For the 2025 LEGO House Exclusive #6 LEGO Fabuland Tribute set 40506 click here
LEGO® House in Billund, Denmark has reopened for 2025, and I went to see what's new! Who better to show it to me than Stuart Harris, the Master Builder at LEGO House. He and the team have been busily refreshing exhibits and play experiences throughout January, including a takeover of LEGO House by the LEGO® Botanicals theme – which I will show you in my second article.
Today, I'm exclusively revealing the new LEGO® FABULAND® displays situated in the History Collection (the official LEGO museum in the basement). Read on to join me in a happy place!
There is a large room within the History Collection that features iconic sets from throughout LEGO history, and at either end of the room there are two huge display cases, both of which have now been given over to FABULAND displays in 2025.
What is LEGO FABULAND?
FABULAND was a play theme aimed at 3 to 7 year olds, launched in 1979 – the same era as LEGO® Town, LEGO® Space, LEGO® Castle and the ill-fated original run of LEGO® Scala. Although it is part of LEGO® System, it focused less on the building aspect by providing large and prefabricated building elements (even huge rooms measuring 10 x 20 modules) that could be assembled quickly, so that fantasy storytelling could begin.
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| ©1984 LEGO Group |
Rather than minifigures, the sets featured anthropomorphic characters with oversized heads. The characters have proved to be greatly adored, not only by children of the era but also by generations of later LEGO fans. Something about their design is loveable and just perfect, helped by their idyllic surroundings of fun, food and frolics, with stories laced with charm and whimsy.
FABULAND is a bit to the right if you arrive from the South, and a bit to the left if you arrive from the North.
– from the rear cover of FABULAND books
I guess FABULAND was in the East, then?
FABULAND was much more than just LEGO sets, however. For the first time ever, a LEGO theme crossed over into different media and various types of products. It changed the way The LEGO Group think about storytelling, and this influence is clear right up to the present day in intellectual property-based themes and the important, "Big Bang" themes like LEGO® DREAMZzz™.
To learn more about FABULAND, let's take a look inside the two cases in the History Collection at LEGO House!
Timeline of FABULAND sets
One case is filled with a display of FABULAND sets from its inception in 1979 until its final year, 1989. Ten years is a pretty wonderful run for a LEGO theme, and it is fascinating to see them laid out year by year. The style remained consistent throughout, but it is interesting to see the introduction of even more large, specialised elements in later years.
By the way, the beautiful illustrated background behind te oversized FABULAND tree was drawn by Stuart's associate LEGO House Master Builder, Dídac Pérez Soriano. What a multi-talented guy!
The second display case proved to be far more interesting to me, though. Note there are items hanging from oversized FABULAND antennae elements!
Let's work through it from left to right.
FABULAND character bios
Above a magnificent collection of FABULAND figures – presumably every single one, but I didn't stop to cross-check! – are two papers from the LEGO® Archive. These are internal documents: the original character descriptions for Edward Elephant and Lucy Lamb.
Here is the adorable description of Edward:
Edward is a kind, positive and generous character.
He thinks a lot about why things are as they are, and he is often lost in details.
Edward may seen clumsy. However, he sometimes tries activities where in the end he happily and surprisingly finds that he can manage.
He is patient and a little hesitant, but if other inhabitants in FABULAND are in real trouble he overcomes his hesitation and helps them.
FABULAND master models
The display case includes some of the original master models that were designed in order to cast the moulds. These are upscaled versions of the final elements, so that the necessary level of detail can be sculpted. Above centre is the FABULAND teapot accessory which, after the theme ended, only appeared in one 1996 set before being retired.
Here are the oversized casts of Bertie Bulldog, Mike Monkey and Lionel Lion with the intended decorations added.
FABULAND storytelling
The exhibit shows two examples: 3673 Steamboat from 1985 – a set with a waterwheel element that was never used again – and 3669 Fire and Police Headquarters from 1982.
However, the FABULAND storytelling universe expanded beyond building instruction booklets.
From 1980, the second year of the theme, a variety of FABULAND books were published in many languages. The characters had names localised to each country.
The exhibition features several of the original hand-painted illustrations, hanging from the antenna. They are beautifully rich and a joy to behold.
The associated tie-in merchandise even extended into recorded media, including a 1987 claymation series Edward and Friends by British company FilmFair, famous for Paddington and The Wombles among many more. In case you're wondering, the items shown above are a vinyl record, cassette tape and VHS videocassette.
FABULAND games and gear
The last section of the display case shows a variety of what LEGO call "lifestyle products". These range from toys to colouring books to clothing and... is that a tea towel?? Need.
I said that this was the last section of the exhibit, however, oddly the final plinth in the display case is empty. Could this be for the 2025 LEGO House Exclusive #6 LEGO Fabuland Tribute set 40506?
READ MORE: February 2025 LEGO® Gifts with Purchase from 17th to 28th
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Neat article!
