nanoblock Air Force One

Here is a quick photo review of the nanoblock Air Force One (NBA_008). This set comes with 260+ pieces of bricks and has a difficulty rating of 2. As far as I know, this set is currently officially only available in the US. 

The bricks and instruction sheet for this set

The extra blocks included in this set

Over all, it's a fairly simple set to build and the design is as detailed as it gets for something this size.

nanoblock Award: Build It Your Way Competition

nanoblock fans in the USA, here's your chance to win some cool prizes!

nanoblock®, the world’s smallest building block system from The Ohio Art Company, makers of the famous Etch A Sketch®, invites nano-enthusiasts of all ages to participate in the first-ever national nanoblock® Award: Build It Your Way Competition. Put your imaginations to the test and build your very own unique creations using only nanoblock® bricks. The winner will be crowned TATSUJIN: Master of nanoblock® along a FREE vacation for a family of four and other amazing prizes!

How the nanoblock® Build It Your Way Competition works:

• Entry Phase: From February 16, 2014 to September 1, 2014, parents/applicants can upload a photo of their original nanoblock® creation in one of two categories, under 500 pieces and over 500 pieces.  There is no limit to the number of submissions per applicant. Submissions are accepted at www.YourNanoblockCreations.com.
• Judging Phase:  All submissions will be reviewed by a panel of judges consisting of a mixture of toy industry opinion leaders and Ohio Art representatives. The top five finalists will be selected and notified on or around September 15, 2014.
• Winner Phase: One grand prize-winner will receive a $4,000 travel voucher.  A first and second prize winner will be selected in each category (under 500 pieces and over 500 pieces).  Two first prize winners will receive an iPod nano and nanoblock® sets (one set per month of their choice) for a year.  Two second prize winners will receive nanoblock® sets (one set per month of their choice) for a year.  Winners will be announced, on or around, September 21, 2014 and featured on The Ohio Art website and the official nanoblock® Facebook and Twitter pages.

nanoblock Statue of Liberty Review

Difficulty: Level 4

Time to Complete: 90 minutes

No of Blocks: 650+

Item Code: NBM-003

Front of the box

Back of the box

The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in the middle of New York Harbor, in Manhattan, New York City. The statue, designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886, was a gift to the United States from the people of France. 

This nanoblock Statue of Liberty is a medium sized set with over 650+ bricks and comes with a big piece of instruction paper to show you how to build it. You can see the contents of the box below.

The first thing you will notice is that the bricks for the statue is a different colour from the photo of the statue on the box. It would appear the photographer used wrong white balance settings. Anyway, the real colour of the bricks for the statue is very nice, so no worries. 

This is a level 4 nanoblock set, so it should be moderately challenging. In building this set, I actually found it to be fairly easy. There is nothing particularly tricky to worry about. Below are some photos of the build process.

The completed Statue of Liberty

The extra bricks included in this set

The completed nanoblock Statue of Liberty stands at 20cm tall, making it a 1:465 scale model of the real thing. It is not the most accurate nanoblock model, but for its size, the designer did a pretty good job. I am not a fan of the tiny "humans" however ... Haha ... Below are more photos so you can click on it to take a closer look.

I got this nanoblock set from Plamoya, which offers discount on this item from time to time. You can check it out at this link. You can also get it from Amazon at this link.

Note: My review above is for the Japanese version of nanoblock Statue of Liberty. It has come to my attention that the US version has a deeper blue colour bricks for the statue. In my opinion, the Japanese version looks a lot better.

nanoblock Space Center Deluxe Edition Review

Difficulty: Level 6

Time to Complete: 7 hours

No of Blocks: 1600+

Item Code: NB-017

Front of the box

Back of the box

This is the all new Deluxe Edition of the nanoblock Space Center. It comes with over 1600+ pieces of bricks in a really big box. As you can see in the photo below, everything could have fit in a box half the size, as the box is kinda empty. I suppose a bigger box makes you feel better about spending so much on this set ... Haha ...

What's inside the box

All the bricks that comes with this set

Normally, most nanoblock sets come with a single piece of paper containing the complete build instructions. This set comes with a book containing over 30 pages of instructions! When you see this, you know you are going to be in for a real challenge. 

The building instructions

An interesting thing about this nanoblock set is that it comes with many new or rarer types of bricks, as shown in the photo below. I think the 1x6 bricks are going to be quite handy and the upward angled brick would be useful for refining some designs. The round ones are interesting too, but I think I will need more of them for it to be useful in my custom builds.

This is a Level 6 nanoblock set, making it the most complex nanoblock set I have built to date. While it may not seem very complicated from looking at the photos of the completed space center, believe me, it will take a lot longer than you think. It actually took me close to seven hours! 

Looking for the bricks used in each step of the process is a very time consuming task. I would highly recommend that you take the bricks out of the bags and sort them out into containers before you start. It would save you a lot of time. 

The design of this set is quite "fragile" in a number of places, especially when putting all the pieces of the orange booster rocket together. If you use too much force when snapping them together, you could end up smashing them. Anyway, here are photos of the build process below.

The finished Space Center in "Stand-by State" stands at almost 26cm tall. This deluxe edition's design is more detailed and a lot more refined compared to the old space center set, thanks to the use of 3 times more bricks and also new types of bricks. 

There are quite a few extra bricks included, as shown in the photo below.

Here are photos of the completed Space Center in "Stand-by State".

You can also display the space shuttle in "Flight State" as shown below. Instructions are provided for you to build a transparent stand with adjustable tilt. The cargo bay doors can be opened and you can deploy a satellite using robotic arms. There's also a very tiny astronaut.

Yes, that's an astronaut on the right

I bought this set from Plamoya at 20% discount for around USD60 not including shipping. You can find this deal by clicking here. If it is listed as "sold-out", do check it again later, as they restock 2-3 times daily.