nanoblock Sumo Wrrestler

Here's my nanoblock Sumo Wrestler =) ...

nanoblock Tonkatsu

nanoblock Tonkatsu! =D ... This is one of my favorite Japanese food ... Hehehe ... During my recent Tokyo Trip, I ate at Katsukura, loved it! Also wanted to try Butagumi but didn’t have enough time ... Haha ...

PRESS RELEASE - Launch of My Japanese Food Series nanoblock

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Malaysian Nano Brick Artist Makes It Big
Feb 15, 2016

Internationally renowned award-winning Malaysian nano brick artist Christopher Tan releases his own designs as official nanoblock sets in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. In this first ever collaboration between an independent artist outside Japan with Kawada, the makers of nanoblock, Chris brings us a series of four nanoblock Japanese Food items - Sushi, Bento, Ramen and Temaki.

Only 3,024 of each item is being released, making them highly sought after limited release collectibles for nanoblock fans worldwide. They are available now in Malaysia at Kinokuniya, Aeon, Toys R Us, Hamleys, Popular, Isetan and other stockists, and retail at RM39.90 each.

Chris has been a full-time nano brick artist for over two years now, having started building with nanoblock over five years ago as a hobby. “It is like a dream come true to be able to finally have my own creations released commercially as official nanoblock sets" says Christopher, obviously overjoyed.

Over the years, Chris has grown a huge fan base of over 51,000 fans worldwide on Facebook (facebook.com/christan) and many more on other popular social media channels.

He has been involved in various international collaborations, most recently with Hong Kong film director Pang Ho-Cheung to create a limited edition Christmas gift. Last year, Chris had a successful art exhibition in Liang Court mall in Singapore and two art exhibitions in Malaysia in conjunction with AniManGaki 2015 and C2AGE 2015. In 2014, he had an exhibition in East Point City in Hong Kong during the World Cup season where he was involved with the design and construction of the largest nanoblock creation in the world, using over 250,000 bricks.

You can find out more at http://www.christan.design

About nanoblock

nanoblock is an extremely micro-sized building block by Kawada, Japan. The smallest part is a mere 4x4x5mm in size. More information at: http://www.diablock.co.jp/nanoblock

Contact:

Christopher Tan
Email: chris@christan.design

Download profile, soft copy & photos from: https://goo.gl/OJ0ZqG

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My nanoblock Japanese Food Series is here!

It's here! =D ... I finally have my own official nanoblock release in my hands ^^ ... Hahaha ... Yes, going a bit crazy here, pouring it out to snap some selfies ... LOL =P ... If you want them, you can still order them here, I will even autograph it, if you wish =D

Christopher Tan x nanoblock - It finally happened!

So many of you have been asking me for ages on when you will be able to actually buy my creations. Well, great news! It finally happened! Hahaahaaa =D ... Here, I present to you, my nanoblock mini-series Japanese Food collection =) ... Yes, they are official nanoblock sets from Kawada, Japan. 

They are essentially miniaturised versions of the deluxe sized Japanese Food series I created last time, still remember those? =) ... It took a lot of effort to bring them down to mini-series level, while still trying to maintain as much detail as possible. I hope you guys like them ^^

This series will only be available in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. I am still trying to get confirmation on how many in total will be manufactured and whether it's a single run item (what I heard so far is that only 3000 of each will be made). Will update here when I have more info.

The release date is expected to be late January 2016. I am starting a preorder now. Stock is limited, first come first served! Just CLICK HERE to preorder. You don't have to pay anything yet during preorder. Shipping will only cost around USD2.50-USD3.00 to ship all 4 items ANYWHERE WORLDWIDE by Registered Airmail (Trackable). Also, I would be happy to autograph them for you (if you wish) =)

By buying this from me, you are directly helping to support my work =) ... Truth is, I would need to sell over 1200 of these myself just to cover all my time and cost spent on this project to date. It would mean a lot to me if you could help me spread this by sharing and inviting all your friends to this Facebook event. 

