Stewart Lamb Cromar (@stubot)

Cat minifigure pointing her camera at a microscale house. The mouse is holding a small brick-built version of his feline friend.

Fabuland Story Time

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Finished a microscale version of Fabuland set number 341: ‘Catherine Cat’s House and Mortimer Mouse’ at the weekend.

Started in early 2020, this model was soon abandoned after first experiencing my vision loss. It is still a challenge to sometimes see and hold small objects, but it feels good to go back and complete it.

I’ve submitted this MOC to the latest LEGO Ideas competition, if you like it please leave a wee comment on my contest entry page.

‘Fabuland Story Time’ on LEGO Ideas

Fabuland history

3 illustrated steps of a cat and mouse minifigure building a yellow house. "Let's build a big house", says Cathy. "With a terrace?" asks Morty. "I like to sit in the sun”.

Launched in 1979, the Fabuland theme was revolutionary in terms of storytelling for the LEGO Group. Each instruction booklet featured charming hand-drawn illustrations that not only guided children on how to build the set, but entertained them with playful tales about the animal friends.

Meta microscale MOC

Mouse climbing the stairs of a two-storey cottage and a cat downstairs in the garden with a shovel.

This microscale model is a tribute to my cherished childhood set number 341: ‘Catherine Cat’s House and Mortimer Mouse’. Fabuland was my first ever LEGO theme and I’ve never stopped playing with it.

I wanted to continue and expand the Fabuland storytelling tradition by having Cathy and Morty play with little LEGO versions of themselves. Very meta!

Cat minifigure pointing her old fashioned flash camera at a microscale house and small brick-built version of herself.

Cathy is a keen Instagram toy photographer and Morty likes to role play with dolls. He is also happy to assist Cathy capture the perfect image, rearranging the model and adjusting the lighting where necessary. Working together they have thousands of followers online who love seeing the original storytelling contained within their MOC photos.

After a long day posting top-notch content to the Gram, the good friends like nothing better than relaxing on the veranda, sipping refreshing iced apple juice.

Nerd factoids

Mouse minifigure hiding behind hilly backdrop that he’s removed so the cat can photograph the interior of the microscale house.
  • The hilly backdrop is removable, providing access to the playable interior of the house where there is just enough room for Cathy’s mid-century modern red table and chairs.
  • The entire MOC stays faithful to the original limited Fabuland palette, using 10 of the available 16 colours.
  • Their microscale 341 playset is contained within a modest 4×8 footprint, which fits nicely on Morty’s prized walnut coffee table.
  • Fabuland figures had oversized heads that made it easy for small fingers to pick up and play with. I was keen to replicate this feature at microscale, so used Technic ball joints (32474) to represent their bulbous heads.
  • A genuine Fabuland LEGO element was used for the blue parasol on the veranda. ‘Plant Flower 2 x 2 Rounded – Open Stud’ (4728) with a small dish on top makes a cute sun shade for Morty.

What’s next?

In 2020 I also started microscale versions of ‘Taxi Station’ 338 and ‘Lisa Lamb’s House’ 654. I hope to share completed versions soon, as well as photographs of the original physical builds (including dust and cobwebs!).

Copyright and licence

Header and all other Studio rendered images are:
Copyright © Stewart Lamb Cromar 2022. All rights reserved.

Original packaging images are from BrickSet.

Original instructions images are from Peeron.

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