I remember the first time I saw "fabrication" done. I was at the home of my cousin's friend, and he had been previously occupying himself producing tiny "climbing claws" from bent nails. I remember that this had a quite profound effect on me.
I had been building things for a long time out of my Lego and my brother's Construx, but this was a whole new thing, producing something (even a toy, maybe ESPECIALLY a toy) out of a raw material that hadn't been a toy to begin with. I realized that things could be MADE, but I never really followed up on that, until recently...