Review of nanoblock Koinobori NBH_174

shygal
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Koinobori build and box

This post is a review of the nanoblock Koinobori build. Koinobori is part of the nanoblock Sights to See collection. Wondering what else is part of the Sights to See collection? Click here for a list.

Number: NBH_174

Country: Japan 

Number of Pieces: 400

Difficulty Rating: 3/5

Koinobori build front view

This kit was a lot more difficult to build than I had originally suspected. This is because of how the koi kites are built.

The kit begins with the black fish on top. After building the head, a connecter brick is added to the bottom of the fish. Then there are a bunch of steps creating the body of the fish flipping around where the scales are. It was tricky to keep track of which exact step I was on while building the body of the fish since lots of the steps were nearly identical. (It may have been easier if I had used a counter to keep track of which step I was on. Finally, the tail is added.

Koinobori build side view

Then, the next 2 fish are added and chained together using the connection pieces. Overall, each of the fish is built in the same manner to create the scale patterns on the side of the fish.

The next step is to built the base. This was fairly straightforward since other than the pole base, the lone round clear brick, and the bricks holding the plates together it didn’t really matter where grass was added. I do like how the grass hides the other things on the baseplate so it appears the kites are floating.

Koinobori build back view

The next step is to attach the fish to the base plate. I missed there is a 3rd clear brick originally so I needed to add that after adding the pole. Then the pole is attached to the base and the fish are attached to the pole.

Then, the fins on the sides of the fish are added. I needed to be really gentle so that the fish stayed centered.

The final step is to add the pinwheels on the top of the pole.

Koinobori build back 3/4 view

Things I liked:

  • I like how the grass hides things on the baseplates, so it looks more like the kites are floating
  • I like how the finished scales look on the fish. I feel that it catches the effect of the real kites

Things I didn’t like:

  • I wish the instructions for building the fish had been less cramped. I think it would be easier to keep track of where I was