Today I would like to discuss an old and now retired LEGO theme that continues to remain popular with some LEGO fans; LEGO Fabuland. The Fabuland theme was released between 1979-1989, so some of our younger readers may have never even heard of it. However even youthful LEGO fans who grew up in the post Fabuland era often get smitten by the charm of Fabuland once they get introduced to the theme. Just take a look at the #3678 LEGO Fabuland House pictured below. 🙂
LEGO Fabuland sets were aimed at younger children who grew out of DUPLO, but were not quite ready to build regular LEGO sets. Although Fabuland elements are regular LEGO size, there are a lot of pre-fabricated larger pieces that are easy to put together (see picture above). Fabuland minifigs are a little larger than regular minifigures (Photo by Vanjey_Lego), and they are all humanized animal characters with large bobble heads that adds the cuteness factor. Their accessories, vehicles, etc. can be used with regular LEGO minifigures. (In fact, if you are looking to add some unique accessories and elements to your LEGO creations, look for LEGO Fabuland!)
As I have mentioned LEGO Fabuland continues to be popular with older LEGO fans who grew up with the theme, and also younger fans who got introduced to it later. At pretty much every LEGO convention you will see some LEGO Fabuland creations everybody falls in love with. You can’t help it. To this day LEGO hasn’t been able to recapture the charm of Fabuland with any of their other themes, although Legends of Chima could be seen as an attempt to reintroduce animal heroes. But as far as being adorable, Chima is far-far behind Fabuland. Plus in Fabuland there were no guns and fighting. It was all just daily activities sprinkled with a lot of cuteness.
The LEGO Fabuland houses had a Hobbit-village like charm. Take a look at this LEGO Fabuland Hobbiton by Gabriel Thomson that combines the delightful Land of the Hobbits with Fabuland! You can’t get any more endearing than this! 🙄
Or how about this house this Fabuland House by Jordan Schwartz, who is known for experimenting with Fabuland on a regular basis, and even taking Fabuland to the dark side? Take a look at his Fabuland gallery here: LEGO Fabuland Creations by Jordan Schwartz
Continuing the fun-in-the-sun nature of Fabuland, below is a Fabuland Fair scene by Brickbaron. Looks like a fun place to be, especially with so many parts being motorized (check the video below). This LEGO Fabuland creation does have a sad-ish story showing that Fabuland characters also have their own problems, but they deal with it: “After 10 years of living the fabulous life, Fabuland was cancelled by The LEGO Group in 1989. No longer welcome on store-shelves, and with nowhere to turn, the Fabuland characters were forced to find refuge where they could. Lionel Lion, the Major, led his community to an abandoned truck in a farmer’s field. For many years times were hard, and far from fabulous. Lionel Lion knew he had to do something to change their fate. In the time honored Fabuland tradition, they would build a Fun Fair! From then on times would again be Fabulous, and the world would know that Fabuland is alive and well!”
And here is a small LEGO Fabuland vignette with Fabuland characters having fun trying out modern technology by Karf Oohlu, who is known for his humorous LEGO creations.
There are so many more recent LEGO Fabuland creations I could show you, but I hope the ones features here give you a good idea about the theme and what LEGO fans do with it. And as you can see, Fabuland is very much well and alive 25 years after retirement. If you are interested to get some LEGO Fabuland sets, parts or characters, BrickLink sellers carry them (follow the links) and you can also find them on eBay for usually cheaper as some of the sellers there are not aware of the desirability of these sets.
So what do you think? Are you familiar with LEGO Fabuland, or was this the first time you heard of it? How do you like it? Do you use Fabuland figures and elements in your own LEGO creations? Feel free to share in the comment section below! 😉
And you may also like to check out the following related posts:
Wow! Admin, I really like that Fabuland Hobbiton!
I’ve heard of Fabuland before, but I don’t have any sets. It looks like LEGO is trying to appeal to a wider age and interest range lately. They released LEGO Disney Princesses, LEGO Friends, LEGO Simpsons, and LEGO Juniors.
LEGO Agents is supposed to come out later this year. If LEGO continues to bring back older themes, I wonder if they’ll bring back Fabuland.
Meneldur, what I have heard is the Chima was somewhat of an attempt to bring back Fabuland, although the story is very-very different. Perhaps in the future LEGO may decide that all that fighting is not necessary to become a popular LEGO theme. The popularity of Fabuland proves it.
I myself don’t own much Fabuland, but I really like the theme, and every time I shop on BrickLink I check the seller’s store to see if they have some Fabuland minifigs or parts. They are very unique. So far I got three minifigs and some interesting roof parts, minifig accessories, and a few more odds and ends. 🙂
You beat me to it Anna, I was going to comment that Fabuland is Legends of Chima rated G while LOC is rated PG-13 LOL. I too have been seeing abig come-back with Fabuland MOCs. But WOW!!! I can’t believe its been 25 years since 1989, I was 7 years old when this retired and the first time I saw or heard of LEGO was in 1990 or 1991, so I had just missed Fabuland.
