Starter

This post is a review of the nanoblock Rowlett build. Rowlett is part of the nanoblock Pokemon collection. Wondering what else is part of the Pokemon Collection? Click Here for a list.

Names:

• English: Rowlett
• Japanese: Mokuroh

Number: NBPM_051 

Number of Pieces: 170

Difficulty Rating: 2/5

Rowlett is the grass starter from generation 7. Initially released under NBPM_27, it was only available at Japanese Pokemon Centers.

Overall this is a straightforward build. It is building the outer shell of a sphere from the base. The first step is to create the base by putting two smaller builds together. From there, you add the Pokemon’s sweet little bow tie. Next, you build the Pokemon by adding rings of bricks for several layers.

As you reach the top of the Pokemon, you begin to close up the head. At this point, you need to be careful to make sure that bricks are extra carefully lined up. As you close up the head bricks, you can push bricks into the cavity and create indents so that you can’t build the next layer.

Once you have closed up the sphere, it’s time for the final details. Attach the tail and the feet, and viola, the build is done.

Overall, I really liked this build. I liked the color that was selected for the green details. I had some difficulty getting the head to close up because I wasn’t super tight on my connections.

Things I liked:

• The color of the green details

This post is a review of the nanoblock Popplio build. Popplio is part of the nanoblock Pokemon collection. Wondering what else is part of the Pokemon Collection? Click Here for a list.

Names:

• English: Popplio
• Japanese: Ashimari

Number: NBPM_050

Number of Pieces: 110

Difficulty Rating: 3/5

Popplio is the water starter Pokemon from generation 7. Initially released under NBPM_26, it was only available at Japanese Pokemon Centers.

The build begins at the tail and builds up along the body. The directions are straightforward for building the body. Until you add the feet, the build can easily tip over. Adding the feet happens in steps 4 and 5 with great directions. Next, you add the light blue collar and build the head directly on the build. The head can be a bit tricky to perfectly line up because a couple of chains of bricks go into making the head.

Overall I enjoyed the Popplio build. I feel that the colors are close and nicely match the original pokemon. Every build has a couple tricks, but overall I thought of this as a pretty easy build.

Things I liked:

• The colors they picked for the pokemon

Things I didn’t like:

• It kept tipping when I was building before adding the legs

This post is a review of the nanoblock Charizard DX build. Charizard DX is part of the nanoblock Pokemon collection. Wondering what else is part of the Pokemon Collection? Click Here for a list.

Names:

• English: Charizard DX
• Japanese: Lizardon DX

Number: NBPM_080 

Number of Pieces: 860

Difficulty Rating: 4/5

This is the deluxe build for Charizard. It has a lot more detail than the original Charizard build. It is a much larger build made in pieces and held together with ball joints. I did the build over a few days, so I recommend having a safe place to leave the build spread out while you are working on it.

The nanoblock build begins by creating a base for the body. It takes about 6 steps to make the entire base of cream and orange bricks. You then continue the body by building up rings that get smaller until it closes the body. This build includes slanted pieces that I find stab my fingers when I push them into place.

The next step is to add the feet and arms via ball joints. The feet are built by stacking bricks to create a base to stand on. You attach the feet to a ball joint attached to the body. I had a hard time getting the ball joints lined up to stabilize the feet. You also build arms through a chain of ball joins. The hands are pretty fragile.

Now it is time to build the main section of the head. It is tricky because the head is generally only 3 bricks thick, so there isn’t much overlap, so it’s easy to push the bricks apart. The head is generally just building chunks of bricks onto other chunks until you have a completed head. When I attached the neck, I realized that I had attached the lower jaw in the wrong place, and the whole head fell apart when I moved it.

The following stages are to add the neck and tail. Both are very straightforward builds. The neck is a solid build that you eventually attach the head onto. The tail is a chain of bricks held together by ball joints. The tail includes the clear flame, which is a stack of clear bricks. As a warning, the tail likes to fall off the 1×2 brick that holds the flame.

The final stage of the build is to build the mirrored wings. These are large pieces that are 2-3 layers thick. They are built by creating smaller pieces that connect to the base. The directions are very straightforward and easy to follow. Once you make the wings, you attach them to the body, completing your build.

