One particular Christmas present that stood out for me was an assortment of Nanoblock sets from my wife that rekindled the lost engineer in me and retaught the glory following simple schematics.  What Nanoblocks are, quite simply, are microsized LEGO’s with kits ranging from the intense Neuschwanstein Castle to simple wildlife.  Manufactured in Japan by Kawada, they are one of many Japanese products that don’t get enough exposure abroad.  I had been eying up a few of these kits for sometime so I was giddy when I got  Kinkakuji, Kaminarimon, and Hokkaido Ken sets given to me.

In order to get myself right into it, without causing too much initial frustration, I immediately started upon the Hokkaido-Ken set because of its small size.  Two and a half  hours later, with only some minor swearing, my little Nanoblock dog -complete with bowl and food- was complete.

Here is the product website: http://www.diablock.co.jp/nanoblock/