I figured it out via reinstalling, but for anyone who has this same issue, do not install the newest spore patch before Creepy and Cute.  It'll update anyway in installation and I'm guessing something just went nuts when trying to.  The patch after it works fine though, and thank god because I need me some bug arms.

It was a present, in my defense, I'm a habitual pirate otherwise.   

When I got it from TPB the creature creator started encountering errors and closing every time.  I tried a variety of solutions including replacing the data files (because reinstalling requires uninstalling spore, which I have a paid copy of, and fuck if I want to use one of my THREE INSTALLS EVER on this), c+a+ding everything else remotely ea related or possibly messing with it (that one worked--once), exiting daemontools, running it with daemontools up, and I just don't know what I'm doing.

Anyone else have these issues?