Power Miners vs. Rock Raiders

[has a differing opinion]

The RR didn't have chrome crystals, only chrome drills. They were the same bright green ones that also appeared in the PM sets.

Sorry I was thinking of space port chrystals.

[Calanon]

Sorry I was thinking of space port chrystals.

And Aquanauts! :P

I vote for Rock Raiders, they have my heart! Probably one of my favourite themes.

[Suspsy]

The Power Miners have this one all wrapped up. Better vehicles, better monsters. Would've been nice to have had a female member though.

[Laura Beinbrech]

I voted for the Rock Raiders, but I'll willingly admit that my vote was influenced by the fact that the Rock Raiders torsos and set pieces are, in general, more useful for MOCing, and perhaps a bit of nostalgia there, too....

I wish I'd have bought about 10 more of the Rock Raiders minifig packs when they were available, because the "Docs" torso is perfect for the basic troops of my Neo-Confederate army in my LEGO setting. As a matter of fact, that's pretty much the first thing I thought of when I saw Docs was "Sweet! Now I can have some rebs to fight my cavalry!" Furthermore, the Jet head is one of the better Classic LEGO female printed heads and I wish I had a few more on hand (The one I do I used for the Commandant of the Federal Marine Corps)...

[Algernon]

I voted for the Rock Raiders, but I'll willingly admit that my vote was influenced by the fact that the Rock Raiders torsos and set pieces are, in general, more useful for MOCing, and perhaps a bit of nostalgia there, too....

This is definitely true for me, too, but that's typically how I judge most LEGO themes.

I wish I'd have bought about 10 more of the Rock Raiders minifig packs when they were available, because the "Docs" torso is perfect for the basic troops of my Neo-Confederate army in my LEGO setting. As a matter of fact, that's pretty much the first thing I thought of when I saw Docs was "Sweet! Now I can have some rebs to fight my cavalry!" Furthermore, the Jet head is one of the better Classic LEGO female printed heads and I wish I had a few more on hand (The one I do I used for the Commandant of the Federal Marine Corps)...

Bricklink is your friend!

[has a differing opinion]

And Aquanauts! :P

I vote for Rock Raiders, they have my heart! Probably one of my favourite themes.

Yep, and aquanauts.

Also, the power miners rock monsters are really not fierce enough. The online cartoons make them about a threatening as a teddy bear!

[Dannylonglegs]

Rock Raiders and Aquanauts FTW! Nostalgia's the best man! I personally think the Rock Raiders win for one reason (aside from nostalgia): they're from the future! They have a blasted space craft! The power miners have better drills? Nuke 'em from orbit with "mining equiptment." The rock monsters don't have much of a chance either.

~Insectoid Aristocrat

[Behind the Camera]

Personally, I like Rock Raiders better than Power Miners, mainly because the characters in Rock Raiders were more developed and that theme was very unique (even though I like the rock monsters in the Power Miners sets better).

[zewy623]

This is a bit off topic... But with all the debate of which is better, I think Lego needs to come out with a third line of mining (and no, not city) and make it better then PM and RR!!

[Zarkan]

I actually made a topic a while back explaining why I thought Power Miners was way better than Rock Raiders. It was a big wall of text, so I think I'll just post a link. And for those of you who don't want to read through it, I'll post a brief summary as well.

1. Power Miners uses less specalized pieces than Rock Raiders. Needless to say, PM never had any part as offensive as the giant base used for the Loader Dozer and Chrome Crusher.

2. Power Miners has more variety than Rock Raiders. Seriously, nearly every sizeable vehicle in RR used the exact same brown cockpit and chrome drill. Whereas in Power Miners, there was incredible variety in the various vehicle designs and drilling mechanism

3. Power Miners had better rock monsters than Rock Raiders. I always thought the monsters in RR looked like big piles of mud, and they can't even compare to the personality and poseability of PM's monsters.

4. Power Miners has more detail than Rock Raiders. PM blew me away with its usage of greebling, and I can't say the same thing about RR.

5. Power Miners has better functions than Rock Raiders. Two words: gear functions. I'll take the jackhammer of the new Granite Grinder and the spinning drill of the Thunder Driller over the lightup lasers of RR.

Edited April 16, 2012 by Zarkan

[legomylego]

Nice. i am going for the power miners because they have advanced technology.

[Oky]

I actually made a topic a while back explaining why I thought Power Miners was way better than Rock Raiders. It was a big wall of text, so I think I'll just post a link.

Some good points. I agree with all of them.

Nice. i am going for the power miners because they have advanced technology.

What do you mean by advanced technology? If you ask me, the RR were much more advanced. They had lasers, hover technology, teleportation, and space travel.

[Algernon]

This is clearly a silly debate, but what the heck! My rebuttal.

1. Power Miners uses less specalized pieces than Rock Raiders. Needless to say, PM never had any part as offensive as the giant base used for the Loader Dozer and Chrome Crusher.

