The pop-up city book
Press the button and the lid lifts into a night sky, while three frames stand up for the city you choose. Close it, and it all folds flat.
Closed, it looks like a book: 8.1 × 6.7 × 2.5 in. Scroll to open it.
Press the brass button on the front edge. The latch lets go, two torsion springs lift the lid, and a gear damper keeps it slow.
A parallelogram linkage on each side lifts three empty row frames with the lid. They stand upright when the lid reaches 90°, ready for a city.
The lid becomes a night sky with a moon, a purple horizon and 60 stars. Now turn the room lights out.
The moon and the stars glow in the dark. No batteries, no wires, no switch.
Add a city: here, the New York pack, sold separately. Its three rows and harbor plate drop onto the frames, and its windows glow too.
What you get
A navy book with a cream page block and a brass button. Press it and the lid lifts into a night sky with a moon, a purple horizon and 60 stars, and three row frames stand up in front of it. Close the lid and the frames fold flat inside.
No batteries, no wires, no switch. After a lamp has charged them, the moon and stars glow brightest for 30 to 60 minutes with the room lights out.
The book comes with its frames empty. The skyline is a city pack: three building rows and a harbor plate that click onto the frames and fold away with them.
Every pack fits this book, and you can change cities whenever you like. Pick at least one city to go with it: New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans or Beijing.
Up close
Change the city
Say the New York pack is on. Each row sits on its frame on V-shaped keys and is held by magnets. Lift it straight up and it comes free.
Once the three rows are off, lift the harbor plate out of the tray. The book is empty again.
Drop in the next pack's plate. Here it is Paris, with its boat on the Seine.
Set the rows on, back to front. The grooves slide over the keys and the magnets pull each row home. Every city pack goes on the same way.
Pick your first city
The book needs at least one city pack. Each is three building rows and a harbor plate that click onto the frames, and each is sold separately. Tap a city to see its pack.
New YorkLiberty with her torch, the Empire State, the Chrysler, the Brooklyn Bridge and brownstones with a yellow cab.See the New York pack
LondonTower Bridge lifting for a ship, Big Ben, the Eye and a red double-decker.See the London pack
ParisA bronze-gold lattice Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and a lit boat on the Seine.See the Paris pack
TokyoFuji, the Skytree, vermilion gates and a cherry-blossom tunnel lit by lanterns.See the Tokyo pack
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate in its own red, painted pastels and a cable car climbing the hill.See the San Francisco pack
Los AngelesGriffith Observatory on the hills, palms on the bluff and the Santa Monica Pier Ferris wheel.See the Los Angeles pack
New OrleansPastel townhouses with iron balconies and Mardi Gras beads, a streetcar and a paddle steamer.See the New Orleans pack
BeijingThe Great Wall on the ridge, golden palace roofs, a panda in the hutong and a white bridge over the lake.See the Beijing packPick a city, press the button tonight, then turn out the lights.