Overall I’m not sure how I feel about the build. This is the second deluxe Pokemon I’ve done, the other being Pikachu, and the detail is excellent. This is the 4th Charizard type build that nanoblock has made, and while it has the most detail, I would have rather had a different Pokemon. I found the final build to be very fragile and had difficulty posing it to get the photos because the flame kept falling off.

Things I liked:

• The amount of detail in the build

Things I didn’t like:

• The head isn’t layered super stable and tended to fall apart

This post is a review of the nanoblock Piplup build. Piplup is part of the nanoblock Pokemon collection. Wondering what else is part of the Pokemon Collection? Click here for a list.

Names:

• English: Piplup
• Japanese: Pochama

Number: NBPM_079 

Number of Pieces: 170

Difficulty Rating: 2/5

The nanoblock build for Piplup has 2 parts. There is the head and the body.

The section you build is the body. It begins with a layer of bricks in various shades of blue. The body is then built up using layers of blue bricks. In building layers, you add the white for the spots on Piplup’s chest. You also add Piplup’s wings.

The second part of the build is the head. The head begins with a layer of blue and white bricks. The head is built by adding layers of bricks. As you add the layers of bricks, you add the details of the beak and eyes. In my opinion, they are super large for the build, so it looks a little funny. The beak looks closer to yellow than the gold bricks that come with a kit in the directions. When finishing the head, I had the unusual problem that the top layer caved in a bit, so adding the final layer of bricks was challenging.

To finish the build, there are a couple steps. First, you need to attach the head to the body. It is a bit challenging to tell where exactly where the head goes. Then you add a final bottom layer of bricks. The final step is to add the feet to the build.

Things I liked:

• Piplup is one of my favorite pokemon, so I’m glad we got a build for him

Things I didn’t like:

• His eyes are huge and look too big
• I’m not sure if changing out the gold bricks with yellow bricks would look better

This post is a review of the nanoblock Chimchar build. Chimchar is part of the nanoblock Pokemon collection. Wondering what else is part of the Pokemon Collection? Click here for a list.

Names:

• English: Chimchar
• Japanese: Hikozaru

Number: NBPM_078

Number of Pieces: 150

Difficulty Rating: 2/5

The Chimchar nanoblock build has 2 parts. There is a head and a body.

The build begins with the body. It begins with a layer of bricks, including clear bricks. The clear bricks will become Chimchar’s flame tail. This is a detail that mirrors the builds of the Charmander family.

The rest of the body is made of cream and brown bricks. The body and the tail are built together in layers of bricks. At some point, you attach the arms. This can be a tricky step because the bricks are chained together. Meaning it is easy for a brick lower in the chain to fall off even after the top is secured. You finish building the body by eventually adding the feet.

After building the body you move on to the head. The head begins with a layer of cream bricks. The head is built up in layers of mostly brown and cream. As you build the layers, you add the details of the eyes, nose, and ears.

The build is completed by combining the head and the body. I personally had some difficulty lining up the head so it was straight on the body.

Things I liked:

• The clear blocks for the flame on the tail are similar to how they are used in the Charmander family.

Things I didn’t like:

• It was a pain to get the head centered when I combined the head and the body

This post is a review of the nanoblock Turtwig build. Turtwig is part of the nanoblock Pokemon collection. Wondering what else is part of the Pokemon Collection? Click here for a list.

Names:

• English: Turtwig
• Japanese: Naetle

Number: NBPM_077

Number of Pieces: 130

Difficulty Rating: 2/5

This build is made up of 2 major parts. There is the head and the body.

The head begins with a layer of yellow and green bricks. The head is built in layers of green, yellow, and black bricks. The eyes are added by having black bricks that remain visible. Once the head is mostly built, you add a cap of brown to complete the head.

The next chunk that is built is the body. Like the head, the body is built in layers. In this case, the base is green. Using brown and black bricks, you then build the hump on Turtwig’s back. After you build him up, you flip the build over and add the feet and a brick to keep the build from tipping over due to the size of the head.

Now that you have the 2 major pieces, it is time to combine the head and the body. The final step is to add the leaf on Turtwig’s head.

Things I liked:

• I think it’s a cute build

Things I didn’t like:

• The starters keep getting a bit bigger, so they don’t match in size to the other starters
• I think the leaf on his head would look better if it was the lighter green