In which I get distracted by nostalgic content included on a sticker in a Ninjago set I don’t have, do some colouring in, review 3265 Sandy Seagull’s Aeroplane and 3697 Flour Mill and Shop, do some figure matching and ultimately spend the weekend trying to reconstruct that sticker in photographic form. Will I succeed?

I’ve been a bit busy away from LEGO® bricks recently. While I have dodged much of the upcoming March Madness preview season, I also failed to mention that the 71837 Ninjago City Workshops is being released on March 1 2025. Had I mentioned this at the time that it was first announced, I would have also most certainly highlighted the fact that the set includes a Fabuland Reference: One of the panels includes a sticker that highlights several Fabuland Figures, a couple of Fabuland sets with the word ‘Fabuland’ plastered across the middle of the poster in Ninjago script. While I don’t have a review copy of the Ninjago Workshops, I do have quite few Fabuland figures and elements lying around the place; accumulated over the years from various sources. Let’s take a closer look at what’s featured in the sticker and see if we can recreate the view in real life.

What was Fabuland? A Quick Primer.

If you have started reading this article, you might be familiar with Ninjago or Fabuland (or otherwise, generally curious). Fabuland was a theme that released sets from 1979 to 1989. In retrospect, any theme that runs for a decade without any significant reboot is pretty remarkable. At the time, it was initially marketed towards children making the transition from Duplo to normal system bricks. The sets emphasised storytelling, with the instruction books providing a narrative behind building the set, and occasionally additional stories. Buildings could be thrown together in no time using a few panels; cars would take seconds – Typically in bright primary colours, with splashes of green and black.

Fabuland was occupied with anthropomorphic characters with alliterative names that varied around the world. The figures, while articulated, were not designed to be pulled apart and rearranged in the same way as minifigures, although with a little persistence and brute force, although it can be done.

But Fabuland was more than that: It was also the LEGO Group’s first trans-media theme: there were storybooks, playing cards, audiobooks (mostly on cassette or vinyl, in German) and in due course, a claymation television series – Edward and Friends. To say nothing of the requisite t-shirts, tee towels and children’s cutlery…

The theme captured the minds of a generation, and Fabuland has appeared in Easter eggs within the LEGO Movie (70813) and Monkie Kid (80054) sets in recent years, to say nothing of the tribute to Edward the Elephant in the Classic 11021 90 years of Play.

Let’s break down this sticker:

Now, the initial view of the sticker in the Ninjago City Workshops  isn’t great; it’s either obscured or on a difficult angle, and so I am grateful to Andrew from Brickbanter.com, for sending over a picture of this sticker in situ. You can check out his team’s review of the set here.

Let’s take a closer look!

Featured Figures

We have 3 figures. Wilfred Walrus (or is it Walter?) – captain of the 3673 Paddle Steamer (1985). As you can see, back in the day his head was a different colour than the grey depicted. Unfortunately, LEGO stickers are restricted to those in the current parts palette. Wilfred appears in several later sets, featuring an anchor printed on his torso.

Edward the Elephant, one of the stalwart characters of the theme. Here, he appears in a red shirt. He did not appear until 1981, and is possibly best remembered as the Raincoat wearing fisherman in 3660. Interestingly, he was never known for playing the tuba: this was normally the job of Pierre or Peter Pig (depending on which country you were standing in).

Finally, we have Clive Crocodile: Commonly misunderstood, Clive had a way of getting himself into trouble with the police through his long-board antics. Printing on Fabuland torsos was added to new figures from 1986 onwards, and this version of Clive features a bow tie.

The sticker also features two sets: one more commonly known as 3625 Sandy Seagull’s Aeroplane, while the other is 3679 Flour Mill and Shop.

Creating a Background on a Sunny Crafternoon

Now, the sticker depicts the background as solid medium blue for the sky, and (Dark) Green for the hillside around the mill. This is a little different to the traditional background used in the Fabuland instruction books – where the hills are drawn, as are bushes, using varying pressures of coloured pencil.- so I picked up a yellowish green pencil for the grass, a darker green for bushes, and went to work.

While I was building the Flour Mill and Shop, I substituted in a green sky, which is consistent with the box/cover art in Fabuland sets. Please note: neither of the following sets actually include any trees: They were added as they are included in the source image. Perhaps, in retrospect, I should have layered the colour a bit thicker. I’ll give that a crack before the next project.

3630 Percy Pilot/ 3625 Sandy Seagull’s Aeroplane

One is Sandy Seagull’s Aeroplane (also known as Percy Pilot). This set is made up of all 10 elements (although the engine cowl and propellor are held together using a pin and packaged as a single unit). My copy has been gathered over the years through a few second-hand markets and is 90% complete. I am yet to locate the appropriate propeller pin, so improvisation has come to the fore.

