The Little World

If you’re a digital photographer you’ll know what pixellation is; the blocky nature of photos that have been taken at small resolution and blown up large. It’s present in every digital picture if you go down far enough to look for it, but disappears once you step back.

It’s a good way of thinking of the effect that a modeller gets when they build up a structure or device from component blocks…and that should make you think of a hugely successful Danish toy manufacturer and the millions of devotees around the world that purchase their products. You can see clubs all over the world dedicated to making models using their blocks. Lego.

They are quite admirable for themselves and the ingenuity that is called forth in transforming basic blocks into complex curves and shapes is a credit to all involved.

Likewise their extremely tiny cousins – the Nanoblocks. I was given Neuschwannstein as a present and purchased the pickup truck on a whim in a Melbourne shop. I daresay there must be dozens of different model kits made by the Japanese firm for all sorts of models – some of them quite whimsical.

The construction time for the castle and the pickup truck was similar – one full evening in the Little Workshop with the builder huddled over the parts tray and some pretty intense concentration on the paper instructions. They’re detailed, but not written – you must pick up all the construction clues for each layer of the model from the artwork alone…and some of those details are one small line in a sea of other lines that may be differentiated from them by a shade of grey. It rewards good eyesight, steady hands, and a sense of fatalism.

Fatalism? Well there are many layers to attach, you are attaching them via friction of a peg and a hole, and the parts are very tiny. You are always risking collapse as you work. If you elect to try to glue things together as you go, you risk damage to the appearance and more; you may mistake a diagram and need to retrace your steps while assembling. Glue would make this a disaster.

To the credit of the firm, they do give spare blocks to make up for losses, and they tell you this clearly on the instruction sheet. And they are very clever in doing so. The little pile of Nanoblocks that you have in the box seems to be a waste…unless you are going to get another Nanoblock kit…

Am I a real fan of Lego? No. I think it is a great deal of effort that might be turned to a more accurate purpose. Nanoblocks? Well, marginally better, but I believe I will spend more time with the airbrush and the jigsaw.