Wasn't there another set like this?
I remember someone sharing a link to a video on a previous set that have these characters on adventures.
Someone else please remember so I'm not going crazy. This is deja vu, right?

Why is everyone but Tina looking at the croc?

@MeisterDad: Because Tina's the only one without a survival instinct? And actually, the monkey's not looking at it either, but considering what good climbers monkeys are, it may just feel less of a need to.

Naa Naa Naa Naa Naaaaaa 'swooossh' Jack is gone.

The Naa Naa bird was hilarious.

What a Croc...and the rest's pretty bad too...:)

Seriously though, these figures were...painful. I mean, there were some good ideas back then; just not with these figures...

@MeisterDad said: "Why is everyone but Tina looking at the croc?"

She'd lured them to the river bank in a complicated plot to get rid of them all, and knew the croc would be there.

@MCLegoboy said:
"Wasn't there another set like this?
I remember someone sharing a link to a video on a previous set that have these characters on adventures.
Someone else please remember so I'm not going crazy. This is deja vu, right?"

You’re right- 4177 came with a VHS featurette.

@MCLegoboy said:
"Wasn't there another set like this?
I remember someone sharing a link to a video on a previous set that have these characters on adventures.
Someone else please remember so I'm not going crazy. This is deja vu, right?"

There were 15 released that year, including an Advent Calendar

https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Creator/year-2001

What's that yellow thing? A snakeduck?

@sjr60 said:
"RSotD often makes me look back and regret being in a dark age at the time. Other times I'm rather glad I was! I'm amazed Lego survived 2001."

I was thinking exactly the same thing! In between Classic Space and Star Wars is a lot of Lego floundering. Castle, Pirates, and trains excepted, of course.

EDIT: Lego seems expensive, now. But, this set was $20 way back then. Amazing that Lego survived. This set was lame by 70s standards!

@kyrodes said:
"What's that yellow thing? A snakeduck?"

A Duck-billed cobra?

Since Max is -clearly- the monkey this raises the question of which of the humans is Tina?

@Zordboy said:
"I really miss those small 8 x 16 baseplates. "
Absolutely.
And in case anyone didn't notice, this set also came with chrome pieces! Sadly missed as well.

And even though those sets back then were far from the pinnacle of LEGO design, just look at what pieces you got with 4124. Lots of useful bricks, plates and slopes, among others. Now compare with what you get in Advent calendars nowadays, with all their tiny 1x1 tiles and plates.

That's a high price for the monkey and some chrome parts.

@MCLegoboy said:
"Wasn't there another set like this?
I remember someone sharing a link to a video on a previous set that have these characters on adventures.
Someone else please remember so I'm not going crazy. This is deja vu, right?"

Just have a look at the other creator sets from this year, the link is in the article ;-)

I forgot aerials came in chrome! I don't remember a time when Jack Stone style figures were in Creator, but that's one of the reasons why I'm on RSotD.

Love the snakebirdplant

@PhantomBricks said:
"I forgot aerials came in chrome! I don't remember a time when Jack Stone style figures were in Creator, but that's one of the reasons why I'm on RSotD."

This version of Creator had no connection to the current one, which wasn't known as such until 2006.

They tried to revitalize the freestyle/basic/classic theme by renaming it 'Creator'.

Beginning in 2001 (2000 as a lego game) the first few years Creator was this: basic bricks, sometimes with some outlandish parts mixed in. Because of the increase in colors since the 90s these are often a great source of parts in colors like orange, lime and medium blue. I would actually recommend hunting down a big tub of them for bulk, as they go for quite cheap!

But after a while (2003) we got the excellent Designer Set theme. Around 2006 the two merged. This was how the current-day Creator theme began. So technically it's 22 years old. Humble beginnings, aren't they?

The parts are nice enough (except for those Town Jr. era headlight slopes. They look super out of place!) But yeah... the jack-stone style figures weren't the best. I think it's that they are too detailed compared to the bricks. I daresay Jack Stone did it better in that regard!

2001 sucked.

After the monkey, the chrome bar 1x4 with 2 studs is probably the best piece. Although commentators are not keen on the Jack Stone figures, I still like the way their legs move independently and are about the right size for Technic sets.

I own 2 Max's and 1 Tina. I don't own that monkey !
That's all I can say about this really.

@Randomness said:
"Creator sure has come a long way...
I mean, this compared to 31058 is like looking at two completely different themes."

Because they actually are - Just two different names who coincidentally happened to have the same name.

Happened quite often in Lego's history, not so much nowadays. Those themes often have a more or less longer hiatus, before being rebooted under a mostly drastic change in design approach and marketing. The fact that most larger Fansites often differ in the way they group these together (City/Town is just a complete mess...) and TLG changes their mind every time they publish a history book doesn't help clarify things here.

