How Small? This Small!

How small can you build something with nanoblock? =) ... This petrol station is just 4cm x 4cm x 3.5cm ^^ ... Hehehe ...

50,000 Fans On Facebook!

Hard to believe, it has been more than 5 years since I started my Facebook page, and it has been 2 years since I went full time =) ... It has been an amazing ride ... travelled to many places, met lots of people, see lots of new things ... and having my own Japanese food series official nanoblock sets coming out next week is a fantastic way to mark this milestone =D

Thank you all so much for your support over the years! You guys were amazing! =) ... Cheers!

nanoblock Gudetama Just Woke Up

Do you feel like gudetama today? =P ... Hehehehe ...

Ready for the Oscars?

A teaser of what's coming! =D ... To be revealed next month! It's life size and uses over 1500+ bricks =)

I am Verified!

Yessss, my Facebook page has been verified =D ... Hehehe ... See that blue tick? It means you know you are following the real Christopher Tan ^^ ... Haha ... and I also get to use Facebook's Mentions app that lets me do live video broadcasts. Will try that out soon ^^ ... Can't wait!

nanoblock Wanko Soba

Here's my nanoblock Wanko Soba creation =)

Collaboration With Hong Kong Film Director

Photo from Making Film Facebook Page

This is my collaboration project with Hong Kong Film Director Pang Ho-Cheung 彭浩翔 to design a tea box that uses nano bricks to show the logo of his film company =D ... The Chinese character in the center of the logo can be customised with some extra bricks provided =)

Only 500 of this box was manufactured as a special Christmas gift for his friends and business associates. I am honoured to have been invited to be part of this colloration. Thank you! ^^

The message inside the Christmas Card included with the box

Hong Kong actor Ronald Cheng

Links to others who also shared photos/videos of this gift that they received: 林兆霞June, Koyi Mak, Bart Wong, Kurt Tung, whatasunnyday, sunnyfish32, chiub, subyub, slimless, dikwai, janet_yung, boojunfeng,  ggtsoi

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

BB-8 pretending to be a snowman .. Hahahaa ^^ ... Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! =D ... To those traveling back to hometown, have a safe journey! =)

nanoblock Raffles Hotel Singapore

Raffles Hotel, an iconic landmark in Singapore =D ... Here it is in nanoblock form!

2015 Year In Review

It's that time of the year again, where we look back at everything that happened in the past 12 months. For me, it has been a very busy year, especially in the final 3 months. My highlights for this year was:

• Managed to do 3 exhibitions this year, two in Malaysia and one in Singapore. 
• Had a lot of fun meeting up with fans in Bangkok, Thailand and also Singapore. 
• Completed many corporate projects for agency clients.
• Visited the Tokyo International Toy Show and met up with Kawada.
• Invited by MediaCorp to appear on their Hello Singapore live show, but did not go ahead because I can't really speak Mandarin well. Nevertheless, it was an honour to be invited. 
• Had my nanoblock Apple Watch featured by the media worldwide.
• My limited edition Blocky Bear sold out in 24 hours.
• Fan base in Facebook more than doubled to over 45,000.

It has been a crazy year indeed and I believe next year will be even more so!  Thank you all so much for your support! I hope to bring you even more amazing designs next year ^^

Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Happy holidays everyone! =D

Best wishes,
Chris

nanoblock Star Wars MOCs

All my nanoblock Star Wars creations together. Do you feel the force? =D ... Hahahaa ...

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

My Giant nanoblock Hina Dolls

My deluxe nanoblock Hina Dolls smile emoticon ... These were commissioned for my exhibition in Liang Court mall recently. What do you think? =D

Hinamatsuri, also called Doll's Day or Girls' Day, is a special day in Japan. Hinamatsuri is celebrated each year on March 3. Platforms covered with a red carpet are used to display a set of ornamental dolls representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period. - From Wikipedia

My XL nanoblock Maneki Neko and Shishimai

Here is my extra large nanoblock Maneki Neko and Shishimai that was specially commissioned for my exhibition in Liang Court mall in Singapore recently =)

The maneki-neko is a common Japanese figurine (lucky charm, talisman) which is often believed to bring good luck to the owner. In modern times, they are usually made of ceramic or plastic. The figurine depicts a cat (traditionally a calico Japanese Bobtail) beckoning with an upright paw, and is usually displayed—often at the entrance—of shops, restaurants, pachinko parlors, and other businesses. The maneki-neko is sometimes also called the welcoming cat, lucky cat, money cat, happy cat, beckoning cat, or fortune cat in English. - From Wikipedia

Japan has a long tradition of the lion dance and the dance is known as shishi-mai (獅子舞) in Japanese. It is thought to have been imported from China during the Tang Dynasty, and became associated with celebration of Buddha's birthday. The oldest surviving lion mask, made of paulownia wood with an articulated lower jaw, is preserved in Tōdai-ji in Japan. The dance is commonly performed during the New Year where the lion dancers may be accompanied by flute and drum musicians. - From Wikipedia

nanoblock gudetama

Any gudetama fans here? =D ... for those who didn't already know, gudetama is a character from Sanrio. He's a lazy egg ... Hahahaa ...