pop-up book

Love Story Pop-Up Book Instructions

Jason

A few years ago, I designed this love themed pop-up book for Kristal as a Valentine’s gift.

At the time, I only released building instructions for the pop-up ‘I heart U’ message and ring box, as it could be fit in the original LEGO Pop-Up Book set (21315).

Since then, there has been a pretty steady interest in building instructions for the full model, and I think I’ve actually been getting more requests as time goes on. I finally took some time to put full instructions together, which you can find below, along with a short video demonstration of the model.

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Nativity Pop-Up Book Instructions

Jason

Last year for the holidays, I designed a Nativity Scene insert for the LEGO Pop-Up Book. I received quite a few requests for building instructions and, just in time for this year’s season, I’ve finally finished them.

The instructions show you how to build all of the individual components, and inserting them into the pop-up book should be fairly straight forward. In case anything isn’t clear, I have also put together a video showing how they all fit inside.

https://youtu.be/OiCk6mk8qt0
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Cemetery Pop-Up Book Insert

Jason

With Halloween on the horizon, I thought it would be a good time to revisit the cemetery Pop-Up Book insert I designed for my ‘Tales From the Crypt‘ book, to see if I could fit it within the official Pop-Up Book set (21315). I also created building instructions for this insert, which you can find below.

https://youtu.be/qgydHcQN-bM
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Motorized Pop-Up Book Stand

Jason

Over the last couple of years, we’ve spent quite a bit of time at events showing people how the Pop-Up Book worked. Somewhere along the way, Kristal suggested that I really needed to build a machine that would automatically open and close it. I finally built this book stand for it to do just that.

https://youtu.be/okYCgNjWW4o

The stand features an automatically switching ‘engine’, which oscillates an arm connected to the front cover of the book back and forth. A full explanation of how it works can be seen in the video.

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Valentine Pop-Up Book

Jason

January 2022 Update – Building instructions for the full book are now available here: Love Story Pop-Up Book Instructions.

For Valentine’s Day this year, I decided to build Kristal something special based on the LEGO Pop-Up Book set. Thankfully, the cameras were rolling to capture the magic.

https://youtu.be/bpbAgpiW068

I put together instructions for building the ‘I Heart U’ message and ring box insert, which you can find below. They can easily be inserted into the official LEGO Pop-Up Book set.

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Nativity Pop-Up Book Scene

Jason

Update: Building instructions for the nativity scene insert are now available in this post.

Someone recently suggested I build a LEGO nativity scene for the Pop-Up Book, and I thought it was a great idea. Here is a time-lapse video of the build. If you turn on captions you can also get some insight into the design process. Continue reading for some more details and photos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4vrCXTieHU

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Pop-Up Book Clasp Tutorial and Other Mods

Jason

As I mentioned in previous posts about the Pop-Up Book, one of the changes made from our original submission was the removal of the clasp that could be used to keep the book securely closed. The clasp is definitely not necessary to fully enjoy the set, but if it is something you are interested in adding back in, I’ve put together a tutorial video detailing how it can be done.

I actually show two different ways of adding a clasp in the video, one which doesn’t even require any additional pieces, and I also discuss some of the other custom changes I’ve made to my own copy of the set. These include adding a little more visual detail on the spine of the book by moving the author tiles to it, and adding additional studs to the inside of the book for adding more scenery. Continue reading to see more photos of some of these changes.

https://youtu.be/5UuEjmbY8jU

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Pop-Up Book – Original Model Comparison

Jason

It’s always interesting to see what changes get made to a LEGO Ideas project on its way to becoming an official set. Some go through pretty massive changes in order to meet LEGO’s internal design guidelines and achieve a target part count/price point to make them viable products.

I was really curious to see what changes would be made to the Pop-Up Book project. Would they massively redesign the pop-up mechanism? Would they change the size of the book? I had already assumed that they would give the book a major style makeover, but what physical changes would be made? I was pleasantly surprised to find out that not much was actually changed in this respect from our original model.

Of course, there were minor changes and improvements to many aspects of the book. I talk about some of these in the following video, and you can continue reading for more details.

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21315 LEGO Ideas Pop-Up Book

Jason

Just over two years ago, Grant Davis approached me about collaborating on a pop-up book project for LEGO Ideas. I enthusiastically agreed to join him, and together we fleshed out his idea and submitted our project to the Ideas website. Fast forward to the present, and the project has since achieved the required 10,000 supporters, passed the review process, and is now set to be released on November 1, 2018!

I have received a pre-release copy of the set, and I am extremely happy at how it turned out. Wes and Crystal, the LEGO designers who transformed our submission into the final production model, did an incredible job of fleshing out our idea and making it look beautiful. I put together a video discussing the contents of the set (instructions, parts, minifigures), the finished model and showing an alternate pop-up scene I designed using the pieces of the set. You can watch it below, or continue reading for some more of my thoughts on the set.

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Tales from the LEGO Crypt

Jason

In just under two months, the Pop Up Book project Grant and I posted to LEGO Ideas has obtained 5,000 supporters, which is half way to the 10,000 needed for it to enter the LEGO review! This is a huge accomplishment, and we would like to thank everyone who has supported us so far. To celebrate reaching this milestone, and since Halloween is only a few days away, I thought it would be cool to build a spooky interior for it.

https://youtu.be/IHOX2ZRsGC0

For this interior I wanted to incorporate some interactive features, which you often find in traditional pop up books. The ghost coming out of the crypt can move up and down as you rotate a gear in the back (achieved via a small piston inside the crypt), and you can make the skeleton in the open grave rise up using a small lever beside it.

I also decided to try building the book in a different color and add some decorative pieces to the front of it. I’m really pleased with how it turned out, and think it adds a little more interest to the exterior of the book. I had a lot of fun adding the spooky details to it, which include some jack-o-lanterns with creepy vines, a skeleton digging his way out from a grave, a Dementor coming through the fence, and the detailed crypt.

1613cryptopen