A few examples:

-Racers (2001 Xalax) and Racers (2002 Drome), you might even consider the 2004 onwards a different theme, as it changed focus away from minifigs quite drastically.
-Scala 1980 and Scala 1997 (very clearly something different and a more than 10 year time gap, the only similarity being the intended target group)
-the different Castle lines: Classic (1978-1983ish), Tarenta (1984-1998), Fantasy Era (2007-2009) and Modern (2013-2014)
-Trains had two severe reboots, before the change to My Own Train (actually a Shop at Home sub-theme) and it's eventual absorbtion by World City/City. The first being the "sort of first" minifig line from 1980-1986/1990 that introduced grey rails and the second that abandoned the old 4.5/12 V systems from 1991-1999.
-Aquaraiders (2007) and Space Police (2009) actually share their name with a sub-theme rather than a (Top-Layer) Theme.
-Duplo's start is even a bit blurry, as the line was initially referred to by different names, depending on region. The first bunny mascot line ran from ca. 1977-2001 when Duplo was replaced by "Explore". Since the reintroduction of the brand in 2004 coincides with both the Duplo figure redesign as well as the Big Color Change, you might even consider these 3 separate themes.

EDIT: And don''t forget that Creator actually borrowed both name and logo from the earlier video game series (Lego Creator (Town Junior), Creator Knights' Kingdom and Creator Harry Potter 1+2)

Tina! Come get your dinner!

I think those figure molds could still be used today for things like alien Green Lanterns, big robots or a new Star Wars alien race.

@peterlmorris said:
"Tina! Come get your dinner!"

Have some ham.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Mr__Thrawn:
You're probably thinking of 852996. But no, Jack Stone was Jack Stone, and Max & Tina were Creator. Other characters were 4 Juniors. It kinda spread like a disease."

Yes, I’m aware. That was the joke.

@Bobsy said:
"Controversial opinion: the introduction of larger, better proportioned figures to replace minifigs was actually a very good idea.

Shame that every Jack Stone set was such absolute bum-gravy then."

Ack! I think I'm having an allergic reaction. Quick, get your logic and reasoning out of here! Where's my mini-fig nostalgia shots and bottle of loathing of new stuff pills?! ;-P

@Ridgeheart said:
"Hey, for the age-range, this was probably fine. I still really love that monkey-mold, I don't think the modern versions are fit to touch the tail of this monkey.

And yes, sure, those... midifigs (?) are terrifying, but not probably not moreso than Scala. Or Belville. Or Galidor. Or Xalax. Or Slizers. Or Technic-figures. Or the recent Trolls. Or Angry Birds. Or Minions. Or if we're really, truly honest with ourselves: Fabuland, Bionicle, Chima in general, Mungus in particular.

Sure, it's nightmare-fuel NOW, but I'll bet you that the kids who just came off of Duplo loved the crap out of this line."

So everything that isn't a minifigure or certain bigfig then. Good to hear lego is not allowed to do anything else ever.

@Bobsy said:
"Controversial opinion: the introduction of larger, better proportioned figures to replace minifigs was actually a very good idea."

Rebuttal: the wrists aren’t articulated, you can’t swap parts, and increasing the size to such a large degree simply makes it harder to produce an affordable model in the same scale.

@AustinPowers:
We get awesomeness in the current Advent Calendars (usually). I never bought a single calendar before the first SWAC, but I ended up buying about a dozen copies of the first HPAC just for the parts. If someone tried to give me a copy of 4124, I’d probably ask them to pay me a rehoming fee first.

@Atuin:
Some of those were instances where TLG was trying to market different systems under one theme banner, particularly in the mid-aughts. Technic and Duplo branding went away for a bit, and they were releasing both minifig/System and large-scale Technic characters as just “Star Wars” for a couple years, so I’m sure they actually did consider the Technic Racers to be a continuation of the minifig Racers.

And they made a Castle sub-theme based on the common leopard gecko?

@phi13 said:
" @PhantomBricks said:
"I forgot aerials came in chrome! I don't remember a time when Jack Stone style figures were in Creator, but that's one of the reasons why I'm on RSotD."

This version of Creator had no connection to the current one, which wasn't known as such until 2006."

I figured it's not the same Creator since it isn't encouraging alternate builds or creativity. I moreso was saying that I was unfamiliar with the fact that modern day Creator is a reuse of that brand.

This post is making me want to add a Jack Stone picture today in my Instagram feed. =-)

Why at first glance I thought that title says apex predators?

@Atuin:
Some of those were instances where TLG was trying to market different systems under one theme banner, particularly in the mid-aughts. Technic and Duplo branding went away for a bit, and they were releasing both minifig/System and large-scale Technic characters as just “Star Wars” for a couple years, so I’m sure they actually did consider the Technic Racers to be a continuation of the minifig Racers.

And they made a Castle sub-theme based on the common leopard gecko?]]

I was not refering to the Technic-built Racers, as 8470 for example was actually meant to be the rival of 4585, and both fit perfectly into the 'Zones' System that the Drome of 2002-2003 had. They also were clearly assigned to a specific Racers Team (EXO, Maverick, Nitro, etc.).

