The Lego Creator theme started in 2001 and building sets are normally based around buildings, vehicles and animals. They focus more on the creative building element of the plastic bricks rather than the playability. The first minifigure to be included was ‘Log Cabin Guy’- a canoeing and backpacking log cabin dweller and we take a closer look at him here.
From 2001 to 2005 a special 4+ Figure could be included with Lego Creator sets. The name of these figures indicates the audience; aimed primarily at children aged four and over. The Creator figures were normally Tina and Max. Both of the characters is larger than a standard Lego Minifigure, are more realistic looking but cannot be disassembled. They have a charm about them but left the older minifigure collector and fan uninterested. Scale between figure and building has never been a worry for Lego, nor should it be as children brush off such concerns. However the smaller minifigures do incorporate ‘standard’ Lego bricks compatibility and can frequently at least appear more to scale.
Lego Creator Log Cabin was primarily a 2011 release but did go on sale 3 December 2010 in the US (until 29 December 2013) and 28 December 2010 in the UK (until 1 December 2013). ‘5766- Log Cabin’ was the first Lego Creator set that included a standard minifigure. Up to this release, minifigures had only been included in the Lego City sets. The little chap included with the log cabin is probably the simplest hiking or backpacking minifigure that Lego has produced over the years. Brickipedia named him simply as the ‘Log Cabin Guy’. He is equipped with a backpack, just right to leave his cabin for a hike in the woods. Either that, or jump in the included canoe and paddle off upstream.
Log Cabin Guy has plain tan coloured trousers. His bright blue torso and arms are plain, with no additional printing. He has no hair and no alternative face but is given a bright red cap with curved bill to wear. He has a lopsided grin and is obviously happy with his outdoors life. He has no dedicated display plinth on which to stand as he is intended to be fixed either to the cabin baseplate or sat in the little yellow canoe. You could regard Log Cabin Guy as a simpler version of the cap wearing Lego BRMC Camper minifigure looked at in a previous post.
There were 355 parts including our minifigure in the Lego Log Cabin set and YouTuber JANGBRiCKS has done a pretty good job of reviewing the cabin that includes the ‘official’ Lego builds. I have included a link below. Lego provided assembly instructions online as a pdf for the log cabin and our simple little minifigure is included in these. To be frank, these are barely necessary for such a simple little figure. Lego Log Cabin is an easy to construct set designed so that young builders can, literally, be creative. There are limited ‘special’ bricks included and there is a simplicity about the three specific cabin builds, of increasing levels of difficulty. To that end, the minifigure is also very simple in design with five parts including cap and backpack.
His backpack lacks the dual-colour scheme seen on some other hiking minifigures and is a green one-colour moulding (part number 4598714). This specific backpack was an uncommon inclusion for a minifigure and had only been seen once before- the previous year in Lego set 7595 Army Men on Patrol minifigures. Those figures were based on characters that had appeared in the animated Toy Story film. Amongst these, the medic minifigure was the only one provided with a green backpack. Army Men on Patrol was primarily a 2010 release but did appear for sale in the UK 30 December 2009.
So what do we think about our included backpacking Log Cabin Guy? He is brightly coloured, simple, with little else going for him other than an innate charm. But still, a welcome addition to our ‘outdoors’ collective. This set was the only appearance for Log Cabin Guy, though he did feature in the Lego Club Magazine, issue 1, in 2011. There have been only a few hiking minifigures released over the years that may be of interest to us hikers. Three Points of the Compass has had a brief glance at most of these:
Three Points of the Compass 
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