ReplyDeleteFabuland was before my time and was not widely available in my country anyway. Nevertheless, as mentioned, its impacts can be seen in other later themes. Not just in terms of leftover molds that found there way into other themes, but arguably in terms of being a precursor to modern cross-media Lego IPs like Ninjago. And of course, the animal characters and pastoral dollhouse-like play of the Fabuland theme has a lot in common with the recent Animal Crossing sets.
With a teaser for an upcoming Lego House exclusive set featuring a lot of bubbly shapes in greens and yellows, it's not too hard to imagine what might be intended to go on that last pedestal...
Great overview! Fabuland was decidedly before my time, but you can definitely see its fingerprints on some of the media-heavy themes for older kids that followed, particularly LEGO Pirates (which, in Europe at least, continued to include a detailed cast of named characters, hand-drawn picture books, and tie-in audio dramas as key parts of its marketing strategy).
ReplyDeleteIt's also often fascinating to me to realize just how many elements from the sets I grew up with originated in Fabuland: the jail cell doors from Pirates, Castle, and Wild West, the oversized flights of stairs from Pirates, Castle, and Paradisa; the broom and cauldron from Fright Knights; and even the ship's wheel and mast bases from LEGO Pirates (the latter of which was originally a Fabuland carousel support)! And some Fabuland parts (or at least, updated variants of them) are still used in sets today, like the baguette and washtub!
Element-wise, I do think that the "starter bricks" from today's 4+ sets are generally more versatile than their precursors from more heavily stylized and upscaled "early builder" themes like Fabuland and Jack Stone. For example, 4+ wall panel elements tend to fit the same window and door elements as sets for older kids, and the building and vehicle elements don't have such particular "cartoon" aesthetics that would make them stand out conspicuously in a theme like City, Friends, or Ninjago. Still, the specificity of the Fabuland design language lent the theme a lot of aesthetic charm which has surely helped fuel even older builders' lingering fondness for those sets!
Kind of surprised that the embroidered picture of Edward on that sweatshirt is so much more stylized than any of the other illustrated or animated versions of the characters I've seen! I wonder whether the source image might've been a style test of sorts from before LEGO decided they wanted a more "toy-accurate" design language for the "Edward and Friends" videos?
"original master models that were designed in order to cast the moulds"
ReplyDeleteGreat article, but this is incorrect. It is physically impossible to "cast" a reduced mold from an oversized master. Also, high volume injection molds are not cast, they are cut from blocks of very hard steel. Before CNC, oversized masters were used to *cut* scaled-down injection molds using a device called a pantograph. The oversized master was used to guide the cutting/grinding machines. In the 1980s, CNC digital machine tools became widely available. These allowed detailed molds to be cut 1:1 without the need for a reducing step. Before digital machining, there was no easy way to cut freeform shapes (curvy, organic) to make plastic injection molds. Pantographs and oversized masters were the solution, and Lego was probably at the forefront of this technology. Note: geometric shapes like bricks didn't require a pantograph master. They could always be cut 1:1 by skilled machinists.
The best reference I could find talks about the use of pantograph engravers to make the dies for stamping coins. Same idea, but less 3D than an injection mold for Fabuland parts. Pantograph engravers have been around for 100s of years, and were the inspiration for the kind of reducing pantographs Lego used. Lego didn't invent this. A very detailed reference:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/dictionarydetail/516454
I dug deeper. 3D pantograph mills were manufactured by Gorton, DECKEL, and Alexander. These two links show pics of Gorton Pantomills. On the right you can see the "stylus" which would trace an oversized master clamped to the righthand table. On the left is a spinning tool holder that would grind & cut the reduced image into the mold block attached to the left table. Thanks for the error that inspired this deep dive!
Deletehttps://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net/gorton_p23_pantograph.jpg
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fmy-1956-gorton-p1-3-3d-pantograph-before-and-after-v0-gwx9qzq1lz9d1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D1583%26format%3Dpjpg%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D94d58713f99fda3f897c0aab6b91326e6b6b4093
Thanks so much for this! I was pretty sure I had misunderstood :D so I appreciate the detail and link
DeleteYou're welcome! I hope I didn't come across as scolding. This is arcane stuff, before the internet began recording everything. More accessible are the pantographs used by artists to copy sculptures. For example see this link: https://x.com/MoujanMatin/status/902547371409776641
DeleteOh boy! I’m afraid I have everything on display minus the sweatshirt and the bed linen (not a tea towel) plus a few extra pieces such as pens and keychains. The display of figures looks impressive! I started off with two figures that I picked up in Loplet and now…. A very slippery but an incredibly happy slope! Fabuland forever!
ReplyDeleteIt’s a tea towel for sure. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?G=853576#T=S&O=%7B%2522iconly%2522:0%7D
DeleteYou say "I said that this was the last section of the exhibit, however, oddly the final plinth in the display case is empty". I hope new fabuland :)
ReplyDelete