In a Lego catalogue filled with soulless licensed merchandise, Creator 3-in-1 is the last bastion of what Lego used to stand for: originality, creativity and reusability through alternative builds, values that even long standing lines like City and Technic have abandoned.

Thankfully, this year was very strong for the theme overall, and this set manages to stand out as the best. The idea is very good, with three coherent builds around a central theme, and uniquely even for a Creator 3-in-1 set, all of them are so well executed they could be their own set. The fox looks great and it is very posable, with all four legs, the tail, the head and the mouth being articulated. The owl looks great too but was the least interesting build for me, because it has only a rotating head and minimum articulation in the wings. The squirrel is my personal favourite because of my love for the actual animal, and is pretty solid as a model too, looking cute and having good articulation in the head, legs and tail.

If I had any complaint, is that in order to achieve these impressive looking models, Creator has been moving towards complicated building techniques with weird pieces that facilitate sideways building. There are little actual bricks and plates in these 667 pieces. For a set that is actually marketed to kids, this feels more like building a puzzle rather than Lego. So that is a 3/5 for parts for me. But because of the overall excellence of the set, this is a solid 5/5.