Nanoblock

History

Nanoblock was first introduced into the Japanese market in 2008 by Kawada Co. Ltd, a toy company based in Tokyo, Japan. Nanoblock is distributed overseas by local companies, including Schylling Inc. in the United States and Mark's Europe in France, Benelux and Portugal. In 2012 imports of Nanoblocks reached 31 countries.

In 2010 Nanoblock won an Outstanding Performance Award in the High Target category at the Japan Toy Awards for the deluxe edition set based on Neuschwanstein Castle. The following year Nanoblock won the Grand Prize in the High Target category at the 2011 Japan Toy Awards for model of the Tokyo Skytree. In 2012 Nanoblock won the Brand License Award at the 2012 Licensing of the Year Awards.

Sets

The Nanoblock range includes original designs as well as licensed sets. Kawada is currently releasing four original series. The Miniature collection series features miniatures designs of animals, musical instruments and Christmas themes with all sets being around 80 to 150 pieces. The Sights to See series includes designs of world landmarks and notable buildings with sets ranging in size from 200 bricks to 600. The Advanced Hobby series also features notable buildings and landmarks but on a much larger scale with sets in the series being all over 2000 pieces. The largest set is Neuschwanstein Castle deluxe edition at 5,800 pieces. The fourth series are aimed at girls with themes including weddings and birthdays.

Kawada has created sets based on various licenses including The Adventures of Tintin, Pokémon, Shaun the Sheep and Sanrio characters including Cinnamoroll, Hello Kitty, KeroKeroKeroppi and My Melody. A series of sets based on Disney characters is sold exclusively at the Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea theme parks. In 2013 it was announced that Kawada were to produce two sets based on Capcom's Mega Man video game franchise as part of the series' 25th anniversary. In 2015 four sets based on characters from the video game franchise Street Fighter were released. The four characters produced were Ryu, Chun-Li, Guile and Dhalsim.

Design

Nanoblocks are similar in design to a Lego brick but are smaller in scale, with the smallest brick being 4 mm × 4 mm × 5 mm. The bricks are  ¹⁄₈ the size of Kawada's Diablock line of bricks. The underside of the bricks are different from Lego bricks in that they use a dividing flange, known as the double-ridged backing system, instead of the tube system that Lego employs. The bricks are made using ABS plastic and there are eleven different brick types, the biggest being an 8×2 brick and the smallest a single stud brick.