this handmade LEGO robot folds and launches paper planes to perfection

sao-paolo based designer arthur sacek loves LEGO, using the bricks to build everything from clocks to cake tops. so when approached to make a complicated contraption that could fold and launch a paper airplane on its own, it was all systems go. sacek and his design team built a bespoke paper plane making machine that takes a single sheet of paper, pleats it to perfection, and sends it down a ‘runway’ to be shot off into mid-air.

the LEGO paper plane machine folds a single sheet of paper on its own

using only LEGO, sacek and his creative team designed the device for the super bowl commercial spot of arrow electronics — an technological components company. the robot has been designed to transform a sheet of paper using a variety of carefully-programmed LEGO apparatuses and tools. beginning as a flat sheet, the paper moves through a system a cogs where it’s folded along specific pleat points, following the pattern of a paper plane. as it takes shape, the sheet is crimped to its final form before finally being launched into mid-air. in collaboration with elevation digital media, the entire commercial production was shot in less than four hours.

see the final short film above, and a behind-the-scenes look at the making-of the LEGO paper plane machine at the bottom of the page.

the robot takes a single sheet of paper, pleats it to perfection, and sends it down a ‘runway’ 

the machine transforms a sheet of paper using a variety of carefully-programmed LEGO apparatuses

the sheet is crimped to its final form before finally being launched into mid-air

see a behind-the-scenes look at the making-of the LEGO paper plane machine below