User blog:Jack Phoenix/Let's talk about...Fabuland
With all the recent buzz about upcoming sets for the next year, I figured it'd be nice to take a step back and delve into one of the most iconic LEGO themes that you might never have heard of: Fabuland. As our article notes, the theme ran for a decade — from 1979 to 1989 — and it was a pioneer in various aspects, many of which would become a standard in the following years, such as named characters and lots of new pieces.
The world was a very different place back then. The Soviet Union and East Germany were countries, VCRs were used to record your favorite TV shows onto VHS cassettes, computers were mostly an academic curiosity than anything else, and virtually nobody had even dreamed of high-definition television. These are just some of the various reasons as to why it's surprisingly hard to find information, let alone good-quality pictures, of all things Fabuland.
Figures[edit source]
One of the most distinguishable features of Fabuland sets are the minifigures. These anthropomorphic characters made up a significant portion of the theme's appeal in my opinion. And boy, Fabuland sure is one crowded place! From cats to dogs to lambs, foxes, raccoons...there are all sorts of animals in Fabuland. But no humans!
Here's an interesting historical quirk (if you can call it that): the "modern" minifigure was introduced in 1978, merely one year prior to the launch of Fabuland. Prior to that, there were LEGOLAND Minifigures. Dark times, indeed. During the 1980s some Basic sets featured what you could essentially call a "Fabuland human figure" — some Basic figures had the Fabuland torso and legs but a human head. Unlike Fabuland and Fabuland figures, these figures were rather short-lived.
Of the sets released in 1979, 324 Ricky Raccoon on his Scooter and 325 Percy Pig's Wheelbarrow (which would be rereleased in 1980/1981, respectively, as 3605 Ricky Raccoon and his Scooter and 3615 Percy Pig's Wheelbarrow) were small enough to be compared to modern-day collectible minifigures: Ricky's only accessory was his scooter, whereas Percy had the wheelbarrow, the broom and the shovel. Such small sets containing one minifigure and some accessories for the figure would be released throughout 1980 and 1981 (examples include 3602 Bianca Lamb and Stroller, 5 parts, 3603 Boris Bulldog and Mailbox, 4 parts and 3604 Marc Monkey and Wheelbarrow, also 4 parts, just to name a few).
I'm not sure if it's a design flaw or just something caused by the age of these sets and characters, but often Fabuland figures tend to have loose legs and almost equally often there's some wear on the character's faces, as the minifigure gallery on our Fabuland article illustrates (or you can just directly look at these pictures: Marjorie Mouse, Patrick Parrot, Bianca Lamb). Sure, ordinary System figures can suffer from loose limbs, but I've gotten the feeling it's much more common with Fabuland figures. Does anyone know more about this? Share your knowledge in the comments section below!
Packaging and instructions[edit source]
Smaller sets, such as 3638 Buster Bulldog's Fire Engine, were packed in a blister packaging in such a way that it'd be easy to take them out of the packaging and assemble them even without instructions, whereas larger sets such as 350 Town Hall with Leonard Lion & Friends came in a box and with instructions that contained a story, as opposed to plain step-by-step instructions on how to assemble the set.
Images of the box for 137 Hospital from an eBay auction (archive.is links):
- Front
- Back
- Contents
- Another shot of the box's contents
- Yet another shot of the contents
- and one more
Unique (and non-unique) parts[edit source]
Fabuland introduced a lot of new parts, some of which were never seen again, whereas others have made it into Belville, Harry Potter and Town sets, for example.
Mini broom and radio with short handle do appear in various Fabuland sets and both of these parts have been seen in other LEGO sets, but they were actually introduced a year prior to the introduction of Fabuland, in 1978, with Town and Space themes, respectively. I did not know that!
As the LEGO.com history page notes, during the 1980s the roof elements changed from ordinary 2x2 bricks into specialized, bigger parts, which haven't (sadly) been seen since with a few exceptions, but more about that later on...
