Nanoblock product reviews

I was excited to be given the opportunity to review this product. I have lego mad children that spend a lot of time making and creating all different sorts of objects and thought this would be a wonderful extension for them. As I knew the recommended age is over 12, I thought my nearly 8 and my 15 year old daughter could work on this together.

We were given the Kangaroo to make. It came in a small bag and the blocks were separated by colour and size and bagged too. There were instructions that looked easy to follow along. I was surprised at the size of the blocks, they are tiny! I was concerned that we would lose the pieces and made sure they were put up high away from the younger members of the family.

After two weeks of trying to put it together, I am not sure we are able to! Adults that use lego have also attempted to make the kangaroo and have given up. Reading the other reviews, these sets should only take 15-20 minutes to put together. Perhaps the kangaroo set is more advanced. I love the size of the completed design, I could see them on display in a childs room, where as the completed block creations from other sets do take up a lot of room.

I absolutely would consider purchasing these for small gifts. I wouldn't give these to anyone under the recommended age though, due to the size of the blocks and the dexterity needed to complete them.

My 11 year old was gifted a turtle set recently and had a lot of fun putting it together. Everyone who comes to visit has to see it! I was very surprised at how small the pieces were though. I also have a smaller child in the house and given the size of the pieces have to make sure the nano blocks are kept well out of her reach for safety reasons!

The instructions for nice and simple to follow, even for my daughter who can get frustrated very quickly. The turtle was put together in about 15-20 minutes with no hassles. While I think these would make for a great present for someone who loved making little models etc, my only concern is the fact the parts are very small and once made my daughter won't pull it apart so it doesn't have a multi use (in this household at least) but does make for a cute wee display on her shelf.

I would recommend this for older children who love making little models, but do stick to the age limit as the parts are very small. Perfect present for those who love building!

I work with children everyday so I spend a lot of time building with lego and duplo so when the nanoblocks came up for review I knew I wanted to give them a try.

When I first opened the package I was Impressed how it was packages into separate wee bags made it easier to sort out the pieces you need. I was surprised with just how small they were though and I thought it was going to take forever to make my turtle. However the instructions were very straight forward and it didn't take long for my turtle to start taking shape. The hardest part I found was when I put a block in the wrong place. Trying to get it off again was next to impossible until I grabbed the tweezers! In the end it took me around 15 minutes to complete the kit as soon as I was finished me husband insisted on pulling it apart so he could have a go as well.

I really liked the nanoblocks and will be looking out for other kits. I plan to take it and try it out with my 11 year old niece one weekend I think she will really enjoy the challenge. I must say I am also really impressed with how well they stay together, after my husband made it was sat up on a shelf. The cat managed to knock it down and none of the pieces came off.

I got the Red Eared Slider Nanoblock kit to review.

There are just over 70 pieces and about 20 odd pieces that are left over spares. This is a great idea because it means that if you lose a couple of pieces (which would be easy to do if you don't store the kit in a Sistema or similar) you will still be able to re build the model. I found that the bag that mine came in is very useful being that it is resealable also. I have kept mine assembled in the Nanoblocks bag.

I have large hands and some of the dexterity required is not impossible or hard, just harder than with standard sized building blocks such as Lego. I like the point of difference being that it is a one off system that will not integrate with the other block systems out there. I like this fact because I am a bit of a purist and do not like having things mixed up or messed together. I have all my Lego kits in separate containers etc.

It took me around 11-12 minutes to build and that was the second time around also. I have built this kit twice now. I think the quality is really good, the instructions are clear and easy to follow and being in colour it helps identify the blocks. The way you can interlock pieces together anywhere along the lines rather than being restricted to the grid system is also another good point of difference. It means you can have a 1x4 brick and have another piece anywhere along that 4 length without it having to fit into the 1x4 system.

They are very well priced and although I enjoy the small kits I would like to see how a larger level 3 or even 4 or 5 kit is to make. I have seen online the kits in the difficulty 3 range are around 500 pieces and I even found a beast of a kit at 5800 pieces! Very impressed overall with the Nanoblock kit and would be happy to recommend these to anyone that is technically minded or people that like a mini challenge

These are amazing little kits. I can see me getting a whole set of these for my younger brother, he loves this kind of stuff. He has an whole mess of lego that our dad gave me when I was little and I passed it on to him, plus he's gone out and bought a bunch of his own.

