Nano Block Post Card

I checked my mailbox today and found myself very happy as I received a New Year's card from my family in Japan. In Japan, the first days of the new year are the most important occasion for relatives gathering. But, since I've been outside of Japan, I've not been able to join this event for past several years. So, a postcard from my family in this season always makes me feel warm.

The card I got included a toy called "Nano block", which is a Lego-like block toy but much smaller in size. In Japan, the year 2012 is the "Year of the Dragon" and 2013 is the "Year of the Snake" based on the twelve Chinese zodiac signs. Accordingly, I got a set of Nano blocks to make a dragon last year and the one to make a snake this year :P

By the way, some people may think Nano block is a copy of the Lego block. In fact, you may find that it's not likely if looking into the history. The Nano block is a variant of a Diablock sold by a Japanese toy company Kawada. In 1955, the company was given a whole bunch of dead stocks of funnily shaped pencil tip protection caps, which has two caps connected together as the inventor thought that would be useful. The company turned the failures into into toys for kids to be locked together to build things, and they found that children really liked the toy. Following the positive feedback, the company spent years to improve the product to develop the Diablock and started selling it in 1962, which is also the year when Logo block was introduced into Japan! This is an interesting coincidence :)