I guess LEGO felt they needed to put these guys on the cover of the instructions to entice alternate builds over the three little transformer looking guys used for the box art and every other advertisement for this set.
https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?S=4097-1

I still have my MOCs of these built after 21 years! I digitized them in LDD a few years later and still have the files as well. I gotta admit, this was more fun to MOC with than 4099 because of the colors, even though I enjoyed the bigger set overall (not as much as 4508 of course).

@Zander said:
"Not for centenarians!

How many other sets have upper age limits and what happens when an AFOL lives beyond the upper age range? Does LEGO send someone to remove the set?"
Are you looking for a number or something? Because percentage-wise I think like 80% of sets made before 2019 had an upper age limit.

@MCLegoboy:
I think I have this set, and I know I’ve never built any of the models from it.

Yay. One of my first Lego sets!

Second consecutive day with a set that I got in my early childhood. Another of the few non-Jack Stone/4 Juniors sets, and another one I loved so much... but this one had a happier ending!

Although I did lost most of the pieces as the years passed, last year I found it for sale for a really low price in a local e-commerce site. Obviously I purchased it, and now I can say I own that set again.

Loved this set as a kid. I vaguely remember the pictured models, but I mostly made custom builds with this. This set had a really great collection of parts to just mess around with.

Looks to me like 32 insane creations!

@MCLegoboy said:
"I guess LEGO felt they needed to put these guys on the cover of the instructions to entice alternate builds over the three little transformer looking guys used for the box art and every other advertisement for this set.
https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?S=4097-1"

This was the case for the entire first wave of Designer Sets, for some reason.

@LegoSonicBoy said:
"I still have my MOCs of these built after 21 years! I digitized them in LDD a few years later and still have the files as well. I gotta admit, this was more fun to MOC with than 4099 because of the colors, even though I enjoyed the bigger set overall (not as much as 4508 of course)."
Just realized it's only been 19 years because I somehow misremembered Designer Sets being 2001 instead of 2003. Still a long time to keep MOCs!

Oh hey, a set I actually have. I got this in a huge storage bin of disassembled legos from a neighbor a while back. It took forever to figure out what sets were in there from the pieces.

I used to have this set a while back. My neighbour took my huge storage bin of disassembled lego with the set in it. :-(

The main model is a red flamethrower robot with jetpack, a green robot with a gatling gun arm and propeller on the back, and a yellow 'leader' with sci-fi baton and gun (scanners?)

Although the main model from 4882 Robot Platoon are better as variant robot troops serving as a trio of various roles (melee, air support and leader/sniper), this one has its own strengths. The three main robots are more varied and creative, and the alternate models are more fun and substantial. The parts here are varied enough yet coherent enough for a lot of cool builds!
Both sets have a lot of character to them, and Robot Platoon always felt like an upgrade or 2.0 of this set. The yellow and tan ones both have two antenna and a gun for example.

Combined with 4099 you can have even more fun. One of the very last models from that set is a build highly similar to the main builds of this set, which is cool.

It's impressive how they made mechs like these before the Knights Kingdom rotation ratchet joint (debuted in Galidor). Sure, they aren't as posable as even the smaller Exo-Force mechs, but for 2003 this was well-done!

32 Models, all robotz, 229 parts, all for 10$ seems like a fantastic deal!

I think it was this set and the new Star Wars line that really pulled me out of my dark ages.

I spent HOURS with this set only. The book with inspiration was such amazing thing!
Why it has no propper box picture even if its available online?

@JasonBall34 said:
"Oh hey, a set I actually have. I got this in a huge storage bin of disassembled legos from a neighbor a while back. It took forever to figure out what sets were in there from the pieces. "

I spend most of my LEGO time doing just that, makes for pretty good YT content. I have dozens of bins to sort, some more coherent than others.

As for the set, it uses bricks with stubs. And in the old greys. Nice!

@LegoSonicBoy:
I’ve got one that’s about 30 years old at this point.

@Binnekamp said:
" @JasonBall34 said:
"Oh hey, a set I actually have. I got this in a huge storage bin of disassembled legos from a neighbor a while back. It took forever to figure out what sets were in there from the pieces. "

@namekuji said:
"I used to have this set a while back. My neighbour took my huge storage bin of disassembled lego with the set in it. :-("

Wait a minute... If it wasn't for the different countries these would almost seem to be part of the same story!

"

I think @namekuji was having a cheeky joke

@PurpleDave said:
" @LegoSonicBoy:
I’ve got one that’s about 30 years old at this point."
Not a MOC, one of LEGO’s own designs, but I’ve had 6034 assembled for 29 years. If you count minifigures as MOCable, I’ve got some MOC minifigures that have been assemble for the same amount of time.

Sorting my sets during the Christmas - New-Year brake, I noticed that I miss one of the PLATE 1X2 (ROCKING) in Green.
This part is really rare as it is present only in two sets, this one and 70903.

2003: 229 pieces, 32 builds (and the few that I have seen look pretty fun!)
2022: so many sets with thousands of pieces, and just one single build....

And yes, I am aware of the Classic and Creator 3-in-1 sets, and a few Technic sets that haven't lost their B-model (yet), but those have become the exceptions to the rule. I expect in a few years there will be warnings on the boxes that Lego will sue you if you don't use the pieces according to the instructions ;-)

@yap said:
"Sorting my sets during the Christmas - New-Year brake, I noticed that I miss one of the PLATE 1X2 (ROCKING) in Green.
This part is really rare as it is present only in two sets, this one and 70903."

This comment made me realize that over 17 years of my lego hobby I have gotten many normal common parts in rare colors. I actually have 2 of this piece in green.

@yap:
70903 and 70900 were each sold separately, or together in 66546 (which came with instructions to combine the two sets into a different model). That’s three sets. Sorta.

@Lego_mini_fan:
I think I ended up with ten or twelve. I know I built both the standard Riddle Racer and the combo model. I think I have a sealed copy of the combo pack, and I’ve got 2-3 copies of the Riddle Racer that I’ve been raiding for parts.

Of the three main models, the green one was ok, the red one was interesting, and the yellow one was badass. It was also the most Blacktron.

Of the three main models, the green one was ok, the red one was interesting, and the yellow one was badass. It was also the most Blacktron.

@PurpleDave said:
" @yap:
70903 and 70900 were each sold separately, or together in 66546 (which came with instructions to combine the two sets into a different model). That’s three sets. Sorta.

@Lego_mini_fan:
I think I ended up with ten or twelve. I know I built both the standard Riddle Racer and the combo model. I think I have a sealed copy of the combo pack, and I’ve got 2-3 copies of the Riddle Racer that I’ve been raiding for parts."

I actually own 4 of the piece. I forgot I got two of the riddle racer. But I feel like when the Riddle racer was released that it made the green hinge piece a little less rarer because a lot of people bought duplicates of it but that's just my thoughts.