I had no real trouble building this model of the Sydney Opera House but my little bro did have some issues because of how tiny the blocks are. They can be a bit tough to keep a hold of. In the end he had to use a pair of tweezers and a chop stick but the challenge really made him nuckle down and focus on the job.

These are a very clever toy that I thought was brilliant. I am glad to see there are a whole range of buildings from around the world, so I am really hoping they bring out more of them. I would also really like to see some New Zealand landmark buildings in these kits too. Only real question I have is "Where do I get more?"

Having just recently given my son Lego for his birthday (and he was also gifted some) I have gotten to enjoy the building again and so when these came up for review I knew that I had to ask for one to give a whirl with.

I knew this was going to be small but I was still a little surprised at just how small they were, as you can see in my photo there is a comparison picture with a piece next to a pen. My main concern with these was that I would loose some, and had I thought it through I wouldn't have tipped it out on my computer desk, but I still managed to survive without loosing any of the parts. I really like that there are a few spare pieces, at least if you loose some you won't be unable to make it any more.

I got the turtle and due to the pieces I thought that this would be really hard to do but I managed to complete it within ten minutes. I did find it a little bit fiddly, but that was due to the size and once I got used to the pieces it was easy to change how I held it and get the job done.

I rather liked this and $14.99 isn't too bad and I may get some on layby for next year as gifts for people I know who love puzzles.

I was really looking forward to having some nano blocks to help my son with in the holidays. We received the kangaroo set and immediately my son wanted to built it . He is only 5 but has a large lego collection and can do ones that are 7+.

I tipped the pieces out into a plastic dish and holey moley they were tiny and there was so many pieces! We looked at the instructions and I couldn't get past the first stage, so I gave up and put it away for the day. I found it so frustrating the way the blocks needed to go and just the size of them made it a nightmare to try and connect together.

After almost a week I managed to complete the kangaroo, admittedly with some help and away from the helping hands of my children, I'm so pleased to have completed it that I never want to do another one again! In my opinion these should be for ages 10+ as there is just no way my son could do this, or would be able to in the near future. At my age I even struggled. My partner thought it was too fiddly and just a pain as they don't connect in with anything else.

I think these would be great for stocking fillers / secret Santa gifts to people who have everything / or an immense amount of patience! These are not something I would buy again in the near future for our family, but price wise I think they are pretty good especially with Christmas coming up!

ADMIN NOTE: These blocks are designed for children aged 12 years and over.

We have had small nanoblock kits prior to receiving the Sydney Opera House from KIWIreviews, so were completely aware of what we were getting ourselves into before these arrived. First I must say, if you have little patience or non steady hands then these blocks may just make you a little crazy. But if you have a lot of perseverance and love a challenge then nanoblocks are most definitely for you :)

These tiny little lego style blocks are so little that if you have poor eye sight, you might struggle seeing some of the little pieces, as some are very very small. The packaging states these blocks are best suited for 12 years + but my 7 year old still sat for a couple of hours putting it together, before she gave up out of frustration. The instructions, although at first glance may not seem like it, are relatively easy to follow. It is the fiddly-ness of it all that leads to it taking a while to build. In fact for us it took 3 days of on and off building to complete it, but you get a huge sense of accomplishment when it is done.

The packaging is all nicely put together and the blocks are all grouped in nice little bags. I think zip lock type bags would be quite helpful, as the chances of completing the whole thing in one sitting, are in my opinion, relatively low. The end result is also a pretty close representation of the picture on the box.

Even though the box says for 12+ I personally think kids of that age would get quite annoyed and frustrated with them and possibly give up to easily. But the pricing is well worth it, and in terms if teaching patience and tolerance, these would make a great little stocking stuffer gift. All in all a great product, but be selective who you would give them too :)

I have to say, this is a pretty impressive building block set, like LEGO, but much smaller! When I first saw this, I immediately decided to ask for this as a review item, as I love LEGO, but I find most models made with it to be too large to keep assembled. This kit is a nice alternative, I compared the area of this model's base in terms of centimeters with a copy made with standard LEGO bricks, and found out that these bricks are exactly half the size of their LEGO copies.

