Lego Fabuland (stylized as ''LEGO Fabuland'') is a discontinued theme and product range of

Lego Lego (, ; ; stylised as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitri ...

construction toys, aimed at young children. Introduced in 1979, the range aimed to fill the gap between

Duplo Lego Duplo (trademarked as DUPLO and stylised in the logo as duplo) is a core product range of the construction toy Lego by The Lego Group, designed for children from to 5 years old. Duplo bricks are twice the size of traditional Lego bricks in ...

and the standard Lego product ranges. Aimed at both boys and girls, the range encouraged storytelling, and was the first theme to be extended into books, clothing, and a

claymation Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine cl ...

children's television show, ''

Edward and Friends ''Edward and Friends'' is a children's TV series in claymation from FilmFair that aired on British, New Zealand and Canadian television in 1987–1989. Each episode was 5-minutes in length and was based on the 1980s Lego Fabuland theme. 28 epis ...

'', that aired in the United Kingdom and Canada during the 1980s.

Characters

Fabuland sets featured

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

animal characters. These pieces were larger than standard Lego

minifigures A Lego minifigure, often simply referred to as a Lego figure or a minifig, is a small plastic articulated figurine made of special Lego bricks produced by Danish building toy manufacturer The Lego Group. They were first produced in 1978 and ha ...

, but smaller than Duplo figures, and included movable arms, legs and heads. Some of the characters appeared in multiple sets, were given names, and sometimes stories. This was the first Lego theme with named characters. Names of the characters varied by country.

Style

Fabuland had a distinctive, friendly style, with various animal characters that each had a job or purpose in the town of Fabuland. Fabuland featured special elements that were larger than standard Lego bricks, but were fully compatible with regular Lego. Fabuland used a primary colour scheme and the sets were aimed for children between 4–8 as a transition from Duplo to Lego. Fabuland was unique due to the special elements, such as walls, roof elements, tables, chairs, boats and cars chassis. Larger Sets included buildings with story book like instructions and the theme also had many vehicles and individual characters with accessories. Fabuland is highly sought after today among collectors and there is a large fan base that keeps the theme alive via Lego fan sites. Fabuland was discontinued in 1989 and many elements have since reappeared in other product lines, such as

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an American cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime icon and mascot of the Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large shoes, and white ...

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

, Belville,

Castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

/Kingdoms,

Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane (producer), David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting List of Friends episodes, ten seasons. With an ensemble cast ...

, Lego Games and others. The Fabuland line was referenced in the 2014 film ''

The Lego Movie ''The Lego Movie'' is a 2014 animated adventure comedy film written and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Based on the Lego line of construction toys, the film stars the voices of Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will ...

''.

Books

Instructions for sets contained text stories with illustrations. This was the first time Lego used inspirational material. There were also printed story books based on the Fabuland theme, including seven books based on the Fabuland television series ''Edward and Friends''. The comic strip ''Fabuland, il paese delle fantaviglie'' ('Fabuland, the Country of Fantasies') was included in the Italian magazine ''Più e il suo Gioco''.

Other products

For the Fabuland theme Lego introduced such licensed products as key chains, books, table decorations,

pen PEN may refer to: * (National Ecological Party), former name of the Brazilian political party Patriota (PATRI) * PEN International, a worldwide association of writers ** English PEN, the founding centre of PEN International ** PEN America, located ...

s, playing cards, jigsaw puzzles,

memory games Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...

(in association with

Ravensburger Ravensburger AG is a German game, puzzle and toy company, publishing house, and market leader in the jigsaw puzzle market. History The company was founded by Otto Robert Maier in Ravensburg, a town in Upper Swabia in southern Germany. He began ...

), parachute toys, children cutlery sets (in association with BSF), bed cover sheets, children's clothing. Fabuland characters were attached to

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

's Orzoro jars. In 1979 in Germany

Phonogram Inc. Phonogram Incorporated was started in 1970 as a successor to Philips Phonographic Industries, a unit of the Grammophon-Philips Group (GPG), a joint venture of Philips N.V. of the Netherlands and Siemens AG of Germany. It was a holding company f ...

released on

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog signal, analog sound Recording medium, storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, ...

radioplay "Stories from Fabuland" written by Sebastian Beck and directed by Michael Weckler.

Notes

External links

Fabuland
on ''Brickset'' {{Lego Fabuland Toy animals Products introduced in 1979 Products and services discontinued in 1989