The Story

This project to turn my creations into actual nanoblock sets have been a very long process that spanned almost 18 months. It took a lot of meetings in Singapore, Malaysia and Japan to accomplish this. I actually flew over to Tokyo twice at my own expense! Yes, that is how much I wanted to see this dream happen! Hahahaa ... 

We started with my deluxe sized Japanese food creations, but those items used a ton of bricks. They would fall into the medium or advanced series, so it would cost way lot more. After much discussion, it was decided that we should try and shrink it down to mini series level so that everyone can afford to buy all the items in the series for a complete collection. I would have loved to see my deluxe sized sets commercialised, but unfortunately, realities of the marketplace dictates the path we take.

I actually did several rounds of scaling down before we got to a size that was small enough for a mini series. There were definitely a lot of challenges in doing this. On one hand, I would love to capture as much detail as possible. On the other hand, I needed to reduce the number of bricks used. They are both opposing goals, so I had to strike a delicate balance between the two. 

If you look at the above photos, you can see that one of the first thing I did was to get rid of the chopsticks. A pair of chopsticks would use up a lot of bricks, but they are not crucial to the design, so they were the first to go. Other side items like soya sauce, miso soup, etc were removed as well. I also obviously scaled the whole thing down in size, but I think I managed to maintain most of the detail, even if they are not as refined as the larger version. For most of these items, they were scaled down by over 80 percent!

When you buy these items, you are not just buying another nanoblock set. You are buying a designer product and you know the artist behind the product. When you build my creations, it is like a window into my mind, you see what I see.  Hopefully, it gives you a deeper appreciation for the design =)

Big Thanks

I have to thank Lancashire and Elite Toys, the distributors for nanoblock in Singapore and Malaysia respectively, for all their support in this project and making it a reality. Special thanks to Mr Ng who pushed so hard for this, really appreciate it! Also, I have to thank Kawada for agreeing to collaborate with us on this. 

Lastly, I want to thank all of you, the fans, for all your support through the years! This would not be possible if not for you guys. A very big THANK YOU! =)

About Chris

If you are new here and want to know more about me, please take a look at the links below:

• My Profile  
• My Media Clippings

nanoblock Yakitori

Another addition to my nanoblock Japanese food series =) ...

nanoblock Fukusuke Review

Reviewed by StealthEagle

Name: Fukusuke

Japanese name: 福助

Category: Mini Collections

Level: 2

Item Code: NBC_102

Fukusuke is a traditional china doll in Japan commonly associated with bringing good luck and prosperity to people and businesses. He is also one of the auspicious icons of the Japanese New Year. You can read more about Fukusuke by clicking here. 

Contents of the Package

I was attracted by the vibrant colours of the packaging and the blocks inside, and so I decided to get it as a future reference for creating human figures.

For someone who is out of the collecting scene, I was happy to see that the instructions are big enough so anyone doesn’t have to use a magnifying glass to read. There is a block count for each step so you can pick out the required blocks before building; I guess Kawada learnt some stuff from Lego.

There was one thing that puzzled me the most; no base plate was included.

360° of the completed model

My only complaint about this build was how difficult the first 2 steps were; it was very annoying to see blocks of the 1st layer shifted when I tried building the second layer. After getting the first few hurdles, everything went smoothly.

I love how the distinctive appearance like the shape and colours of Fukusuke’s kamishimo is captured beautifully in blocky style. If I don’t know the name of this little charm, I would have thought he is a caricature of a old Japanese cartoon .

As usual, Kawada is very generous on giving lots of extra blocks although there is very use of them unless I dissembled the Fukusuke model.

Extra flesh coloured and special blocks after building

I would like to see more of these Japanese lucky charms by Kawada in the future. Not only these are fun to collect, they are also educational to people who are interested in the culture of Japan.

Thanks to StealthEagle for this review.

nanoblock Limited Edition Deluxe Maneki Neko Released

The Deluxe Maneki Neko which I created using the bricks from 4 normal Maneki Neko sets is now available for order. It uses over 560+ bricks (out of 600+ bricks included). It is being released as a limited edition with a limit of only 100 sets and the build instructions will not be publicly released.

