KitRex: Googly-Eyed Life-Size Paper Velociraptor Costume

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The KitRex costume that started it all at Lehigh Valley Mini Maker Faire
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A real crowd-pleaser at the inaugural Lehigh Valley Mini Maker Faire, this industrial origami-Inspired full size dino “chicken-walker” was created on the laser cutter at Lehigh University through the Integrated Product Development program. As expected, a steady stream of children tailed the reptilian pied piper, in awe of it’s crafty cardstock awesomeness.

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Lisa Glover shows off her small KitRex paper craft Kickstared velociraptor at Lehigh Valley Mini Maker Faire.

LehighValley_MMF_logos.fwI interviewed Lisa Glover, the creator of the velociraptor costume and the successfully Kickstarted KitRex raptor papercraft kit, now in its final hours.

A KitRex is a flat-packed, paper dinosaur that you construct by folding and tabbing together specially cut pieces of high-quality Bristol board. It balances on its feet and can be decorated with googly eyes, feathers, and what ever else you can imagine.

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KitRex Velociraptor
by Lisa
on Sketchfab

Here’s a the background behind KitRex and the costume that started it all: 

Halloween has always been a big deal to me, and I wanted to top last year’s costume (a dragon, complete with tail, claws, and wings). Being that it was my last year at Lehigh (and last year with free access to a laser cutter), I wanted to make it count.  So I decided I would be a velociraptor…

In early October, our class was introduced to a project called ‘Making It’, where we had to explore a manufacturing process and demonstrate it in an interesting way. I thought, perhaps I could kill two birds with one stone- complete the assignment and make a Halloween costume too. So I searched for a process that would be applicable to my idea and soon stumbled upon ‘Industrial Origami’.

Read the full story on the KitRex site.

KitRex

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Anna Kaziunas France is interested practical digital fabrication focused project documentation (anything that turns codes into things), as well as adventures in synthetic biology, biohacking, personal genomics and programmable materials.

She's currently working on the forthcoming book "Design for CNC: Practical Joinery Techniques, Projects, and Tips for CNC-routed Furniture".

She’s also the Academic Dean of the global Fab Academy program, the co-author of Getting Started with MakerBot and compiled the Make: 3D Printing book.

Formerly, she worked as an editor for Make: Books, was digital fabrication editor and skill builder section editor for Make: Magazine, and directed Make:'s 2015 and 2014 3D Printer Shootout testing events.

She likes things that are computer-controlled, parametric, and open— preferably all three.

Find her on her personal site, Twitter and Facebook.

View more articles by Anna Kaziunas France

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