Many sets with buildings, such as 3660 Fisherman's Cottage, include the Fabuland chair and/or table. For whatever reason, the table is strictly a Fabuland part that hasn't been reissued since 1988, but the chair has made several appearances since that, the most recent being in 7586 Sunshine Home from 2008, according to Peeron's inventory page for that part.
Often the cup/mug is on the table. This part is commonly seen in various Fabuland sets and it's made a lot of appearances since the discontinuation of Fabuland, such as in 5978 The Secret of the Sphinx (from 1998), and although the part was indeed introduced in 1979, like Fabuland, it was originally a Homemaker part, appearing in sets such as 261 Bathroom, 268 Family Room 269 Kitchen, and later on during that same year in the LEGOLAND Town set 675 Snack Bar, too.
Although four Fabuland sets featured the Fabuland shovel and at least two (325 Percy Pig's Wheelbarrow/3615 Percy Pig's Wheelbarrow) feature the classic shovel, the shovel was seen in a few sets released after the discontinuation of Fabuland, such as 5846 Desert Island (Belville set from 1998), 3148 Carla's Winter Camp (Scala set from 2000) and even 3348 Rock Raiders 2 (Rock Raiders/System set from 2000).
Likewise, the Fabuland sets involving fire station etc. included the Fabuland-only pickaxe, which hasn't been since. The regular pickaxe was introduced a year prior to the initial introduction of Fabuland, in 1978 in the sets 641 Excavator and 374 Fire Station. It has made several appearances since then, for example during the Adventurers theme in the late 1990s and early 2000s. One of the most recent sets featuring this part is 7594 Woody's Roundup!, a Toy Story set from late 2009 (essentially early 2010).
Elmer Elephant from 3706 Elmer Elephant also came with a different broom, which has since been seen in contexts involving magic and witches, such as certain Fright Knights sets (including, but not limited to 6037 Witch's Windship), various Harry Potter sets, but also some more "ordinary" sets, such as 4178 Mickey's Fishing Adventure and 71040 The Disney Castle (although I'd argue that the Disney Castle sure is magical, but in a different way!).
Clover Cow was bundled with a rake and a watering can. Outside Fabuland, neither part has ever been a part of a standard System set, although both have been reissued a couple times since the 1980s: the rake has appeared in 4167 Mickey's Mansion (released in 2000) and 5859 Little Garden Fairy (released in 2003), the latter being a Belville set; whereas the watering can has — somewhat surprisingly — appeared a few times more in some Belville sets, such as 5895 Villa Belville from 1996 or 7586 Sunshine Home from 2008, and, of course, Mickey's Mansion aswell. What's curious is that according to Peeron data, the watering can is available in four colors, the original 1980s colors being lime and red; the part hasn't been issued in those colors since 1980s but it has been issued in two new colors, dark pink and yellow.
Rufus Rabbit had a basket and two loaves of baguette in 3708 Rufus Rabbit. The basket appeared only in one other set released the same year (1982), 3786 Buzzy Bulldog, and hasn't been since. The baguette, however, made its way to normal System sets through various Belville and Scala sets and it was most recently included in 9348 Community Minifigure Set, a Dacta set released in 2011. The baguette can be ordered from LEGO.com at the price of 0,26€ (~$0.27 USD) per piece.
And then there are the cars. The Fabuland car chassis and car doors (left and right) were seen in multiple Fabuland sets during the decade when Fabuland was being produced, but these three parts didn't make it to any other sets. The 2000 sets 4166 Mickey's Car Garage and 4167 Mickey's Mansion contain a slightly redesigned Fabuland car chassis which has had the hitch removed. The hitch allowed the car to tow another car — or caravan, as the case was with 3680 Camping Caravan. Unfortunately in practise the hitch tended to break all too often, so in a way removing it made sense. It's a shame that even the redesigned car mold wasn't used for any other sets than the aforementioned two sets released in 2000. Personally I think it could've been great for several Adventurers sets, such as 5919 Treasure Tomb, where the car's main body is actually a coffin (!).
