Yamaha is bringing back the YA-1, the company’s very first motorcycle. To be more specific, Yamaha is bringing the bike back to life through ultra-realistic paper craft as a way to celebrate 20 years of papercraft motorbikes for the company.

Yamaha official paper crafts first started in 1997 when designer Nobutaka Mukouyama was engaged in his first precise paper craft project, VMAX, for the Tokyo Motor Show special site. Over the years he has been involved in producing all paper craft projects found on Yamaha’s website, including motorcycles, animals and seasonal Japanese items. All of them can be downloaded for free with detailed instructions for assembling.

The YA-1 is the fifth paper model from the Ultra-Realistic series. At 1:4, the bike is 495 mm long and 293 mm tall and available in Standard Edition and Special Edition, with the latter featuring wheel spokes recreated with strings and a more realistic looking chain. Each edition is also available in a pre-coloured version and an uncoloured white version for designing your own colourway.

This paper model kit is not for the faint-hearted as it includes 34 A4-pages to cut, fold and glue, under the guidance of 50-pages of assembly instructions. It will probably take a whole afternoon to complete it, more so if you prefer to colour your own model. If you are still determined, simply head over to the download page and start getting carried away.