Ooh Two green pods on the side bar. Not much to say about this one, I didn't get it.

Dragons must have asbestos-lined nostrils or something.

This was exciting back then. Now, it's parts.

@MCLegoboy said:
"I think that snake thinks it's supposed to be a scorpion..."

As someone always on the look out for interesting fantasy concepts,* thanks for pointing out the "snake" build! It looks like it has the potential to inspire some interesting ideas. "Tusked snake with stinger tail" is the first that comes to mind.

Think I might snag a copy of that image...

*Especially ones that play around with what's expected due to "standard fantasy conventions"

creator sets back then were pretty bad

@krysto2002 said:
"Pretty much the only set in existence to contain a Green Tile, Modified 1x1 with Clip, so it earns that accolade."

I have a small stash of those. I pulled it out for a project, and there were four. Unfortunately, I needed six, and didn’t feel like dropping $20 to get two more. So, I ended up using dark-green C-clip versions on the Blueholderberry:

https://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=6748686

Fortunately, I actually like this look better.

For those who were checking out my initial batch, I also completed this guy:

https://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=6748687

It doesn’t look as disgusting as I’d hoped. If it was light-flesh, I think the effect would be better, but it looks a bit sun-tanned like this. The dark-red and dark-blue are supposed to look like arteries and veins, but now I’m wondering how it would look with the entire body built in the same color.

@krysto2002 said:
"Pretty much the only set in existence to contain a Green Tile, Modified 1x1 with Clip, so it earns that accolade."

Also the only (give or take 1 other set) Green Slope 45° 2 x 1 Double / Inverted, Green Hinge Plate 1 x 2 Locking with 1 Finger and matching Green Hinge Cylinder. In Medium Lime the only Plate Special 1 x 1 with Clip Vertical.

Two of the other three pods from this wave also had exclusive parts: 4338 Monster Pod has 4 in Dark Purple and 2 in Lime Green. 4339 Aqua Pod (my favorite pod) has 1 unique in medium blue and 4 glow in the dark Plate Special 1 x 1 with Tooth that are only in one other set (4506 has 20 of them). The other pod from the wave, 4413 Arachno Pod, got left out of the exclusive part lotto.

And, of course, the pod centers and caps are largely unique.

I want to see the big fat dragon designs that actually include the pod like these sets usually can

Ah, the 2005 pods. As far as I'm aware they were never released in the Netherlands for some reason, although I could be wrong. Can anyone else from here confirm this?

I'm pretty sure I found out about their existence from online. In fact, I recall using the original Digital Designer / Lego Factory and finding the parts for some of them (at the least I recall finding them for the Monster Pod) and being surprised to then learn that these existed. The Arachnid Pod still feels more like a weird parts pack with all those black antennas.

When reading through the instructions, I recall being annoyed to find that the wings pivot freely from side to side as they are connected by a frictionless pin. In fact, the Arachno Pod similarly seems needlessly limp.
Looking back, this part is used to make the pods wheels for the combiner. Rather disappointing to see a main model suffer for the sake of a so-so alt model!

Even so, looking back at said instructions surprisingly reveals that these sets had a lot of alternate models depicted with 'idea' images, just like the excellent 2004 wave. I'm sad now that these weren't available here.

EDIT: The Monster Pod, which was the other half of the aforementioned combiner, has two frictionless pins already, so it wasn't even necessary! And the Aqua Pod combiner does use it but it could easily have been a friction pin for that! For shame!

@PurpleDave said:
"I have a small stash of those. I pulled it out for a project, and there were four. Unfortunately, I needed six, and didn’t feel like dropping $20 to get two more. So, I ended up using dark-green C-clip versions on the Blueholderberry:

https://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=6748686

Fortunately, I actually like this look better.

For those who were checking out my initial batch, I also completed this guy:

https://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=6748687

It doesn’t look as disgusting as I’d hoped. If it was light-flesh, I think the effect would be better, but it looks a bit sun-tanned like this. The dark-red and dark-blue are supposed to look like arteries and veins, but now I’m wondering how it would look with the entire body built in the same color."

Speaking of fantasy creatures that were once quite unconventional!

And the blueholderberry is brilliant. Both the idea, and the execution. It makes me think of, like, a wizard's bizarre, homunculus-adjacent creation. Or a plant monster that uses a beholder-like appearance as a defense mechanism. All "bark" and no eye spells!

...I'll see myself out.

@Spritetoggle:
Yeah, just wait until the last parts needed for the Minion beholder become available…

Anyways, I’ve got all six out on a display all week, and the response was a bit unexpected. Two shows ago, the parts to finish the purple one showed up the first night, so I was able to get that one out for a bit, and I had purple/dark-purple/shark/photo-negative out at the last show. Both times, I got a lot of questions asking what they were. This time, the most common comment they’ve generated is asking how many beholders there are. And the one guy who asked how many (mind)flayers were on the layout.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Spritetoggle:
Yeah, just wait until the last parts needed for the Minion beholder become available…

Anyways, I’ve got all six out on a display all week, and the response was a bit unexpected. Two shows ago, the parts to finish the purple one showed up the first night, so I was able to get that one out for a bit, and I had purple/dark-purple/shark/photo-negative out at the last show. Both times, I got a lot of questions asking what they were. This time, the most common comment they’ve generated is asking how many beholders there are. And the one guy who asked how many (mind)flayers were on the layout."

Isn't it fascinating seeing how far D&D has come from its days of persecution and mockery? Though I must admit, I still love the song "People Still Play D&D," from the guy who made the early web animations of the Knights of the Dinner Table comic. It's dumb, self-deprecating fun. I wonder if it's still online anywhere.

Back on topic, do you have a mind to ever try tackling at least some of the various Beholderkin?

@Spritetoggle:
You mean like Hive Mothers, Lensmen, and so on? No, I hadn’t really planned on it. Some of them I don’t think would even be possible in this scale. This design is supposed to represent an 8’ diameter sphere, and it just barely works. Anything smaller, I think you’d need to take a wildly different approach. One mouth creates so many compromises to the core that I couldn’t even make the mouth I really wanted work (there was no way to attach the lower lip, but the teeth would have all been viewed edgewise). More than one mouth would simply be impossible with this design.

An Elder Orb (30 plates, or 12 studs in diameter) would definitely be possible, but it would require a drastically different approach to handling the levitation on display (these have a single antenna base pinched between studs on a 2x2 plate). If I was going to build any of the official variants, that’s the only one that really interests me. Mostly, however, I’m just having fun with variants of this design (and frankly, I doubt many of the kin would be recognizable to anyone at most shows). I mentioned I have a Minion design forthcoming, but I’ve also got most of the parts to build a Batman variant, a Blacktron I variant, and one that’s kinda been taken over by the swamp. For other people, I designed one in Ravenclaw colors, and a Yoda head. I have several other ideas lined up that I haven’t started working on, from serious, to semi-serious, to goofy theme mashups like the Minion design.

I had all these pods back when they first came out - the green and purple were always my favorites. While I wouldn't say I especially loved any of them, they still hold a lot of nostalgia for me.

@Maxbricks14 said:
"creator sets back then were pretty bad"

It was a $3.50 budget set, basically a polybag with a container included. I don't really know what you're expecting, or how all of the Creator theme was bad based on a single subtheme.