Chris Is Back From Tokyo

Hi everyone! I'm baccckkkkkk =) ... Hehehee ... I have lots of videos and photos of places selling nanoblock in Japan, will take some time to edit them and post it up soon. In the mean time, here's me at the official nanoblock store at the Tokyo Skytree ^^ ... and I saw something familiar on the screen in the shop.

nanoblock Spacia Tobu Limited Express Review

Photos & Review By: Wendy Lim
Text By: Wendy Lim & Christopher Tan

Difficulty: Level 3

Time to Complete: 45 minutes

No of Blocks: 320+

Front of the box

Back of the box

The Tobu 100 series, branded Spacia, is a limited express electric multiple unit (EMU) train type operated by the Tobu Railway in Japan since 1990. The trains are used on Kegon and Kinu services to Nikkō and Kinugawa-Onsen. More info is available on Wikipedia and on Tobu's website.

This is the fifth limited edition nanoblock set released by the Nanoblock Store at the Tokyo Skytree. It comes with 320+ bricks and an instruction sheet.

In terms of special bricks, there is nothing really extra ordinary but it does have some clear bricks.

Even though this is a Level 3 set, building it was quite straight forward. Here are some photos of the build process.

Extra bricks included with this set

I like this set very much as it is my first nanoblock train set and I love the colour purple. You can see the fully completed Spacia train below.

This nanoblock set is available on Amazon.

nanoblock Sets On Sale Now

Here are some interesting nanoblock sets on sale right now (prices may very slightly due to exchange rate fluctuations). Check it out! If any of them shows "Out of stock", just check back later. Plamoya restocks 2-3 times a day.

Neuschwanstein Castle Deluxe Edition Set - US$167.02  (20% Discount)

Tokyo Skytree Deluxe Edition ver 2.0 - US$144.34 (31% Discount)

Tokyo Tower Deluxe Edition - US$57.61 (20% Discount)

Himeji Castle Deluxe Edition - US$63.35 (25% Discount)

Space Center: Deluxe Edition - US$60.76 (20% Discount)

Japanese Navy Battle Ship Yamato - US$58.77 (21% Discount)

Statue of Liberty - US$20.59 (22% Discount)

Tintin - Shark Submarine - US$37.39 (37% Discount)

P-51 Mustang - US$20.59 (22% Discount)

Mitsubishi A6M Zero - US$19.61 (26% Discount)

Empire State Building - US$20.59 (22% Discount)

Tokyo Skytree - US$19.83 (25% Discount)

The various basic brick sets are also on sale at discounts between 24%-31% over here.

To see all the other nanoblock items available, click here.

nanoblock Tokyo Skytree Review

Difficulty: Level 5
Time to Complete: 120 mins
No of Blocks: 490+
Item Code: NBH-022
Price: Not Available

The Tokyo Sky Tree is a broadcasting, restaurant and observation tower under construction in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It has been the tallest artificial structure in Japan since 2010. The nanoblock Tokyo Skytree set comes in a medium sized box packaging, with over 550+ pieces of building blocks, and a large sheet of instruction paper to show you how to build it.

The blocks and instruction paper. That's over 490+ blocks.

This is a "Level 5" nanoblock set, making it the hardest nanoblock set I have build so far. It took me around two hours to put it all together. There are several challenging factors in building this set. The first one would be the fact that the main part of the structure is really quite flimsy, so adding more pieces on top of it is a delicate operation. If you use too much strength, you will bring the whole structure crashing down. The second factor is the fact that you need to angle the bricks at certain angles as you are building the Skytree upwards, and there are no indicators on how much you need to angle them, so it all comes down to rough estimations. If you keep making slightly wrong estimations as you add each level, you end up with a tower that does not look right. Here are some pics of the build process.

And here is the fully assembled Tokyo Skytree. It stands at about 27cm tall, making it one of the tallest nanoblock set currently available.

If you have the nanoblock LED base plate (separate purchase), you can light up the Tokyo Skytree.

This nanoblock Tokyo Skytree set is only officially available in Japan, though some parallel importers in some countries may import it. I bought mine online from Plamoya (Links: Tokyo Skytree, LED Base Plate).  You can also find it in my Amazon.com store.

If you are on Facebook, do follow Chris's Nanoblock Blog page on Facebook to get all the latest updates.

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.