Yeah, it’s been a while, and Fabuland is still well and alive. I would even say as much as Classis Space! It is just such a unique theme, and in many ways the best representation of what LEGO is about. Interestingly as a child I didn’t care for Fabuland that much. I never had any myself, but I had an older relative who did. I found them a bit silly. I was a tomboy and wanted castles and spaceships. But now as an adult I really like them. I guess being sentimental about kiddie stuff happens to grown-ups. Or maybe it has to do with real life having so much struggle and fighting. For kids it is fun to play that out, but when you grow is and realize the ugliness of it you loose interest. 🙁
I think I just found some Fabuland pieces in my collection!
I had a few when I was a kid… I wonder where they are now…
Proof that the theme is still very much present in the community is the Fabuland themed torso seen on one of the MF in the LEGO movie set # 70813. In my opinion this is clearly an easter egg directed at AFOLs… I wonder how many of us are going to buy the set just for that!
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3824/11694940244_284df8f9f7_b.jpg
Yatkuu, gosh I completely forgot to mention that! It is in fact one of my favorite sets and she, and her Blacktron T-shirt wearing brother are some of my most favorite minifigures! I also find it funny that both of them have braces. I didn’t notice that until I opened the set and started building it. 😀
Haha, I had not noticed the braces.. strange. Did LEGO ever do that before? Maybe it’ll make sense in the movie!
I’m undecided about the set, it’s one of the more expensive ones and as much as I like the figs it’s a budget issue.
Yatkuu, as far as I know those are the first braces in LEGO’s history. We had minifigs with dental problems before with teeth missing, but this is the first sign that LEGO minifigs also have issues with crooked teeth! I know what you mean about the price. It is one of largest (until the summer) LEGO Movie sets, but it is – along with the garbage truck – are my two most favorites. 😛
I have braces, they stink. 🙁
Yeah, I know what you mean. I had those temporary braces that they put on before your real braces. I hated them! I couldn’t eat, I couldnt’ sleep and it hurt all the time! So I threw a tantrum and my mother resigned to the fact that I will have crooked teeth. Well, it is only actually one tooth that is a bit out of line so it’s not so bad. 😛
Aha! I thought they had braces (spotted a little grey twinkle on the picture) but my brother insisted that was ridiculous. Ha! 😀
As Emmet would say… “AWESOMEEE!!!”
This is far better than Duplo…. With updated designs and characters, I’m sure this would be a hit with the four to seven age range. Probably not as big a hit as Ninjago or SW, but it could be a good idea for LEGO® to bring it back……… LOC is a good theme, I love the new sets coming out in the summer, but it is aimed at an older age group (especially the new sets, they’re a lot darker than the original ones).
Also, my forum (http://starbricks.createaforum.com/index.php) is starting to feel a bit lonely 😛
Any new users would be fantastic! 😀
How many of you have seen the new LOC set pictures?
If “LOC” means Chima, then I have. They seem different than before. I think they’re adding to many new tribes.
I have to agree on that. The tribes are getting confusing. Also, the theme is getting darker. 😕
Yeah, we discussed them a bit in the Toy Fair post a few days ago. I will do an update from the German Toy Fair next week after the show is over and we can have a summary. 🙂
Yeah, Chima are animals with attitude( kind of like the Ewoks in star wars. Bears with attitude) As for the fabuland I had a set. It was a bird flying an airplane and a couple others but, I can’t remember what sets they were and when your little you lose things.( sadly)
So THIS is what Fabuland is. I’ve heard of the theme many times, but never really understood it. Used to think it was an old girls’ theme (no offense). I only knew about before b/c Lego Digital Designer calls a lot of pieces “Fabuland ——“. 😕
I believe that Lego is still using Fabuland parts in sets recently, like there’s a Fabuland broomstick used in An Unexpected Gathering 79003 from the Hobbit. I think, but Brickset is down, so can’t check. 🙁
Yes, some of the Fabuland accessories are still alive and migrated to other themes. There are many others however that have been discontinued but worth to check out because they are super cute. 😛
As far as Brickset, they have been having trouble with their data-center and are migrating to another one, which means you have to change servers. I had to do it once myself and I can tell you it is a real pain! You just have to hope and pray that when your site is back up not too much got lost or messed up. I think I lost 6 articles, plus a bunch of comments. Brickset however is much larger than TBB. The larger the site the more problems can creep up during a migration. 🙁
Oh, is that what is happening? Using a Star Trek quote here – “Fascinating. I was. . .unaware we had that.”
Hmm..how long does it take to migrate? I use that site a lot, it has lots of information.
