Mjolnir from Cardboard

They look pretty authentic, don't they?   For old cardboard, cereal boxes, bottle caps, hot glue and paint, I think these replicas of Thor's hammer look rather sharp.

I've had time on my hands, this being my sabbatical year and some of it has been spent putting Youtube how to vids to the test.  It all started small with the cardboard standup cutouts.  They were accessible even if they weren't  as straight forward as I originally expected.  I still can't say I've mastered the trick of assembling the different pieces in perfect alignment.

There's Will standing by the most recent cutouts to provide perspective.  Will is a tall guy, but not a giant, so you can see that Ant-Man, the largest cutout so far, is less than life-size.  That's all of these I plan to do for a while unless I find out one of my colleagues just bought themselves a new refrigerator.

This minor success made me a lot more ambitious and I decided to go for the gold and do my best to recreate Dali DIY's design for Thor's hammer, Mjolnir.  This is much more complex stuff, not beginner material at all but the man gives a complete demonstration on video and offers downloadable templates on his blog for free.  His designs are the coolest by far of anyone doing similar stuff on the net. 

Dali is a true artist so I knew going in that I might not be able to do everything he did, no matter how well he led the way.  I might even screw things up completely and have to toss it all.  I never expected my hammers to turn out quite as cool as his own and I was right about that but I am happy with my beginner cardboard craft results.

 

Part One of the instructional video.

 

 

I decided to make three of them.  That way I could fine tune my efforts along the way with each one.  That worked for the most part but it took a long time.  It was three days before I had all of the big pieces carved out.  All in all (I didn't work at these every day) it took me over a month and I ran into more than a few problems along the way.  A few times I thought I'd reached the worst case scenario of total failure but I'd already invested so much time that quitting wasn't an attractive option.

 

I couldn't follow his puffy paint design.  I found some of the paint  at Super Che after making some homemade stuff but I didn't trust either of them so I tested both concoctions on scrap cardboard.  Three hours later, they were still wet.  I decided they just didn't work and just went crazy with the glue gun.  I made a few lines and curls and just scribbled through them randomly with the tip of the gun.   I found out later that the test puffy paint scribbles dried but only after  two full days.  I don't have that kind of patience.

 

 

Part Two

 

 

I had two thin hollow metal pipes from an old mop and one wooden piece from an old broom for handles.  On the final day when I could almost taste success, the wooden handle caused me serious grief.  The pieces that were to slide on to it wouldn't fit anymore.  I managed to get some of them part way on and then they jammed.  I couldn't get them off either.  That was a 20 minute struggle before inspiration hit me.  On the chance that it had something to do with the hot Huatulco sun and expansion, I tossed it in the fridge for 5 minutes.  It worked!  Back in the game.  And here are the results.  I'm very proud. 

 

 

Thanks to the mystery man, whose face we only ever see behind his fantastic mask and helmet creations,  Mr. Dali Lomo.  All my respect for your creativity and craftsmanship.  Thanks for your generous sharing.

 

 

Be sure to visit his amazing blog.

Recent audio comic videos,

   



Cardboard Cutout Standup Heroes

 

Inspired by Homemadegameguru, the man responsible for the video below and tons of other creative ways to recycle cardboard,  I've started making my own standup cardboard cutouts and I've been prolific.  Fortunately, for a teacher who already has an office crammed with essential teaching materials, some of these have already found homes in the offices of colleagues who have generously taken over the Comic Zone in my absence.  

 

 

Homemadegameguru shows you how to make incredibly fun cardboard toys and I want to try more of them out some day.  I just decided on the cutouts because they seemed so accessible to a beginner with glue, carboard and a utility knife. 

 

This is the first batch.  Wonder Woman was the only image printed specifically for the purpose.  Black and white WW was a complete printer accident but doesn't she look groovy?  The rest were an attempt to use up some of the small scraps left behind and the overflow of some of those essential teaching materials that are just too god to throw away.

Some of these will be door prizes for Cinemapocalipsis on Tuesday nights when I return to the work world in February next year.

There's the Black Widow in fighting pose on the beach and a small army of Phantom Strangers, a personal favorite from my childhood.

 

Even making the images on the computer has been a little tricky.  Homemadegameguru uses Photoshop which I neither have or know how to use.  I've been using Microsoft Publisher.  The Hulk is from a PDF of six different pages.    

There is no cardboard standup cutout action figure stronger or bigger than the Hulk.  So far.