LEGO House Exclusive 40506 LEGO Fabuland Tribute – A love letter to an iconic theme [Review]

This year, the LEGO House is hosting a new Fabuland exhibit, and along with it, celebrating the theme with the latest exclusive: 40506 LEGO Fabuland Tribute. This set, a collaboration between LEGO Master Builder Stuart Harris, Senior Designer Markus Rollbühler, and the LEGO House historian team, will only be available in the LEGO House retail store in Billund, Denmark as of March 1st, 2025. It contains 1026 pieces and will sell for 649DDK (roughly $91 USD | $130 CAD | £72 GBP | €87 EUR) with a limit of 3 per household. Join us as we take a closer look!

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

A brief introduction to the LEGO House and Fabuland

For those who are not familiar, The LEGO House is The LEGO Group’s very own museum and discovery center located in the heart of Billund, Denmark, the “Home of the Brick”. The playfully designed building has multiple “experience zones” and rooftop playgrounds, and houses over 25 million bricks. It also contains massive LEGO models, exhibits, and the Masterpiece Gallery, which consists of exquisite hand-picked creations designed by fans from all over the world. The Brothers Brick was invited to attend a special media day, complete with exclusive interviews with several set designers. Some of our commentary in this review comes from information we learned from Stuart, Markus, and LEGO Historian, Signe Wiese Bundsbæk.

You may not know this, but the rich storytelling within some LEGO lines originated in a charming world filled with anthropomorphic animals. Back in 1979, the company decided to create one of its first iconic themes: Fabuland. All of the characters have names, their own personalities, and background, told through stories in the instructions, comics, books, and even a television series following Edward Elephant and his friends. Large, fun, and colorful pieces were designed to cater to children ages 3-7, bridging the gap between Duplo and System elements. In fact, the legacy lives on with some pieces still being used in sets today. Spanning for a decade and delivering nearly 100 sets, it was – and still is – cherished by those who played with them as children.

Unboxing the parts, instructions, and sticker sheet

This set comes in a modest-sized box, with a book-style lid. Our copy has been signed by Stuart and Markus. Brick-built characters and the iconic Fabuland tree are backdropped by a cheery outdoor scene. The LEGO House logo sits at the top, along with the “Special Edition” number 6, as it’s the sixth in the LEGO House Exclusive series. Speaking of which, the model’s predecessors are all featured on the back of the box, along with a great bit of info about the history of Fabuland.

This information extends to the left side of the box as well.

Inside are 13 numbered paper bags, an unnumbered polybag for the large plates, and the wrapped instruction manuals.

The set actually has an instruction manual for every individual character, plus the tree, and the base. Theoretically, you could build them in any order. However, the bags are as follows:

#1-4 – Display Base #5-6 – Edward Elephant #7-8 – Clive Crocodile #9-10 – Joe Crow #11-12 – Doctor Lucy Lamb #13 – Fabuland Tree

Along with the instructions there is a sheet for a single 4×4 sticker. Don’t worry, we’ll get a good closeup in a bit.

I’m used to sets that have several pages dedicated to details about the model, but this is my first LEGO House review and I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much text in the instructions. I’m not complaining though! It’s wonderful to read about the rich history behind the set and the LEGO House.

One of my favorite parts, however, is not the history lesson, but rather the little pieces of storyline to go along with the model. This is a trademark of Fabuland sets, and something that has always made the theme so special. The storybook and box cover art are the work of LEGO House Associate Master Builder, Didac Perez.

Not only does the main instruction booklet contain loads of info, each of the characters’ booklets also contain a little bio.

The build

After soaking in all that goodness from the instructions, it’s time to finally start building! First things, first – the base. We quickly load up six 8×16 black plates with a snug little nest of tile for the “ground” section.

Next, the ground is built studs-up as a wall, complete with brackets for connecting to the base, and yellow Technic bricks for receiving the figure stands.

Once finished, we lay it down flat and connect it to the base. This concludes the first instruction manual.

Moving on to Edward Elephant, we start with his little stand. All of the character stands are identical and utilize a 6×6 rounded plate commonly found in Super Mario sets. They connect to the base and spin freely with the aid of a 2×2 plate with bottom pin.

The bodies of the characters, while all different colors, are identical as well. A clever trick is used to reverse the studs so that there are attachment points on all sides. Two 1×4 round plates are stacked and slotted onto the new 1×1 round plate with downward perpendicular bar.

From the torso, we move on to the arms and legs.  My favorite technique here is the use of a 2L bar with center stop slotted through a 1×2 clip and into the hole of a 1×2 round plate. It creates a sturdy, compact joint without any extra hinges and fiddly bits. This was one of the biggest challenges for the designers, and took several iterations to get right. Both the arms and legs are relatively simple, but they pull off the look perfectly.

Put together, you can already see the classic Fabuland style taking shape.