That part actually has its uses, and I still see the large brown roll cage used in steam punk MOCs to this day. All LEGO parts are useful if you just use a little imagination.

2. Power Miners has more variety than Rock Raiders. Seriously, nearly every sizeable vehicle in RR used the exact same brown cockpit and chrome drill. Whereas in Power Miners, there was incredible variety in the various vehicle designs and drilling mechanism

True, but the RR approach was much more realistic than the Power Miners approach. A lot of the PM mining tech seemed impractical, like the arm-swinging claw machine from the first wave (forgot the name).

I'll give you the functionality point, though. PM had a lot of that.

3. Power Miners had better rock monsters than Rock Raiders. I always thought the monsters in RR looked like big piles of mud, and they can't even compare to the personality and poseability of PM's monsters.

I have to say that I disagree. The rock monsters from Power Miners were more like annoying little gremlins. The RR baddies were gigantic, mysterious rock creatures that were more like rare encounters than the primary threat (only included in two sets, after all). Plus, I think their design is a lot more imposing, even if it's less detailed.

4. Power Miners has more detail than Rock Raiders. PM blew me away with its usage of greebling, and I can't say the same thing about RR.

Bear in mind that Power Miners is a more recent theme, when such construction techniques became more common. When RR was released, their level of detail was pretty standard.

5. Power Miners has better functions than Rock Raiders. Two words: gear functions. I'll take the jackhammer of the new Granite Grinder and the spinning drill of the Thunder Driller over the lightup lasers of RR.

I don't know about that! The Lightup lasers are awesome pieces. But you're right, the Power Miners had some great functionality.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

Looking back, although I was never a big fan of Power Miners, I do feel that the pictures Oky took do show the variety of the Rock Raiders figures in comparison with the Power Miners figs. And this is a complaint I have about a lot of Lego's modern themes: often times lot of the characters have the same uniform and look alike except for the head.

[Aanchir]

Overall, I definitely felt like Power Miners was far better than Rock Raiders. It may not have been quite so gritty, but it had better builds, better functions, better monsters, bolder colors, and a great sense of humor. As for the characters themselves? The Rock Raiders may be a ragtag band of desperate spacefarers, but the Power Miners are the only blue-collar chumps crazy enough to tunnel into the earth to fight off swarms of crystal-eating monsters! Who knows what'd happen if they went toe to toe? Whatever the case, it'd probably be hilarious!

Looking back, although I was never a big fan of Power Miners, I do feel that the pictures Oky took do show the variety of the Rock Raiders figures in comparison with the Power Miners figs. And this is a complaint I have about a lot of Lego's modern themes: often times lot of the characters have the same uniform and look alike except for the head.

I don't know that that's a fair generalization. After all, a lot of the classic sets were about as uniform as today's sets, including the classic Spacemen in your avatar. The heroes of Nexo Knights and Ninjago tend to have considerably more differences in their costumes than those do! And were the heroes of LEGO Atlantis any less alike than the heroes of Aquazone?

Recent themes are also packed with examples of characters who DON'T all wear the same uniforms. The heroes of Ultra Agents, Monster Fighters, Pharaoh's Quest, and Dino were all easily as varied as the Rock Raiders or Adventurers.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

Overall, I definitely felt like Power Miners was far better than Rock Raiders. It may not have been quite so gritty, but it had better builds, better functions, better monsters, bolder colors, and a great sense of humor. As for the characters themselves? The Rock Raiders may be a ragtag band of desperate spacefarers, but the Power Miners are the only blue-collar chumps crazy enough to tunnel into the earth to fight off swarms of crystal-eating monsters! Who knows what'd happen if they went toe to toe? Whatever the case, it'd probably be hilarious!

I don't know that that's a fair generalization. After all, a lot of the classic sets were about as uniform as today's sets, including the classic Spacemen in your avatar. The heroes of Nexo Knights and Ninjago tend to have considerably more differences in their costumes than those do! And were the heroes of LEGO Atlantis any less alike than the heroes of Aquazone?

Recent themes are also packed with examples of characters who DON'T all wear the same uniforms. The heroes of Ultra Agents, Monster Fighters, Pharaoh's Quest, and Dino were all easily as varied as the Rock Raiders or Adventurers.

Right, Aanchir, I wasn't saying that homogeneity applied to most of the modern themes. I meant that it's found in a lot of modern themes including Mars Mission and Alien Conquest. The Classic Spacemen at least differed in colors. I just (personally) found the teams in some modern themes to be way too homogeneous, but that's a matter of personal taste. I prefer themes with more varied minifigs such as Monster Fighters or Adventurers. I guess that the Power Miners minifigs just didn't do it for me, although I'll say that the new Rock Monsters are superb, precisely because of the better color diversity in them.

[Pulp Detective]

I'll go with Power Miners because I grew up with them.

