Fans have made paper models of just about every Macintosh computer ever built, dozens in all

Last year, Mike Burgess ordered a PowerMac G4 Cube from Apple's website. But he was so impatient for it to be delivered, he made a cardboard replica while he waited for the real one to arrive. "I am so excited about the new Cube that I had to see what it would look like in person!" he wrote in a note to MacAddict, where he posted plans for his cardboard Cube so that others could do the same. Burgess made his cardboard machine from a 3-D model of the computer he found on Apple's website. Apple posted the 3-D model in QuickTimeVR format to allow potential buyers to spin the Cube around in three dimensions and see it from all angles. Working with the 3-D model, Burgess extracted a detailed photograph of each side of the machine. He printed them out one by one on card stock and glued them together. The results were impressive: an accurate facsimile of the silvery Cube, which he placed on his desk. Burgess wasn't the first person to make a detailed paper model of his beloved Macintosh. In fact, making paper models of Macintosh computers is almost as old as the Macintosh itself. The first Mac was launched in 1984; paper models of the machines appeared only a year or two later. Since then, making faux Macs from paper has flourished into a hobby all its own. Fans have made paper models of just about every Macintosh computer ever built, dozens in all. The models range from Apple's earliest machines –-Apple IIs and all-in-ones such as the Mac SE, Plus and Color Classic –- to the latest G4 desktops and iMacs. Fans have even created a model of the Pippin, Apple's doomed foray into Internet appliances.