marked areas

Make sure you don’t forget to cut out the head slot before you glue the head together. The head slot is how a toys head attaches to its body and is marked with ‘Cutout’.

2. Cut slits for toy parts

To make sure your parts fit first time you may want to run the knife or scissor edge down the slit a number of times. You may also want to see if the folded parts fit before gluing.

3. Score or fold along dotted lines and flaps

Flaps are lighter colored tabs with slopped sides, found at the edges of the toy head and body parts.

You will find you need to press gently for lighter paper types -such as plain inkjet paper, or you’ll run the risk of cutting through the toy or cutting a flap off. With paper it is recommended that you just move the knife or scissor edge lightly across the paper surface.

TIP: If you find yourself cutting through your chosen paper type move to folding along the dotted lines and flaps instead. Should you accidentally cut a flap off you can reattach it from the backside with sticky tape.

4. Glue flaps into position

For best final results ensure that the flaps are positioned so each side fits flushly to the other, no gaps should be showing.

TIP: In some cases you may find it easier to apply glue to all flap surfaces before attempting to stick that particular head or body part together.

5. Glue any double-sided parts together

Double-sided parts include but are not limited to: ears, arms, tails, wings, teeth and tentacles.

TIP: Once a double-sided part has been glued you can correct any mistakes you made while cutting that part out. Lightly cut off any extra material showing, you can usually see extra material standing out in white (or the paper color of your choice).

Be sure to make a note which is the back and front of the double-sided part, you’ll need to remember for final assembly.

6. Slot head onto body

TIP: Sometimes -even when you’ve cut around the lines perfectly, you’ll need to open the head cutout slot a little to get a nice fit. Follow these steps if you find your head doesn’t fit, your body is deforming once the head is fitted, or you just want a lower fitting head:
a. run your craft knife or scissor edge along the inside edges of your head slot, gently scrape away a thin layer of paper, opening the slot.
b. if you have troublesome areas use your craft knife to cut a small piece or sliver away from any blocked or not properly cutout section.
c. in the worst case you can cut diagonally a short distance into the corners of the head slot and fold up the slot edges.

WARNING: Be extra careful when opening the head slot for any toy, take your time as it’s easy to destroy a toy being overzealous.

7. Slide any parts into slits

It’s time to put it all together, your toys head is on and now it just awaits it’s final pieces.

Each different part of a toy that needs slotting together is a difference size, so there can be no confusion where it goes. Some parts have dual pieces, two identical ears or similar arms for instance; In these cases make a note of which sides should face the front.

Some parts require that you slide them down or up as well as into the toy.

TIP: Should you need to widen or lengthen an individual parts slit, you can do so by using either a craft knife or scissor edge.

Problems building your toy?

Should you have any problems building your toys please leave a comment on this page.

I’ll be the first to admit that January 2010 isn’t the date I was thinking of when I first set out to release the new site. A few hick-ups and moving six thousand miles behind us the project revamp is finally done. Now the day is here, I hope the new toys and extra content can make up for the extra wait.

It doesn’t end there though; The website revamp, new template styles and ‘color your own‘ versions are all part of the grander project. Get ready for more toys, more special versions and more goodies from Deadly Furry Cute.

I hope you’ll all enjoy the new toys, website and Battlestats game. I’d love to hear your comments or feedback on any page.

What is Deadly Furry Cute?

Deadly Furry Cute is a series of paper toys, free to download, created in 2007 by Designer Paul West. For more information please see the About page.

How do I download the toys?

Downloading the toys is as easy as heading to the toy/series page you wish to download, then click on the download or ‘Color Your Own’ download link directly beneath each toy.  You will be prompted to either save or view the file, saving is recommended but you may download each toy as many time as you wish.

How do I view the toys?

Each toy -whether standard series or Color your Own, is saved as an Adobe PDF. A PDF file is used because it has the best compatibility for Vector graphics display and printing. Each file is saved as Acrobat version 1.5, this means you must have Adobe PDF Viewer version 6 or newer to view the toys correctly. Older versions may not display gradients correctly. To get the newest version of PDF Viewer head over to the Adobe downloads page.

How do I print the toys?

You may use any plain/photo paper or card stock at A4 size. White or off white paper/card is recommended for best results. Print at 100% (no scaling). For more information please see the Toy Printing Guide.

How are the toys built?

Each toy comes complete with a basic set of build instructions on it’s template. Simply download, print and follow the instructions. For a more detailed set of instructions please see the Toy Building Guide.

What is Battlestats?

Battlestats is a simple set of characteristics given to each toy in a series. Using these stats and following one of two game-play styles will enable you to pit your toys against friends and family. You are also always free to make up your own game using the stats. For more information please see the main Battlestats page.

Do the toys cost anything?