The real change started in 2005: The whole Drome idea dropped and instead of being placed in a near future story line about rivaling racing teams and a mysterious background regarding it's whole purpose (which was implied but never solved btw) to a more realistic setting with focus shifting more towards car tuning and it's associated aesthetics. Tiny Turbos and similar sub-lines were a prime example of this and are clearly not-Technic, just without any minifigures of sort (not even the 'half-figures' from the pullback Racers). I'm a bit uncertain about 2004, since this seems to be a transmission year between the two concepts.

Interesting, I wasn't aware of the gecko thing :D
'Tarenta' is the official name of the fictional land, where the Castle sub-themes from 1984-1998 (Crusaders/Falcons up to Fright Knights, excluding Ninja obviously) were set. To be honest I just called it that, to have anything, since neither TLG nor the fansites have a matching name. (though I really like it to call these the 'Tarenta Era Castle' ;))

Btw, all of these Castle sets have at least one set that links them somewhat together by minifigures appearing across multiple sub-themes (but nowhere else). Like the 6103, 6082, 6079 and 6087.

@Atuin:
Tarentaise is a region, a valley, a city, and a commune in France. The name comes from Darentaisia, which was the capital of the tribe that Rome conquered in that region. There’s also a breed of cattle that go by the same name. Tarenta is the Occitan (spoken in part of France) word for the common leopard gecko, which is weird because there’s also a genus of wall gecko called Tarentola…which does not include the leopard gecko.

Why does this 2002 Creator set with Jack Stone style figures have 50+ comments? **checks usernames commenting** ohh….

@Ridgeheart said:
" @Binnekamp said:
" @Ridgeheart said:
"Hey, for the age-range, this was probably fine. I still really love that monkey-mold, I don't think the modern versions are fit to touch the tail of this monkey.

And yes, sure, those... midifigs (?) are terrifying, but not probably not moreso than Scala. Or Belville. Or Galidor. Or Xalax. Or Slizers. Or Technic-figures. Or the recent Trolls. Or Angry Birds. Or Minions. Or if we're really, truly honest with ourselves: Fabuland, Bionicle, Chima in general, Mungus in particular.

Sure, it's nightmare-fuel NOW, but I'll bet you that the kids who just came off of Duplo loved the crap out of this line."

So everything that isn't a minifigure or certain bigfig then. Good to hear lego is not allowed to do anything else ever."

It's a bit weird how I'm attempting to sing the praises of these figures as "they're not that bad", and you choose to read that as "Ridgeheart hates everything". I really don't think this is a hill for either one of us to die on, Binnekamp."

You're right. Let's just keep it at 'these are not that bad' :)

@Jesse_S_T:
The worse a set is, the more comments it seems to get regardless of who posts them. How many people dipped their toe in the pool for the first time for My Dad? Otherwise, if a set is legendary within the AFOL community, it might get a lot of comments. In between you’ll find sets that maybe get a dozen comments split between, “I had this,” and, “It was okay…I guess,” but not much else.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Atuin:
Tarentaise is a region, a valley, a city, and a commune in France. The name comes from Darentaisia, which was the capital of the tribe that Rome conquered in that region. There’s also a breed of cattle that go by the same name. Tarenta is the Occitan (spoken in part of France) word for the common leopard gecko, which is weird because there’s also a genus of wall gecko called Tarentola…which does not include the leopard gecko."

Guess the guys at Advance were aware of this back then and thought gecko = dragon

@Bobsy said:
"Controversial opinion: the introduction of larger, better proportioned figures to replace minifigs was actually a very good idea.

Shame that every Jack Stone set was such absolute bum-gravy then."

In a sense, it’s where Friends would ultimately go with the mini-doll concept. These were ahead of their time (though still after the Technic big-figs)

All the talk about that yellow 'critter' make me picture "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom"
Marlin Perkins: "Jim has spotted the elusive Outback Yellow Duck-Snake. He's going to attempt to approach it, despite being warned not to...":D

@brick_r:
I remember watching that a lot as a young kid, but the only thing I remember about watching it is that they’d get vilified if they put that logo on TV these days.

@PurpleDave: You are correct, which is why some later airing dropped the "M.o.O." part of the title, but kept the sponsorship...yeah, I don't get that either.:|

I also remember Marlin's voice was slightly high in pitch and real nasally, and (as Jim Fowler rightfully pointed out) it was Johnny Carson that made the fun out of the pair; setting up the "I (Perkins) will be over 'here' (safe), while Jim will be over 'there' (risking life/limb with a potentially dangerous animal)"...sort of an inverted "Super Dave" Osbourne:)

@brick_r said:
"All the talk about that yellow 'critter' make me picture "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom"
Marlin Perkins: "Jim has spotted the elusive Outback Yellow Duck-Snake. He's going to attempt to approach it, despite being warned not to...":D"

Here's a fun fact: Outback Yellow Duck Snakes kill more people yearly than pencil-sharpening accidents and death-by-Frisbee-discs combined! Isn't nature wonderful?