With a size ratio of 1:2, I have to say that this kit is quite impressive. I chose the Sydney Opera House kit to review, as I thought it would look cool next to my marble model of the Opera House that my Dad brought back from a trip to Australia he went on. The box shows that this model has a difficulty level of 4/5, which was surprising as this kit was quite easy to build. The instructions were well done, they were displayed in a similar fashion to that of regular LEGO kits, although, not quite. Each instruction was either displayed in a 2D or 3D format, depending on the requirements of each step, which was very efficient.

The model looked remarkably similar to the real thing, so that was an interesting fact. I found that even after following the instructions EXACTLY, there were a small pile of spare parts, and while the nano blocks are not compatible with standard LEGO blocks, if multiple sets are acquired, or the kit is disassembled, then these extra pieces can be used to make other objects as well! Unless these pieces are only used to make nano models, these blocks cannot be used in tandem with LEGO blocks, so in terms of versatility, these blocks deserve a score of, say, 7/10, with consideration for general terms.

The model is quite fragile on its own, so if the person using the kit wants the model to stay together without any possible need for disassembly, then I would recommend using glue or any other efficient adhesive to stop the model from falling apart. The blocks would be useful for people between the ages of 10 (with parent assistance) and any age where the user can't handle using very small pieces of plastic. Overall, I think that this is an awesome kit, and I hope the supplier can give us more because I am now addicted to these! Enjoy!

My five year old daughter loves playing with Lego so when a similar product called NanoBlock came up for review I requested to review it so that she would have something new to play with during the school holidays. As soon as I received my kit of the Sydney Opera House and saw the tiny pieces I knew that it was going to be my new toy not hers.

I cleared the dining table and set out the pieces and the instructions while the kids were busy with a DVD. My husband looked at it and said I would take me an hour to complete. He was wrong it took me two hours. The instructions have very clear diagrams and few words. I found them easy enough to follow but got frustrated when I made a mistake. The pieces were hard to pull apart and I broke a couple of fingernails in the process. I should have taken the manufacturer's advice and separated the pieces with tweezers.

I was very pleased with myself when I had finished the Opera House. It looked the same as the photo. I was surprised to see so many pieces left over. In the past when I have made similar kits there have only been a couple of extra pieces. This will allow me more freedom to make different things if I ever decide to break up my creation.

I notice the smaller animal kits come in a resealable bag. Unfortunately the Opera house didn't but it would have been useful for storing the extra pieces or the whole kit when it is dismantled. There were however several small bags inside the box which made it easy to find the piece you were after.

This is really a kit for adults although I am going to let my 10 year old nephew have a try as he is a Lego enthusiast and up for a challenge. It is a test of dexterity, patience and the ability to follow instructions. It is very rewarding when you finish. I would suggest doing it on a tray as the tiny pieces are impossible to find if they fall on the carpet.

My daughter has grown up with lego and most recently the Lego Friends kits so isn't a stranger to constructing models of this nature. With the lego friends sets she can put them together all by herself following the instructions and using the picture diagrams which she can do very quickly now. I thought she would find these nanoblocks the same and be able to do it on her own but she couldn't.

The blocks are teeny tiny and very fiddly to work with so there was plenty of frustration in our house today as between three of us we worked at building the kangaroo. Casidy aged 11 sat for a good hour attempting to get the model together and wasn't having much luck. She found the instructions quite confusing and would of liked there to be some sort of written instructions to accompany the picture prompts. She found the pictures quite confusing as to what she needed to do and when I tried I found the same thing.

Perhaps the most annoying thing for me was how fragile the model was as you were putting it together as the bits are so small when you were trying to push the next piece into place other parts of the model were falling off which was incredibly annoying for me. Half way through I placed it on the table and it fell over and bits fell off and it was at this stage I gave up as I would of had to start from the beginning all over again.

