If you’re reading this and you know one thing about Denmark, it’s that the country is the birthplace of LEGO. You might also know that it’s the home of writer Hans Christian Andersen. Oh, and it is the home of yummy baked goods. And comedian Sandi Toksvig… So, our average reader probably knows two things about Denmark: LEGO and Hans Christian Andersen. (And Denmark had nothing to do with the Spanish Inquisition.) So let’s explore how LEGO has celebrated the masterful teller of tales, Hans Christian Andersen.

If you’ve been in the LEGO hobby for a few years, you probably remember the 2018 promotional set 40291 Creative Storybook which featured Denmark’s famous author. It was, indeed, an adorable little set featuring minifig Hans sitting on a park bench finding inspiration. The instruction booklet illustrates a few other brick-built vignettes from his stories, too. (The vignettes were only photographed with no instructions.)

Now, while “everyone has heard of Hans Christian Andersen,” people often haven’t actually read his tales. (They are in the public domain, however, and you can easily find them online. I recommend it. LEGO recommends it [see below].)

Global audiences mostly know Hans Christian Andersen’s Disney good-vibes and Danny Kaye charm, while in reality, HCA is the ultimate melancholy Dane. (Spoiler alert: The original “Little Mermaid” dies.) Hans Christian Andersen tales are often dark and dreadful (and also amazing). He is, as it were, the OG Neil Gaiman. (And LEGO passed up its opportunity to produce a Neil Gaiman set! Hrmph.)

While this brick-built statue of HCA greets children at the entrance of Legoland, Billund, the author’s morbid fare makes deeper tie-ins for young ones somewhat problematic. Problematic, but not impossible!

2005: The 200th Anniversary

In 2005, Denmark was celebrating the 200th anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen’s birth. A foundation was established and presided over by patron Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II. Foreign ambassadors were appointed and bestowed with commemorative brick-built models of “The Ugly Duckling”. Known as an LCP set 4276936, it was built by LEGO Certified Professionals and gifted to a select few Ambassadors in HCA’s hometown of Odense. (Super rare. Sounds like something BrickNerd’s Are or John would seek out!)

Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan was one such ambassador. As part of the Bikuben Foundation initiative, Hans Christian Andersen’s tales were translated into Arabic and given to schools and libraries in Jordan to foster international cultural dialogue. Danish TV also put on “the biggest production in Danish history”, the fairytale extravaganza “ONCE UPON A TIME...”.

Of course, the Foundation had to tie in with their biggest toy export to mark the anniversary! The LEGO Group owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen said in a press release, “Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales are pure magic. They fire the child’s imagination. The fantastic universe of the child is very much at the heart of the LEGO Group – so it is only natural that we should opt for a partnership with the H.C. Andersen 2005 Foundation.”

How did LEGO do it? This wouldn’t play in Heartlake City, but Friends wasn’t even a glimmer in their eye yet. So there is no place in the LEGO universe more appropriate for creepy undertones than Belville! Besides, by 2005, Belville had already had issued several (decidedly more vanilla) “fairy tale” lines.

HCA-Inspired Sets

Before we head into the wonder that is Belville, though, let’s learn about LEGO’s other mainstream Hans Christian Andersen offerings.

In 2005, LEGO released a basic HCA-themed Creator bucket set 7870. Official sources list the featured stories included in the set as The Tinderbox, The Ugly Duckling, and The Princess and Pea, but looking at the instructions I also see Clumsy Hans. A decade later, LEGO would interpret Clumsy Hans for their 2015 Inside Tour exclusive set 4000020! Clumsy Hans is very much a story for children—ridiculous and wonderful.

The instructions for the 2005 bucket end with illustrations (not instructions) suggesting further models: The Little Matchbook Girl (a tearjerker!), The Emperor’s New Clothes (I see naked brick-built figures!), and more. My modern eye wants to build them with my modern bucket.

Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday was celebrated at Legoland Billund in April 2005 with fireworks and a special “fairy tale weekend” in September of that year. Character actors from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales roamed the park, the Legoland Orchestra put on a special concert, and LEGO introduced new Belville sets and the Duplo Princess Palace products themed after the author’s works.

Wait, what? Princess Palace!? Look at that Duplo figure below! Have you seen flowing doll hair in LEGO anywhere outside of Scala (which was already long over by 2005)? And a Duplo crown accessory? And a horse with a brushable tail? That is some My Little Pony shenanigans creeping into LEGO if I’ve ever seen it. (And it lasted until 2008.) There’s another new variant I need for my figures collection! Thanks, HCA!

Lucky for young tots, Princess Palace is, at heart, a generic fairytale set. No fictional children starved, froze, or danced themselves to death in the Duplo line… but what about in Belville?

Belville Fables

LEGO released five Hans Christian Andersen sets in the Belville line for the 2005 celebration: The Tinderbox, The Princess and the Pea, Thumbelina, The Snow Queen, and (the giant set) The Little Mermaid. Some of these stories are appropriate for young children, so they are all at home in Belville.

Princess and the Pea set 5963 is typical Belville fare. It has a bed, after all! Perfect synergy. And that dress is fabulous. But let’s keep moving along.

The Snow Queen set 5961 (ever so vaguely) provided inspiration for the Disney film Frozen years later. If you ask me, this set looks straight out of Narnia. Where is Mr. Tumnus and the Turkish delight? Check out the glitter wings on that horse, the aqua rock LURP (large ugly rock piece), and the snow-capped tree!

Thumbelina set 5964 features our missing link Millimy, this time with plastic glittery wings, instead of the standard satin. So many unique colors/pieces appeared only in this set!

The Tinderbox set 5982 is where Belville gets really… um… Belville. The story’s protagonist is a soldier. He is not in the set. Which is fine, because he is totally an… um… “morally ambiguous” character. Instead, we get a witch.

I have to wonder if it’s a coincidence that the Belville dolls lost their previous poseability and ability to be rent asunder at this juncture because in the book, the witch in the Tinderbox story is decapitated. Alas, girls in 2005 were tragically deprived of the ability to reenact the story accurately with the new figure model where the head does not detach! It was probably a “choking hazard”. (Fortunately, there are several other beheadable witches available in earlier Fairy Tale lines.)

That huge, wide-eyed dog, though? I expect that it is the one element in LEGO history that could give a kid nightmares. Thanks, HCA!

For my money, The Mermaid Castle set 5960 is the most fantastic set in all fifteen years of Belville, even with the new, less flexible arms. Speaking of arms, check out this figure! I had previously never wondered how many modern monarchs might have tattoos. Is an anchor to a mermaid kind of like a skull and crossbones? That’s one hardcore Mermaid King.

Perhaps to one-up Disney and avoid copyright, the Belville set gives the mermaid not only a happy ending (in the comic strip inside its cover)…

…but also a happy nuclear family!

Sometimes in Belville, it’s best not to ask questions.

(I mean, how awesome is this set!? It has that amazing sea horse creature! Don’t look a gift [sea]horse in the mouth. And a few rare chrome colors!)

This set also came with a commemorative HCA poster advising young builders to read. (I told you it was LEGO’s idea!)

Celebrating Hans Christian Andersen

More details of the HCA 2005 LEGO festivities are hard to come by. But the event even got its own butterfly heart logo on a few set boxes! The Bikuben Foundation still exists but is no longer all about HCA. If you visit the website detailed on the box of set 5960 (of which I have both the European and stickered American versions) all you get is a dead link.

So that concludes our explorations of LEGO and Hans Christian Andersen. Do you remember Belville 2005 and the Hans Christian Andersen festivities? Were you, perhaps, at the Legoland celebration? Does that big dog element give you the heebie-jeebies? Have you seen any other tattooed monarchs? Or did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments! Until then, happy reading!

Do you have that Belville dog element in your collection? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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