And since the Fabuland car doesn't have rubber tires, it withstands the test of time better than the slightly more realistic rubber tires. It's probably worth noting that while with the aforementioned Adventurers set, for example, and other 1990s sets containing cars, the axle and the wheels (as well as the tires) are separate parts which can be removed, but the Fabuland car chassis is a single, big piece and the wheels cannot be removed.
Mickey Mouse[edit source]
In 2000 LEGO launched and discontinued the Mickey Mouse theme, a theme built around the iconic Disney character. While the three minifigures — Mickey, Minnie and Pluto — were all-new, a lot of the other parts weren't. Sets like 4164 Mickey's Fire Engine and 4166 Mickey's Car Garage brought back the Fabuland car mold, and 4167 Mickey's Mansion as well as 4165 Minnie's Birthday Party saw the return of the unique Fabuland roof piece, originally introduced in 1982, as well as Fabuland doors, windows and various minifigure accessories.
While it was certainly refreshing to see a lot of Fabuland parts making a comeback, the figures weren't equally refreshing. Sure, it was the first time in history we'd see those three Disney characters as LEGO minifigures, and as of 2016, Pluto from the Mickey Mouse line is still the only LEGO Pluto produced so far. Unlike other Fabuland figures or traditional System minifigures, the "Fabuland" Mickey and Minnie figures did not have movable legs — like with DUPLO figures, the leg part was a single part, so you couldn't have these characters in a running position, for example. But at least Mickey and Minnie figures have some articulation points — poor Pluto has none!
In May 2016 LEGO produced more traditional Mickey and Minnie Mouse minifigures as a part of the Disney collectible minifigure series. Priced around 3€, these blind bags were a cost-effective way of acquiring various Disney characters in minifigure form — and unlike Mickey and Minnie, the majority of these characters had never before been immortalized as minifigures.
Fabuland and AFOLs[edit source]
Our Fabuland page rather laconically notes that Fabuland is a theme popular among Adult Fans of LEGO (AFOLs) "for the theme's unique and unusual elements and characteristics", which, obviously, is true. However, this sentence still doesn't say much. We've estabilished some facts above: that Fabuland figures were different from ordinary minifigures (which at the time were relatively new), that Fabuland contributed a lot in terms of new pieces, but these arguments can also be applied to many less popular themes, such as Scala, for example. Sure, Scala sets and individual pieces are quite hard to come by these days and they're not exactly cheap either, but they're nowhere near as popular as Fabuland sets, pieces, etc. The big question is why?
As reddit user "danth" puts it in a thread about Fabuland, "It has an innocence and whimsy that no other line had". Fabuland was a stepping stone from DUPLO to System, being fully System-compatible but far less tedious to build than some System sets. The largest Fabuland set is 3682 Fire Station, which has 149 pieces — we might be tempted to say "only 149 pieces" these days, but the set itself is pretty big as Fabuland pieces in general are bigger, and thus the play value that set provides is a lot different than, for example, the Star Wars set 7144 Slave I.
But the innocence. That is the real appealing factor for AFOLs in adddition to cool unique parts. In many other themes — especially licensed ones, such as Star Wars — there are the good guys and the bad guys. Luke Skywalker is the hero of the original Star Wars movies and Darth Vader is the villain. But when it comes to Fabuland, the good vs. bad characters split just isn't there. It's all about collaboration and co-operation, as the instructions manual for set 140/350 Town Hall illustrates. Freddy Fox is called lazy, he ends up behind bars (!), escapes, steals the fire truck and yet manages to save the day and Lionel Lion while at it and is eventually proclaimed a hero by Lionel. That's what sets Fabuland apart from many of the modern-day sets aimed at younger builders, such as the Juniors sets.
What's your favorite Fabuland set? Share your thoughts on Fabuland as well as this blog post in the comments section below!
Sources and further reading[edit source]
- Fabuland as a part of LEGO history on LEGO.com
- Fabuland.net, Sybrand Bonsma's comprehensive online resource on all things Fabuland
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