Sandy is a red figure with white arms and red legs. The head is white, and features the same head mold used for other avian characters such as Joe Crow and Paul Parrot – although white, with a yellow printed beak. He is wearing a red flight helmet: These helmets are glued on in some cases (I think this is the case with this one), while some of the caps and fire helmets are only held on by good old fashioned friction. His colouring perfectly matches the aeroplane.

I wonder why birds are always pilots in these stores of stories, when they are quite capable of flying on their own recognizance? Perhaps they wish to share the experience with their friends? It makes more sense in Animal Crossing, where the pilots are flightless Dodos.

3679 Flour Mill and Shop

I picked this set up from a second-hand retailer a few years ago: No box, but we have the instructions and all the parts included. The Knoller-in-chief was busy when I was preparing to build this set, but I was able to successfully lay out the 71 pieces, all on my own.

As you can see, there are four red window panels, and one regular yellow. There is a wider yellow panel containing a blue bay window. There are two doors. there are 7 roof elements, as well as a selection of red bricks. The mill includes the unique windmill vanes, as well as a slide. The flour delivery van has a very short wheelbase, in red. Plainly designed to go Very fast!

The instructions feature hand-drawn artwork, while the accompanying text describes what happens in each step.

There are two minifigures included with the set: Harry Horse and Marjorie Mouse. Their accessories include an earth orange broom, and a light grey shovel, with ‘Fabuland’ embossed on the blade. We also get the great Fabuland lamp post. Flour sacks are represented using printed 2×2 tiles, placed on a 2×2 white brick.

It doesn’t take too long to get the pieces down, but it is still possible to make a mistake or two along the way…

Once done, we have a lovely open back: you can install any furniture you like. Henry Horse can shovel any flour down the slide to the delivery truck.

This set offers a high degree of playability, with lots of space to move the figures within the building. Having the cash register outside the building makes it easier to play inside. The delivery truck is only one of 5 short base vehicles throughout all of Fabuland’s 10 year run, with the majority of cars being significantly longer. I really appreciate all of the accessories included. The Shovel and lamp post are my favorites.

Finally

The sticker features the Fabuland Logo, but using characters from Ninjago script. Here it is next to the original…

Putting them all together.

I may have almost forgotten just why I started this post: I was setting out to reconstruct a sticker from the new Ninjago set that features 3 fabuland figures, as well as a couple of sets, located in an idyllic countryside.

I push the mill as far towards the backing my light box as I comfortably can, and position it ever so slightly obliquely. I then place Sandy Seagull’s Aeroplane behind it on two sets of transparent supports, for extra height. I adjust it slightly, so he is pointing slightly the viewer.

I have placed the 3 main figures on a base, with small turntables. I will eventually crop the shot so their feet are not visible – just like the original image.

Now, at this stage, in order to have the perspective vaguely correct, the figures are about 20 cm outside my lightbox. So I light them up with a light panel, to ensure we can see them.

Because we want to see the details on Sandy Seagull and the Mill a bit more clearly than this, I close the aperture down to f22. This widens the depth of field (as opposed for f4 which will have the figures in sharp relief, but blur out the background) This will need about 1 second of exposure with an ISO set at 100.

And then… I release the shutter the button.To be honest, I may have pressed it 50 times, making subtle adjustments each time. Finally, I track down a Fabuland logo, and paste it over the middle.

But first, a quick recap: here is the original image of the sticker, sent over by Brickbanter.

And the finished product…

I’m not going to lie: this is not a perfect copy of the image included in the sticker from Ninjago City Workshops. It is hard to get the appropriate perspective of the mill if shooting in a real world living room. But it was fun reaching this point. I had to step out of my comfort zone into the world of coloured pencils, do a little cut and paste, play with lighting, locate the figures, realise they were the wrong variations and find the correct figures. Then find the tuba. Build a couple of sets I hadn’t put together yet and finally, take a photo! Thanks for joining me on my journey!

At the end of the day, I find it refreshing to return the historical simplicity of LEGO in the mid 1980s – an era when I had well and truly outgrown most of the sets on the market. There is something about building with a palette of primary colours that makes me really happy.

Was it a productive use of my weekend? I’ll let you be the judge. In the meantime, I have stumbled across a virtually mint copy of 3671: Perhaps I’ll put that together sometime soon. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

If you have enjoyed this post, please feel free to share it with your friends, families and communities. You can also keep up to date with us by following The Rambling Brick on our socials: Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, Tumblr (or just sign up for our mailing list) and find some extra content on Instagram and TikTok.

We really value your feedback: please let us know what you think about the sets we review, and the articles we post. And if you wish to support the Rambling Brick, consider clicking on our affiliate links before going shopping at LEGO.com. The Rambling Brick receives a small commission, and it costs you nothing extra.

Until Next Time,

Play Well!