It really depends. So many things could go wrong, and there is no ideal time to schedule it for. It could take hours or days. I’m sure Huw (the owner of Brickset) is on top of it by at least having a back-up, so in case things go wrong he could get the site transfered somewere else. Unfortunately the migration is not up to him. It is done by the server guys. I remember when Eurobricks was transfered last year. It took like a week! 🙁
K, I am already amassing a fleet of those little jet thingys!!!! there so easy to make, and really cool to play with!!
Make sure you don’t forget to make wooshing noises!
yea, I’m a lil outta breath tho, cuz making wooshing noises for the whole fleet is kinda challenging =)
LOL! Yeah, that must be hard! Giving sound-effects for an entire fleet! 😀
I know this is off-topic, but I’ve been reading TBB for a while, and thought you might like to know that the new episode of Ninjago is on animeflavor.com.
-The Watcher
Thanks! If you have the direct link you are welcome to include it. I think I will stick with embedding a YouTube video as AnimeFlavor is full of ads and even virus attacks. So if you do visit the site make sure you have adblock and pop-up blocker turned on.
My kids had Fabuland sets. We still have a few pieces that my 3yo grandson now plays with.
I always thought of them as the Richard Scarry version of Legos.
That’s the perfect description! X
Still have a bunch of these parts and minifigs. Alas, some of those have gone lost throughout the years, and will cost a bit on Bricklink.
Five of my fave minifigs:
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?M=fab2f
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?M=fab4c
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?M=Fab4f
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?M=fab7g
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?M=fab12g
Yeah, those are very cute! Sometimes you luck out and have a new seller jump on BrickLink or eBay and lists a bunch of them in brand new quality with low prices. That’s how I got mine. It is a good idea to put them on your watch list. I just saw some of the largest, nicest Fabuland sets listed on eBay in brand new, perfect, sealed condition a few days ago! Some people are collectors and stash LEGO away for years! 😀
The Fabuland animals seem to be a fun-loving bunch. In Legoland City, there’s a police station at every block. In Fabuland, there’s one or two police stations, while there are six amusement parks, merry-go-rounds and playgrounds!
Yep, citizens of Fabuland are into having fun! Even the police station is only there to save stranded kitties and such. No hard crimes! Although if you look at Jordan’s photo-stream (linked in the article), you can see what it looks like to take Fabuland to the dark-side. It is especially creepy! 😈
There are indications that Clive Crocodile and Ricky Raccoon might be up to no good, though…
https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=3664-1
(Although that won’t prevent them from enjoying a good amusement park…)
Yeah, you always have to keep your guard up with crocks and coons! Funny thing is that we have both of them in the town I live (well, technically we have alligators not crocodiles), and you do have to keep an eye on them. Coons are super cute little thiefs, and gators are always watching you… 😈
This is why I truly believe it’s the most charming series ever made by Lego. Cute animals with doe eyes just going about their business, baking bread and playing the accordion!
Well said, Helen, and I totally agree! 😀
I have a ton of fabuland pieces/people. I even have the merry go round swings. I loved them. They are in my Legos at my mom’s house just waiting for my kids to be old enough to use them. 🙂 We still have a chokin hazard toddling around the house. I lived in Germany while they were aroun so maybe they were more popular or available there.
Kellie, sounds like you have a really nice collection. Yes, in my experience Fabuland is more common in Europe. I’m sure your kids will enjoy them. 🙂
I also have some story books. One is falling apart but I can’t throw it away. I have such great memories of building with my sister.
Fabuland is my all time favourite Lego theme, i was a child of the 80’s, The characters are fun and loving, as mentioned above, i have seen many parts used in other themes, I hope Lego will re-introduce some of the sets in the future, as ive noticed that alot of the characters are worn, (the face prints) on ebay sometimes, Fabuland defo lives on!! 🙂
Legends if Chima is supposed to be a revival of Fabuland, unfortunately with a theme that is based on conflict and war. It would be nice if the more peaceful world of the original Fabuland would come back. As far as buying old Fabuland figures, I have had good luck on BrickLink where I got some characters in practically brand new condition. eBay is also a good place, but you have to keep checking back for really great finds. Yes, Febuland lives on! 🙂
I use Bricklink to buy seperate pieces!, There are alot of still brand new Fabuland sets available around the world on the site, my little niece will get some for her 3rd birthday coming up!! 🙂
Yes, I also look for Fabuland every time I shop on BrickLink. It is more common to find them from European sellers, but I did find some Fabuland figures from a new BrickLink shop in practically new condition. Also, eBay is a good place to check. 🙂
I don’t like, because it is only for little children babies.
I have an old Fabuland set with 1 minifig – 3781 Maximillian Mouse the Handyman, with all parts intact. These days, I buy Duplo Legoville and Pink Building Fun for my daughter. Also got several Lego sets which I stopped playing after turning 18.
That’s a sweet Fabuland set! Maybe you can share it with your daughter when she gets a bit older, or if you save it in pristine condition it might even pay for her college education. Fabuland is highly popular with collectors. 😉