larryhammer | "I give you an all-night movie marathon / and a triple espresso / so you can stay awake"

~~My pusher~~ the imports giftshop at our favorite Japanese restaurant came through for me again: a package of what was labeled (in almost the only English on it) "dinosaur folding paper" but turned out to be orgami paper patterened for three specific models, of (transliterating the katakana, which I cannot type) a puteranodon, teiranosaurusu, and burakiosaurusu.* Each model is two pieces, and there's paper for two copies, 12 sheets total, AND the wrapper unfolds into a diorama background. The intructions are entirely in Japanese, but the diagrams are quite clear, if tiny.

In short, as these crappy pictures demonstrate, it's way cool. Here's the three paper dinos in their native habitat -- click through for more detail:

Pteranodon, before and after. Left sheet forms the head, body, and feet, the right sheet the wings:

Brachiosaurus, before and after. Right sheet is the neck and tail, left sheet is body and legs:

Tyrranosaur, before and after. Right sheet is torso and head, left sheet is lrgs and tail. Compare with Montrol's version. Montrol also has models of the other two, which I have even folded, but I do not have pictures.

Of note to culture watchers: while the main blurbage has kanji (with very clear furigana), the actual folding instructions are entirely in hiragana (the first writing that children learn to read), and the only other English on the wrapper (aside from the name) is a safety warning, including beware of letting your children suffocate on the plastic baggy and don't give the paper to children under three as it's a choking hazard. In other words, children in Japan begin folding origami at a much younger age than in the west -- and these are moderately sophisticated low-intermediate designs.

* More commonly spelled in Latin alphabet pteranodon, tyrranosaurus, and brachiosaurus.

---L.