I love the dense, compact scale of the characters. All of their heads feature clever modeling. In Edward’s case, a 4×4 round plate sits at the center, with wedged slopes shaping the back of the head and the new 1×1 corner slope helping to shape the forehead and chin. Inset clips receive the ears, while the nose and mouth area utilizes the ability of the 1×3 round plate to center on the open studs of the 1×2 tow socket below it. Similarly, a 2×3 plate-with-notch centers over the top of a 1×2 plate with holes, allowing us to have a place for the eyes, cheeks, and bridge of the nose. Meanwhile, a clip holds an elbow connector attached to a 1×1 round plate with bar for the nose.

Previous iterations included a dragon tail section for the trunk, but it made the design more complicated and the proportions were off.

As promised, here is a closeup if that aforementioned sticker. It’s a selfie of the gang standing in front of a Fabuland-ized LEGO House. It adorns a 4×4 tile, which, in part, forms the back of what seems to be his music sheet. Another of my favorite techniques is used here. Most LEGO plates that have an attached bar see the bar sticking out pretty far. By using these 1×2 plates with bars on the sides, we can inset them to create a slightly more discreet handle.

All put together, Edward takes his place on the left side of the base and is ready to conduct the band.

Next up is Clive Crocodile. As previously mentioned, the design of his body is exactly the same as Edward’s, however his torso is black and his legs are lime.

His head is the least complicated of the bunch, but it doesn’t need to be complicated to look good.

According to the storyline, Clive likes to play the accordion. In this case, it’s blue, and is a giant plate-and-bracket sandwich.

Now complete, he takes his place next to Edward. At this moment, they do feel a bit cramped, but there’s a lot of movement that can happen to make things a little more comfortable.

Next we have Joe Crow! His body is, of course, black and yellow.

Joe is a pilot, and often wears a red pilot’s cap and goggles. Therefore, he is featured with it here. Like the BrickHeadz series, a pink 2×2 brick “brain” sits in the center of his head. Once again, fancy plate/jumper work is done to center the beak and the tow-ball socket for the neck.

For his instrument, Joe chooses the drums. Yet another excellent use of parts is implemented here! A white mudguard is used for the harness, while the drum itself features two 4x4x1 cylinders stacked back to back, connected by a Technic axle and 2×2 round plates. A 3×3 tile completes the look.

With the addition of a pair of minifigure heads attached to bars for drum sticks, he’s ready to join his pals.

Last but not least we have Doctor Lucy Lamb. Her torso is yellow, while her arms and legs are white.

Her heads consists of all sorts of pieces, with a particularly odd-looking assembly at its core. This is primarily to accommodate the neck socket while maintaining the rest of the shape and proportions. At first I was confused about why there would be a 1×1 red bracket with nothing attached to the bracket part. But if you look closely, you’ll notice that it’s preventing the gray socket plate from wiggling back and forth.

Lucy’s instrument of choice is the tuba. This particular tuba makes good use of multiple components for the bell, including a Technic drive ring extension element. Inkwells flipped upside down and inserted into 1×1 round bricks gives the appearance of valves. Another 2L bar with stop is used to help connect the two halves of the tuba together, and a 2×4 tile locks everything in place.

Once musician and tuba are united, she rounds out the band.

While not a member of the band, a very important part of the model is the Fabuland tree. As previously mentioned, the actual element is iconic and synonymous with the theme, even though it wasn’t as prevalent as you would think. Unprinted, it made it’s way into 10 sets in 1979. It didn’t show up again until it was released in an apple-themed printed version 8 years later!

This version of the tree, like the characters, is a fair bit larger. It’s comprised of a latticework of plates, with macaroni tiles accentuating the holes. All this plate sandwiching makes it quite sturdy, despite being very thin. Unfortunately, I made a mistake here that I didn’t realize until it was far too late to retake the pictures (I’m traveling). The top plate should be offset to the left a stud, to more closely resemble the asymmetry of the original tree. I feel bad, because that was actually a detail that Stuart and Markus specifically tried to incorporate.

Now for the finishing touch: a pair of printed 1×8 tiles honoring the name of the set and the LEGO House.

The completed model

Once finished, the model is a lovely display piece with a heavy dose of nostalgia. The characters are situated a bit close together, and in my opinion look better facing forward or diagonally rather than facing Edward (like on the front of the manual).

While things don’t look bad from behind, it’s clearly intended to be seen from the front.

Conclusions and recommendations

Overall, this tribute was clearly a passion-project. The designers went through many iterations until they got it just right. Fabuland was before my time and I don’t claim to be an expert on the theme, but you can tell love went into this model. I think anyone who is a big fan of the theme would be thrilled with it, and those curious about the history would enjoy it too. Another great thing about it is that these four provide a good framework for reproducing all of your favorite Fabuland characters.

Unfortunately, obtaining the set isn’t going to be quite as easy as others. Because it’s exclusive to the LEGO House, you’ll have to make a trip or bribe a friend. For many, this just isn’t feasible, and turning to eBay and similar markets will mean a drastic markup. That said, many of the parts and part colors are readily available, or will likely be readily available moving forward, so you could source the instructions and make your own.

LEGO House Exclusive 40506 LEGO Fabuland Tribute will be available starting March 1st, ONLY at the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark. It will retail for 649DDK (roughly $91 USD | $130 CAD | £72 GBP | €87 EUR). You might be able to find it from third party sellers on eBay.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

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