Next in line was my partner to try making this model, it was probably more fiddly for him as he has quite big fingers and he found the little blocks quite hard to work with. Out of us he probably has the most patience and as someone who works quite visually he found the instructions a lot less confusing than me and my daughter. It still took him a good half hour to put it together but he got there. Now we are never going to take it apart so we don't have to build it again.

I would definitely recommend this for older children as I would imagine it would be quite difficult for the younger ones. For the makers of this product I would say work on providing more detailed instructions with more pictures and more words as they are very challenging. I do like how the blocks come in a resealable packet so you can keep the bits together as I do find it incredibly frustrating with my daughters Lego Friends kits not being put away in their proper set and bits going missing.

We recently got a kit of these nanoblocks to try. The kit we got was the kangaroo one. I sat down with my eldest, while baby was having a nap. I opened the baggie the blocks came in and then opened the smaller bags inside. Everything was well packaged. I also liked that the main bag had a snap-lock top so we could put the blocks away later and seal the bag.

I opened out the instructions to make the kangaroo. These were fairly easy to read. There was not a lot of English on the sheet, but the diagrams and numbers steps were easy enough to follow. At first I was adding individual blocks on at each step. But by step 3 I was a little frustrated with the blocks and started making the whole section that the step outlined, before adding it to the model. This worked better.

Once I had finished building the model, there was a small selection of blocks left over. For me, I found the blocks okay to work with. They are small and fiddly and I think some finger dexterity was definitely needed. There were points where the blocks didn't seem to line up properly and I had to work with the model for quite some time to re-align it to allow the blocks to snap together the way I was being asked to. There were a couple of times when the model sort of crumbled on me.

My daughter lost interest in the model building almost immediately. But she snuck blocks here and there to make her own things. Once the kangaroo was done, she got free reign on the blocks and happily created a flock of birds.

She found the blocks easy to work with, and lots of fun. She said at one point "I love these blocks, as you build things they seem real". I pressed her on that, and found that she thought the detail she was getting with the blocks was superior to her current block system. So I think for kids, these blocks would be a winner. It says for ages 12 and up. My daughter is 6 and she did well with these.

We were lucky enough to get a packet of the nanoblocks, the kit we got was the Red-eared Slider with over 70 pieces. The packet has a lot of non English on it but the important parts have English like what it is, and the age range which is for 12 years and up, says its not for under 3's and that I would have to really agree with actually some 5-8 year old's probably shouldn't have it either if they are children that put things in their mouth. The packet has a nice picture on the front which shows you what that kit will make. The packet includes all the little blocks you need in little bags inside the main bag, the main bag is resealable with a zip lock kinda thing which is great so you don't lose bits as they are so tiny they would be easy to suck up the cleaner.

My daughter is 5 years old and wanted to give this a go, the sheet that I comes with has only 5 steps for over 70 blocks, these are all done by pictures no words. The blocks on the pictures all sit together with green lines that split where one block ends and another starts. My daughter would count the stick up bits on the blocks in the picture to find which blocks she needed. We need find trying to do the start of it, you needed to make the platform of the turtle by sitting in on a board and putting the pieces next to each other not actually sitting them to anything. This cause a bit of a problem trying to keep them from moving away from each other to put the other blocks on top. We got there in the end with me helping her as this isn't designed for her age but she did enjoy it.

I would help her out with reading what blocks she needed at times and other times she could read it herself and put the blocks in the spot they needed to be, check out the video of her doing a very small part of the turtle this also shows how small these blocks are:

With the blocks being 4*4*5mm they were so tiny for me to get my hands around but I got there, I also found them hard to get off the little board I actually had to use my teeth to pull them off as I couldn't do it with my hands. After making the turtle my daughter decided to make snakes and more with the little blocks. She liked them. They are made of hard plastic which is good and durable. I would think these would be best to make and put on a shelf instead of actually playing with them like lego. The age on the packet is 12 + so that is prob a good age as they can most likely work on them without the help. I didn't mind doing it with my 5 year old as she enjoyed the time with me as well.

If I was going to buy more I would wait till my kids were older about 10ish where they would understand more about it and about looking after the pieces so they didn't go missing. They are very cute though.