Foolish Mortals.

From the "it seemed like a good and fun idea eighteen hours ago" department.

The other day, after following a link from Boing Boing to these items, I was inspired to construct my very own miniature tiki lounge. This idea, already a bit too ambitious, was quickly abandoned after a bigger and brighter (and even more ambitious) scheme popped into my head: I wanted to build my very own miniature Tiki Room (as in Disneyland).

It didn't take very long to realize that this was not going to happen. Ben's exact words about the project were "it's going to look like crap." Not that he's not supportive -- he's just realistic. And he's right, I mean really, where would I even get a miniature Jose? Or Michael, Fritz, Pierre and the rest of the glee club, for that matter?

I wasn't ready to give up on a homemade Disneyland-themed miniature, however. I began to think smaller. How about making a model of an attraction without any animatronics, furniture or faux-fauna? How about the Haunted Mansion, specifically the Haunted Mansion stretching room?

It seemed doable.

It wasn't.

---

So, I thought of the next best thing: a paper model of the Haunted Mansion's stretching room.

It would be fun! It would be great! It would be the next best thing to being there in person!

Yeah, eighteen hours later, my ever-suffering helper and I realized that we so would rather be at Disneyland.

Ben cuts out the paper model that I made in Illustrator:

Folding. Folding. Folding. You can't see his face, but Ben doesn't like me right now:

The final product, from the outside:

Only I can see the magic:

A twist to the box -- an ornament is made by reversing the folds:

But wait! There's more. You can build your own Octa-Rama!

Download my model in .pdf form (730 k) and be prepared to get very frustrated^* with paper products and my oh so vague directions.

^* I'm telling you: don't expect this to be easy or that much fun.

Comments

[judith]

oooh! will you record a voice track that says "step into the *dead* center of the room..."?

[katie]

This rules more than anything ever haha. I need to try this once I get brave enough.

[Paul]

This is calling for a companion miniature Epcot. That way, it can be an east coast-west coast battle royale!

[Cindy]

wow... I'm impressed that you can rope Ben into helping you with things like this. Whenever -I- start on spontaneous projects, Justin quickly expresses his doubt and shuts himself in the other room until the fumes and noises die down.

[Cory Doctorow]

I just wanna say that you are now (more than ever) a hero of the digital media revolution. Brava!

[Eric Freeman]

Brilliant! More! More!

[nicole]

Would you reccommend cardstock, or will glossy Epson photo paper suffice? (I have only the latter, but this is a project worth the materials)

[Mena]

I used glossy Epson photo paper and got a good result. I think it would work better than cardstock since you'll get a better quality print. Just make sure to use paper that is slightly thicker than regular printer paper.

[Ottar]

Hey WOW!
VERY creative idea! Pleeease make another one??
:-D
*applause*
/Ottar

[julianna]

this is awesome!!! more, please!

[Will Leshner]

Very cool. If you are interested in paper crafts, you should check out this site: http://webs.to/kamigei. It's in Japanese, but should be able to see the paper models, along with downloadable instructions. The site has become a little hard to navigate, but don't give up. It's worth it. For example, there are paper models of just about every Macintosh (including PowerBooks and iBooks).

[Annie]

Meena:

As a former Disneyland Cast Member, I salute you. You ROCK!

* encore! encore! *

[Andrew]

For paper-cutout gods and godesses: "Build Your Own Working Paper Clock" at Amazon. I had this book. It's fiendish, but the thing actually works.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060910666

[Marc]

I think you should keep going for the Tiki Lounge, there are so many bits and pieces out there for you to have fun with:
Typefaces at Chank - Churchward (more Maori than Tiki) or at House Industries with their Tiki Type.
There are also some packaging design books that have some great templates at Rotovision, and Rockport Publishers - some have CDs that give fairly intricate templates that could help with the cuts and folds.

[Jeff]

I will volunteer to recreate the entire Smithsonian Institution in miniature or paper mache! I already have Dorothy's dog Toto done!

[rumbanik]

Fabulous idea. I have incorporated the hanging man above mine, which I ceremoniously cut loose every morning as I recite the monologue and scream...my co-workers are delighted indeed. Thank you kindly.

[math face]

it only took me about 5 minutes. but that's because i majorerd in math in college and had to take a whole class on assembling geometrical nets (which is essentially what yours is). for the final i had to make a house out of a net. it was really hard.

it's cute, by the way. you've got mad skill with illustrator.

[vossius]

Some more paperwork at www.wwwbon.nl..Look for shops: paper planes.
Greetings. Vossius.

[Mike Hungerford]

Hello,
Would it be possible to get your .PDF file for the model without it being BinHexed? Those of us in the PC world can't do much with an .HQX file, and the model is irresistable. :-)
Mike

[Roland]

Hi, i cannot open your model, because it is an hqx file. Can you possibly send me the model by email, so i can experience it.
Thank you
Roland

[Matthew Sparks]

Very neat model!
So...
How come you didn't make it so it actually stretches????

[Pete]

I tried to download it, but it said the homepage couldn't be found! Now, I love the haunted mansion and I think this would be cool to make so could you e-mail it to me or something? Thanks.
-Pete F.

[Thie]

Hello,

it tried to download the model, but i cant get them. So please can you mail me the .pdf file(sorry i need the PC version)??

thanks.
thie

[Berret T Maynard]

Could you send me the PDF for your haunted mansion Stretching room model. Us PC users have a tough time with binHex files.

Thanks in advance

[dan]

I'd be very interested in the haunted mansions stretching room. Where can I get a copy of it from?