nanoblock Taipei 101 Review

Difficulty: Level 4
Time to Complete: 90 minutes
No of Blocks: 750+ Pieces
Item Code: NBH_059
Price: NTD1000

Front of the box 

Back of the box

Taipei 101 is a landmark skyscraper located in Taipei, Taiwan. It was ranked officially as the world's tallest from 2004 until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010. In July 2011, the building was awarded LEED Platinum certification, the highest award in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system and became the tallest and largest green building in the world. More info on Wikipedia.

In this review, we take a look at the nanoblock version. It is a medium sized boxed set with over 750 pieces of bricks and a big instruction sheet. This is a Taiwan exclusive release as far as I am aware and I got mine with the help of my friend who travelled to Taiwan. 

I heard from other collectors that this is a limited edition release and it does in fact have a holographic sticker with a running serial number in front of the box. However, I am unable to verify just how many are actually being released.

Limited edition sticker

Contents of this set

Clear blue bricks make up the majority of bricks included with this set. If you need a lot of clear blue bricks for some custom project, you might want to consider getting this set.

Despite being rated Level 4 in difficulty, it was actually fairly straight forward to build. A big portion of the build process is quite repetitive. Here are some photos taken during the build.

Extra bricks included with this set

The completed nanoblock Taipei 101 stands at about 23cm tall. It looks better than I expected. You can see more photos of the finished nanoblock Taipei 101 below.

This nanoblock building sits on a clear base plate and the building itself is also mostly made up of clear bricks, so one would assume it would be nicely lit up by the LED base plate. Well, that is not the case here. The light only reaches the bottom 20% of the building. 

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nanoblock Clear Color Set Review

Difficulty: Level 1 - 4
No of Blocks: 800+
Item Code: NB-016

Front of the box

Back of the box

It has been years since Kawada first introduced the basic brick sets which are basically generic nanoblock sets that lets you build anything you like. So, it is nice to see them finally getting around to introducing new sets for those who like to build their own designs. Kawada released three sets recently: Standard Color, Monotone Color and Clear Color. In this review, we take a look at the new Clear Color Set (NB-016). 

The bricks in this set comes in 5 colours and the material used is a kind of transparent plastic. You can see the list of brick colours and types in the photo below. Interesting thing to note is the inclusion of newer brick types like the rounded-edge 1x3 and 1x4.

The bricks in this set

The contents of this set

A huge instruction sheet is included in the set, with separate instructions to make 7 different things. Look at the photos below to see what you can build. It is nice that they show you which items you can build at the same time.

Some of the designs are really simple to build and should not take long. The most challenging would be the rose and the crystal skull. 

If you have the nanoblock LED base plate, you can use it to light up your creations. Here is what the crystal skull looks like lighted up. 

I know there are many of you who love this fully transparent "crystal" look, but personally, I am not really into making completely transparent designs unless the thing I am making is inherently transparent like liquid or glass. Nevertheless, it is a good addition to a custom builder's arsenal. These transparent bricks could come in really handy in many situations.

You can get this Clear Color Set online at Plamoya or Amazon.

Chris's nanoblock Christmas Tree 2013

I created this using only the bricks from the Clear Color Set (NB-016) and the addition of the LED base plate to light up the tree.

DIY: Lighting for nanoblock

The only official method of lighting your nanoblock creations is by using the nanoblock LED Base Plate. That is useful for bigger designs, but what if you want to light up something smaller? Here is a simply DIY solution that will cost you RM5 and just a minute of your time.

Buy this LED key chain from Daiso. You can also search eBay for it.

What's cool about this particular LED keychain is that
the LED + battery holder + switch is all in one removable
module as you can see above.

As you can see, it is pretty compact.

It is also bright and colourful. It cycles through the
various colours in alternating slow waves and
fast flickers. 

Here you can see the battery. They should be good
for 10-12 hours of use.

You can stick it to a piece of 2x4 brick using bluetack,
or hot glue gun if you want it more permanent. Now, it is
ready for use. 

Here is an example of our DIY LED light being used
to light up a tiny house. The switch is accessible thru
that small hole you see behind the house.

Here is what the house looks like lighted up.

Below is a video of the lights in use. Looks like they are having a party in there =D

nanoblock LED Base Plate Review

Item Code: NB-011

Price: Not Available in Malaysia

The nanoblock LED Base plate is a 20 x 20 clear plate with 3 LEDs positioned near the center of the plate, powered by 3 AAA batteries. The three LEDs are in red, green and blue, and it slowly transitions   between the three LEDs when turned on. 

Contents of the box

The base plate is 20 x 20

Unscrew to open the battery compartment

3 AAA batteries needed

This is what it looks like when turned on

The switch for turning it on or off

There is only one switch on the side that lets you turn it on or off. Unfortunately, you have no control over which particular colour LED to turn on.  Here is a video of how it looks like when it is on.

This base plate was originally designed to be used with the Tokyo Skytree nanoblock set, but you can find other creative uses for it. In the photo below, I removed the bottom of the nanoblock Jack-O-Lantern and placed it on the LED base plate.

This nanoblock LED Base plate is only officially available in Japan, though some parallel importers in some countries may import it.  I bought mine online from Plamoya.  You can also find it in my Amazon.com store.