Papercraft- Totoro

September 30th, 2006 by Soda


Totoro and my Nekobasu <3

         Tonari no Totoro was one of the few animes I grew up with. The cute characters, the imaginative story, and the fantasy of the adventures were all very appealing back then, and they still remain that way now. The title never left my mind and has always stayed with me all this time. Now, with some papercrafting, I decided to pay Totoro some tribute, and try to capture the very essence that captured me so many years ago.

         The Totoro design is rather simple, and I was able to put him together relatively quickly. He wasn’t nearly as complex as NekoX01, which certainly shows in the quality of the model. I’m fairly satisfied in my cutting and gluing, but I thought that the template itself for Totoro wasn’t that amazing. His completely flat legs, arms, and ears are testament to this, which was rather disappointing to me. Unfortunately, this was the only Totoro template I could find. The only solutions to this would be to find a better one [unlikely, unless someone points me in the right direction] or if I make it myself [even more unlikely. I severely lack the talent necessary for that job]. So, as the wise have said, beggars can’t be choosers.




I have mixed feelings about how he turned out…

         Construction went without much trouble, I didn’t make any real mistakes. Certainly I’m not claiming the papercraft is perfect, but I didn’t make huge errors that stick out. Poor construction skills, yes, but not due to messing up. Just… inexperience and lack of proficiency.

         For those more interested in the Nekobasu more than the Totoro papercraft [which is perfectly understandable, it’s awesome], then I guess I can fill you in on that. I got it five years ago at the very earliest. I’m actually thinking I got it a few years before that, but I’ll go with the five to be safe. I think I got it at Japan while on a connecting flight, while my sister got the actual Totoro. Both of them you can pull the tail out, which pulls out a string. When the string retracts back into the toy, it’ll rumble. My Nekobasu purrs =3 And no, I haven’t found any good Nekobasu papercrafts [found one, but disliked it horribly].

         For the record, this still somewhat counts for my “fake cat” papercrafts, though with a little cheating. In the Chinese version of Totoro, Mei refers to Totoro as “Leung Mao” [not entirely sure about English spelling, correct me if I’m wrong], meaning “dragon cat”. So he’s still kind of like a fake cat! And throw in the fact that I have the Nekobasu, and it’s still good. However, I think this’ll be my last fake cat for a bit, since the coincidences of finding cat papercrafts has ended. The next creation should be unrelated and completely random. Till I finish that, that’s it for now!

//Soda

19 Comments »


19 Responses to “Papercraft- Totoro”

  1. on 06 Mar 2007 at 6:56 am1 chan kok seong

    dear sir

    i will like to have the Totoro 3D papercraft, can you pls send me the detials.

    thanks you

  2. on 03 Apr 2007 at 12:45 pm2 Totoro lover

    Wow! how did you make that Totoro? I love it!! it’s sooo cute! would you be able to send me the template?
    Thank you soooo much if you can!!
    ~Totoro lover!

  3. on 30 Jun 2007 at 9:28 am3 bebb

    wow wow wow wow! I Love that totoro, can you tell me how you made it? It looks amasing. Thanks bebb

  4. on 30 Jun 2007 at 3:02 pm4 Straffehond

    wow…
    can u send me the templates?
    Its a hobby of me to build such, well, it isn’t a creature but…
    plzplzplzplzplz send it to me.
    its eyes grabbed me…

  5. on 30 Jun 2007 at 3:09 pm5 Shirukii

    Sorry guys, Soda’s on vacation right now and I have no means by which to contact him and he’s the one who made this.

    When he gets back I’ll ask him for the template and send it to those who asked (if I remember =P)

  6. on 30 Jun 2007 at 3:22 pm6 straffehond

    yay!

  7. on 07 Jul 2007 at 4:03 pm7 lahlah

    Its awesome haha.
    Pleeaase send the template to me?
    I just made a Nekobus one xD
    But the template on this one won’t come up :[

  8. on 20 Jul 2007 at 4:06 am8 chien

    I’m interesting in papercraft and I’m also TOTORO LOVER…may i have the templates? may i know the way to do the papercraft of TOTORO? tHANK YOU VERY MUCH…..

  9. on 30 Jul 2007 at 8:58 am9 Eviltwinz

    Please can I have the instructions on how to make it I LOVE TOTORO!!!!!!

  10. on 21 Sep 2007 at 4:15 pm10 straffehond

    awww i’m bulding a papercraft-town now, and i want him :’(

  11. on 15 Oct 2007 at 11:57 pm11 &hearts

    can you send me how to make it….please…..

  12. on 26 Jan 2008 at 12:50 pm12 Pop

    actaully in chinese “leung mao” means chinchilla, not dragon cat. just saying :)

  13. on 17 Sep 2008 at 3:59 pm13 Mari

    I just saw Tonari no Totoro a couple of days ago for the first time… I loved it! And you have made a perfect Totoro-look-alike out of paper!!! Awesome, beautiful, wonderful! You made me smile :).

  14. on 26 Jan 2009 at 9:57 am14 kimberley

    i love totoro!!!!

    send / email me the templete pretty please

  15. on 12 Feb 2009 at 12:23 am15 Pearl

    OMG!!!! that is sooooo cute…..
    You are amazing.!!!! I love this. :) Do you mind to share the design with me. I am interesting of turning it into a stitch version…… How cute is that.

  16. on 20 Mar 2009 at 5:54 am16 chip

    me tooo send me totoro template pleaseee
    chipvasu@hotmail.com ^^ thankyousomuch

  17. on 03 May 2009 at 10:30 pm17 Freddylove

    Would you be kind enough to send me the templates of your Totoro?
    Thanks a lot!

  18. on 02 Jun 2009 at 1:08 am18 chris

    totoro papercraft, would u send me the totoro template please. my little sister sure will like it. thankz

  19. on 25 Jun 2009 at 10:35 pm19 Piero

    Send me too *-*
    piero.locatelli@gmail.com

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