[Megagan]

Going to have to go with Rock Raiders on this one. The colors and over all feel of it just work better for me over the bright colors of the Power miners, those canopies just stand out and look cool from the raiders. Plus the Power miners with all of the diverse digging machines still lack the support of the propeller powered Tunnel Transport.

[BrickJagger]

Personally, I prefer Power Miners. The set design for the time was excellent, and I liked the color schemes. Rock Raiders had less vehicle variety and a dull color scheme. I prefer the Rock Raiders figures, but only two Rock Monsters in the entire line is woeful compared to the 20+ in the Power Miners sets.

[gamejutzu]

I'm sorry if this was already asked, but is this a battle? Or general popularity of the theme?

By the poll questions i'll have to say this is a "battle" type thing.

So I guess these kind of threads are allowed? How would we know whether to put some of these battles in the Media forum or the Action forum (for other themes)?

[Oky]

Nice to see this discussion continue now that it has been a few years since the release of PM! I will stick to my statement that PM was overall the better theme with its vastly superior rock monsters and builds, but looking back at these themes now, I feel more fondly about RR than about PM as I much prefer the more distinctive look of the RR characters and the overall much more gritty and more sci-fi look of the theme. The theme was also more about survival than about conflict or any of the other questionable stuff going on in PM. It's also pretty sad that a theme released in 2009 didn't have a single female character. But both themes were pretty cool in their own way.

I'm sorry if this was already asked, but is this a battle? Or general popularity of the theme?

By the poll questions i'll have to say this is a "battle" type thing.

You're thinking too hard about this. This is just a fun exercise to compare the two themes and see which one people prefer. But considering this is based on a MOC where the two teams are literally about to fight each other, yes, I'd say this is a battle.

So I guess these kind of threads are allowed? How would we know whether to put some of these battles in the Media forum or the Action forum (for other themes)?

The initial purpose of this thread was to showcase my MOC which is why it belongs here. The "battle" between the themes is just a discussion that arose from that and it is about comparing the sets and the themes as a whole rather than just the media (i.e. games and cartoons) made to promote them which is what the Media forum would be for. If you just want to post a "Which theme is better" thread, I think the Action themes forum (or whatever forum the theme you want to discuss belongs in) should be fine.

By the way, I have a question about Rock Raiders that has been bugging me ever since the theme was released and I don't know where else to post it, so can somebody explain this: If the Rock Raiders have hover technology, why does the Tunnel Transport need propellers to fly? Does the hover technology only work for small vehicles or only at low altitudes? I know it's very nitpicky, but that's the sort of stuff that keeps me up at night.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

By the way, I have a question about Rock Raiders that has been bugging me ever since the theme was released and I don't know where else to post it, so can somebody explain this: If the Rock Raiders have hover technology, why does the Tunnel Transport need propellers to fly? Does the hover technology only work for small vehicles or only at low altitudes? I know it's very nitpicky, but that's the sort of stuff that keeps me up at night.

Well, hypothetically, perhaps the hover technology doesn't really scale well, as you mentioned. The Tunnel Scout is designed for heavier loads. That's the way I would explain it, at least!

[dr_spock]

Power Miners had dynamite. I don't think Rock Raiders had explosives. Power Mniers also had those funny videos on YouTube with the designers.

I vote crystal loving Rock Monsters for the win.

Day 176 of 365: Pretty Crystals by dr_spock_888, on Flickr

[Oky]

Well, hypothetically, perhaps the hover technology doesn't really scale well, as you mentioned. The Tunnel Scout is designed for heavier loads. That's the way I would explain it, at least!

Seems reasonable enough.

Power Miners had dynamite. I don't think Rock Raiders had explosives.

They did. The larger vehicles all came with the old dynamite tile.

[Tezclatipoca]

By the way, I have a question about Rock Raiders that has been bugging me ever since the theme was released and I don't know where else to post it, so can somebody explain this: If the Rock Raiders have hover technology, why does the Tunnel Transport need propellers to fly? Does the hover technology only work for small vehicles or only at low altitudes? I know it's very nitpicky, but that's the sort of stuff that keeps me up at night.

They did. The larger vehicles all came with the old dynamite tile.

I like more the Rock Raiders as it's one of the last theme I had before my Dark Age. I totally missed the Power Miners...

I find RR more Sci Fi and the characters are greatly designed !

PM colours are too flashy for me, The RR colour choice seems more suitable for a Sci Fi undergroud theme IMO.

Concerning the dynamite thing, RR had the old tile for sure, but on this, I prefer the PM accessory.

And about the hover mater; well, it's not really clear because there is this promotional foil bag little helicopter using the same propeller the Tunnel transport is using... It's the 1276 : Helicopter Transport.

So, if you counting this set as an official RR set, the hover tech and the propeller tech are totally mixed up... I am sorry for your night time sleep...