I could say many things about the recent toy safari in Hamburg. I could go on about the people (wonderful and not at all scary), the buildings (new and old and beautiful), the food (the bretzels!!), the lack of sleep (not so fun) or the excessive number of staircases we seemed to climb (over 80 flights in three days).

However I have something else to say about the experience. What I want to write about is playing with, and falling in love with, other people’s toys.

I think one of the great things about visiting a city with other toy photographers was that you got to see what other people felt was essential to bring on a trip to another city. Everyone had regular LEGO minifigures with them, of course. But there was a great range of other toys too that had me itching to take photos of them.

I fell in love with Danbo, a super cute Japanese robot. Poseable, magnetic, and oddly expressive, Danbo and I really hit it off. I even let him steal my coffee.

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I (and everyone else) adored Woody, who got up to all sorts of mischief on the streets of Hamburg.

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And thanks to our host @herrsm, I discovered and fell in love with the cast of Fabuland, a 1980s LEGO series, most similar to the current LEGO juniors sets!

The first night we got together, @herrsm surprised us with a little welcome gift – a single Fabuland character, picked at random. The Fabuland cast is great. They have wonderfully articulated heads, moveable arms and legs (although sadly not moveable hands)! They are great for posing in front of the camera!

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All of our figures came with a small card introducing them. They were named for famous people from Hamburg. I got Bert (Kaemdfert, a musician) but we also had Helmet and Astrid and Karl and many more. They became a signature of our trip. They came everywhere with us. They ate our food, they had groupies and they walked an awful long way for such tiny figures! They even took some pictures of their own!

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I was smitten. How can you go wrong with LEGO animal head figures and large, playful accessories for them?

On arriving home I went straight on eBay and I pretty quickly found a couple more figures showing up on my doorstep. I haven’t named these little ones yet. Any ideas?

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So thank you for introducing me to a new LEGO world @herrsm! And thank you to everyone who came for being so welcoming and willing to share your toys.

You can check out what Bert and the other Fabuland characters got up to in Hamburg by checking out our Instagram hashtag – #sipgoeshamburg2016

Lizzi (aka @stepping_on_bricks)
http://steppingsidewayswithbricks.wordpress.com/