Each set will come with:

• Limited Edition Certificate of Authenticity personally signed by myself and stamped with a seal.
• Printed Build Instructions for Deluxe Maneki Neko.
• Four sets of normal Maneki Neko (NBC-031) for the bricks.
• A sticker with my signature which you can stick to the bottom of your Deluxe Maneki Neko to show it is a limited edition.
• Feeling good that you are helping to support an aspiring brick artist =P

Here are photos and video of my Deluxe Maneki Neko:

Note: The actual set will not have a black layer
at the bottom under the red base. This is just a prototype.

Deluxe Maneki Neko (Right) next to normal
Maneki Neko for size and design comparison.

This is a sample of the certificate. The actual
certificate will be printed on nicer paper.

The normal nanoblock Maneki Neko sets included.

Price
The price is RM159.  (52 sets sold so far)

RM is Ringgit Malaysia. USD1 is about RM3.30. 

Shipping
Free shipping in Malaysia using PosLaju.

International orders will be shipped using REGISTERED AIR MAIL (Takes 4-10 Working Days). Please add the price below for each set purchased. For example, if you are in Zone 1 and you buy  3 sets, please add RM27.

Zone 1: Add RM12
Zone 2: Add RM14
Zone 3: Add RM22

Zone 1: Asean countries: Brunei Darussalam, Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam
Zone 2: Countries in Asia Pacific: Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, etc
Zone 3: Other countries

If you buy more than 3 sets, I may switch to using FedEx for better rates. In that case, I will let you know the better shipping rate by email.

How to Order
Please send an email to orders@inanoblock.com by Feb 6, 2014 (11.59pm GMT+8). In the email, please include the details below:

Name: XXXX
Tel: XXXX
Address: 
XXXX
Payment Method: Paypal/CreditCard/Bank Transfer/Bank-in

Limited Edition Deluxe Maneki Neko: XX set


On Feb 7, I will email you with details on how to make the payment. I hope to ship out all orders within a week.

nanoblock Deluxe Maneki Neko

My Deluxe Maneki Neko made using 560+ bricks from 4 Maneki Neko sets =) ... I am considering releasing this as a limited edition (Limited to 100), sold in a pack containing the 4 Maneki Neko sets, printed build instructions and a serial numbered limited edition certificate of authenticity signed by me, the brick artist who created this design =P ... If you're interested, please message me on my Facebook page.

My Deluxe Maneki Neko next to the original Maneki Neko

Video of Deluxe Maneki Neko:

I have also submitted this design for the nanoblock Award 2013-2014. Please vote for me here. Thank you =)

NEW! nanoblock White Horse & Fukusuke

Hi guys, there are two new nanoblock set arrivals for the new year, the White Horse and Fukusuke. If there is enough interest in them, I will arrange a group buy. Buy 2 or more at RM30 each (Normal Price: RM35.90) and FREE shipping in Malaysia. If you are interested, just leave a message over here with which/how many you want 

nanoblock Domokun Meets Duckie

Domo says hello to small Duckie ^^

Win a free copy of my nanoblock ebooks

Click here to join the lucky draw. It ends on Aug 26, 2013 at 12pm. 

My nanoblock eBooks Available Now

My ebooks containing nanoblock build instructions for making all kinds of Japanese food is available now =) ... They cost US$5.99 for the full bundle or US$2.49 for each individual ebook ...  Click here to buy

nanoblock Sake Set

The latest creation in my Japanese food series ^^ 

The build instructions are available here.

nanoblock Ikura Temaki

My latest Japanese food creation, Ikura Temaki (Salmon Roe Handroll) ... 

The build instructions are available here.

Nanoblock Ramen

Today we have nanoblock Ramen ^^ ... 

The build instructions are available here.

nanoblock Bento Set

Today, it's a Bento set for lunch ^^ ... A continuation of my nanoblock Japanese food series ...

The build instructions are available here.

nanoblock Sushi Set

Anyone wants a nanoblock Sushi Set for lunch ? =P ... 

The build instructions are available here.