Meet Lisa Glover. Yep, there’s a person in there. She’s a grad student at Lehigh University and she just owned everyone at a campus costume party by showing up as a giant, googly-eyed velociraptor. The best part, though, is that she’s used what she’s learned working on this project to start a Kickstarter for your very own fold-up dinosaur:
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These mini dinos, called “KitRex”, are three feet long and will be available in a variety of colors, since Glover more than met her original money goal / pre-order requirements. She spent months prototyping and testing the kits with kids between the ages of 8 and 12. The result is a bristol board model that can be flat-packed for shipping. (Googly eyes not included.)
Essentially what the Kickstarter money is going towards is a custom-shaped steel die so she can mass produce them. So even if you don’t have the cash to back her project (which has since been funded) right now, there’s no reason to believe you can’t purchase one from her website soon. I’ve just added “one thousand vibrant stampeding paper raptors” to my “If I Win The Lottery” goals, for instance.
However, the original raptor (and inspiration for KitRex) was 15 feet long:
I was asked to research a manufacturing process and demonstrate it in a unique way. I decided to research Industrial Origami, and over the course of 50 hours I designed, cut, and built a wearable 15-ft long velociraptor out of cardboard.
…she completely took home first prize for her costume, by the way. According to her Reddit AMA, Glover will hopefully be making the fifteen foot wearable version available in the future. For now, you can download a free paper dinosaur pattern that will fit on a sheet of regular office paper. If you guys get in trouble at work for re-enacting Jurassic Park scenes in the company kitchen, you don’t know me.