Tintin Forums

The Japanese toy Nanoblock is best described as miniature LEGO, the bricks are about 1/3 the size of LEGO.

Due to the tiny size of the individual bricks, it is possible to build quite detailed models, without the use of too many specialized bricks - building with Nanoblocks is a lot like, what building with LEGO was in my childhood; where the use of specialized bricks was quite limited in comparison to today.

Due the tiny size of the Nanoblock bricks, building with them is also somewhat more complex ans challenging than building with LEGO - and you use a lot of bricks for even a small model. This means that Nanoblocks can best be described as a combination of LEGO and traditional minature model building - it is imho. great fun, takes quite a lot of time (even for a small model), but the result is very rewarding.

Nanoblock has released four Tintin themed sets. These are licensed by Moulinsart, though only for release in Asia - but they are readily available on eBay (watch out for the prices, as they vary a lot!)

The sets are:
The Unicorn ship from The Secret of the Unicorn
Shark submarine from Red Rackham's Treasure
The Moon rocket from Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon
Marlinspike Hall

I recently bought the shark submarine. It is a 900+ bricks level five set, estimated building time is five hours, I built it in approx. 4½ hours.

The details of the model are quite good - and quite true to the album art. In my experience, it is instantly recognisable by even non Tintin fans.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakobeep/8150697375/in/photostream
The finished model, with the packaging and a standard size LEGO miniature for comparison.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakobeep/8150697781/in/photostream
The finished model on the cover of a Danish 1st edition of Red Rackham's Treasure

There is no doubt I will be collecting the remaining thee sets, staring with the Moon rocket. The models contain enough detail for them not to stand out when displayed with my collection of Tintin figures - and it is somewhat more fun to actually build something, rather than to be simply unpacking a finished figure/model :)

I spoke to the Kawada representative at the U.K. Toy Fair earlier this year abot this, and sadly there doesn’t seem to be any chance of these Nanoblock sets being extended outside Asia due to their license (nor could I persuade them to let me have samples…!).

They are quite charming, but I’m afraid that they are too expensive for me to consider – although even if I could, I tend to try and limit myself to things that I don’t have to dust!

I see these Tintin Nanoblock sets everywhere (that might sell Tintin stuff) in Japan! And the Kyoto Tintin shop has them built and on display. If you're coming to Japan be sure to pick them up as they are not too expensive here.

Following your post about the bandana to celebrate their 25th anniversary, I looked at the online shop for the Kyoto Tintin Shop, and I must confess that the prices of the Nanoblock sets still seem very, very high to me for what are really just toys!
The Unicorn set for example (which is the most expensive one, I grant you), is 17,850¥, which (using a quick currency convertor, where £1 is about 132.50¥) comes to £134.72. The cheapest, the Shark Submarine, is 5,880¥, which is £44.38.

So I’ll admire them from afar, and not worry about increasing the dusting…!

When you put it that way, the Unicorn Set especially seems high-priced I agree! I guess I was thinking about other Tintin things that people like to buy and display regardless if they're toys or not and thought these nano block prices aren't unreasonable. And maybe for Japanese collectors, paying ¥5,000~¥7,000 even for new isn't expensive. I'm not a collector, I don't know. (but compared to other places Japan is an expensive place to live and buy things! And maybe that's one reason these Tintin nano block sets are sold only in Asia? Because people are willing to pay that much?)