No! That’s right, all the toys are free for personal and educational use, download them and make as many as you like. Commercial and for profit users, as well as reproduction requests should be directed to the feedback address.

Is there a license?

Yes. A small license further outlining the usage and limitations listed above is available on the license page. A copy of the license is also made available for download on the license page.

Since the new templates have been completed for a while now you’re aware that I adjusted the template slightly to allow for three sizes of toy. The first size you’ve seen is Series 1: Cats, a medium toy. Now I’d like to introduce Series 2: Squirrels, a small toy and Series 3: Apes, a large toy.

Series 2: Squirrels

Each squirrel is a distinct type and each is one of the new small size toys. Deadly is the ever propagating Grey squirrel, Furry is the lovable Red squirrel and Cute is a red eyed Albino squirrel.

Download Series 2: Squirrels

Series 3: Apes

Apes are the first series based on the larger template size. Each toy is a different species of ape: Deadly is a Gorilla, Furry is an Orangutan, Cute is a Chimpanzee.

Download Series 3: Apes

A few of these new developments I’m going to keep secret until the site goes live, huge anticlimax there I know.  What I can talk about is new toy designs and licensing.

Let me start by saying that over the last few months I’ve had some inquiries from school teachers, either asking if they can use the toys, or asking how much it would cost to use them.  Let me state, right now, the toys will always be free for schools to use in the class room. If a teacher can find a way to use the toys in class for fun or education, I’m all for it.  What I don’t want is individuals, companies or schools reselling or rebranding my work. To that end I’ll be creating a new ‘license’ page which outlines exactly what can and can not be done in detail, more for clarification than anything else.

Now the fun bit

The new toy designs for Series 2 and 3, yep that’s two new series with the update, have been completed and are awaiting final testing. That testing procedure basically entails a final test run in both thin card and paper, with any updates from previous tests included. Over kill, maybe, but I like to get things right.
I’ve come some way with the illustration style since Series 1 back in 2008, partly because I’ve been doing more illustration work and have getting the practice in, but also I’ve decided to make these toys a little harder to make.  Looking back at Series 1, I realized I was trying to make it too easy, all angular and easy to cut curves, you’ll not get the easy ride this time!  Having said that I’ve not gone overboard, this change is about getting things more life like. While the new Series are more challenging to make, I hope they’ll be just as fun!

Without further ado, here are some screen grabs to wet your appetites. Can you tell what they are? Shout in the comments if you think you can!

This article has been re-posted from designergamergeek.com with permission from the author.

OK so the results weren’t that dire – as you can see below – but they weren’t as good as the first run through.

What I was trying to do by changing the illustration style for DFC was speed up my working process and enable me to have some assets that weren’t flat to use for other media types – website, t-shirts etc.  We’ll not talk about how much time I’ve lost ‘trying’ this. Instead we’ll skip ahead. Where in fact the opposite has happened. I’d created illustrations that worked well as a website asset but didn’t at all lend themselves to the flat nature of the toys I was creating.

Now I don’t make these decisions on a whim. I’ve made test toys, printed, cutout and built them as well as shown test audiences the new style. The test group was unanimous: while they did like the design, they didn’t think the toys were as cute or worked as well as the original style.

So I went back to the people who make the toys you and looked at the feedback you gave on the first set of toys. The wording there was also unanimous: you loved them.

So I’m now going to design the new toys the way I did the original first set, flat on the templates. I’ll also be using the same style of illustration as the originals – you liked it, I liked it, my test group liked it. Why ruin a good thing.

I will say this though. Without the process of trying something new, testing it and finding out you were already doing it right I’d have never known – not truly in my heart.  It’s one of the reasons I love design and it’s process: getting things wrong is just as important as getting it right. And it highlights one of my motto’s ‘test, test, test and test again’.

Some examples of the tested illustration style follow. Only one made it from paper to test illustration but I thought you’d like to see the sketches for all three.

Deadly sketch

Furry sketch

Cute sketch

Deadly test illustration

This article has been re-posted from designergamergeek.com with permission from the author.

The main reason for re-working the templates is because my forward thinking hat wasn’t on the first time around. Certain parts of the toys were connected to the base shapes and would be more work to remove than to just recreate – i.e. the feet.  Also I wasn’t happy with the way I had designed the ears to work. They were too fiddly to cutout, stick and place on the toy. And lets face it even though I know adults both liked and built the toys these things should really be designed from a kids perspective.

One more thing came to mind before I went ahead and designed new templates. Cat’s aren’t the same size as say an elephant or a mouse. With that new found wisdom I decided it would be a good idea to have a some size variation in my templates. However don’t get too excited I still plan on making each toy be built from one sheet of A4 paper – letter should work fine too – because lets face it we really don’t want too much wastage here in the name of fun.

Enough rambling. On to a sneak peak.

This article has been re-posted from designergamergeek.com with permission from the author.