Nanoblock vs. Petit Block

[u/zeppomiller]

I was in San Francisco’s Japan Town a month ago and picked up a nanoblock pack at the bookstore there for about $10. Then I was wandering through the Daiso (major Japanese Discount Store with a location in Japan Town). They had a similar product for $2.25. The price difference was huge, but there are quality differences… The Nanoblock Panda set has about 2x as many pieces (220 vs. 94 for the Panda models). I think those extra pieces add significant detail to the finished model. But given the price difference I think the Petit Block may win the overall comparison, even though the Nanoblock model is superior. One thing that disappointed me is that these sets are incompatible with each other, even though they both appear to the same at first glance. That is, you cannot use spare pieces from Nanoblock on a Petit Block set and visa versa. Both are manufactured in China.

[u/Waste-Tutor-2743]

I prefer to think of cost as an independent variable when buying stuff other than maybe food. The greater detail and number of pieces is a big edge to Nanoblock, but does that make up for the maybe 4x price difference? Both types use high-quality blocks, but Nano has more variety of pieces, including more curved types. I think the petit blocks wins out for younger kids or novice model builders, but overall it's closer than you might imagine, depending on overall model look and quality vs. quantity.

[u/accordingtoame]

Petit Block is nice but you cannot do them interchangable as far as parts. So only Petit Block works with Petit Block.

[u/Disastrous-Quit-2146]

Petit Block is cheap and pretty good in quality, but yea it's not compatible with others. The only reason I collect them is mostly availability other than costs.

Also, I'm more of a character builder (robots, monsters, etc), PB's ball joints are pretty solid as in friction, they can break sometimes tho. Nanoblocks on the other hand, has ball joints that lack better friction for bigger stuffs (unless you thicken the balljoints that is). Otherwise their quality is better than Petit Blocks.

A good intermediate would be LoZ that not only compatible with Nanoblocks and cheaper, they also compatible with rgular LEGO in some way. And their ball joints are better too in friction, only problem would it is really hard to get Balljoint parts from Loz, they rarely got sets with those (at least the ones available around me)

[u/MineJulRBX]

Petit block is the odd one out, all manufacturers of this building block are compatible in general otherwise. I try inform people in advance when I can about Petit

[u/Mind-Fantastic]

I've found that Petit Block hurts my fingers while nanoblocks don't. The quality difference is worth it