Power Miners: Modified Lavatraz

[Dunjohn]

Lavatraz: I love it, it's awesome, but it has some really, really confusing things going on. The whole thing is built on a series of red base strips, and that along with the name makes everybody think it's constructed over lava. However, logically, it must be built on rock: it comes with a wheeled vehicle, the cage has no base supplied, and you can "mine" out the side to get at some crystals. There's also a separate water cannon that's meant to clip onto the "lava," The cage section couldn't be using lava as a floor because Eruptorr could probably swim right through that.

However, like zero1312, I figure lava would just be cooler. I forgot to take any "before" pictures, so here's a link to Lego-Freak's review:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=37310

Also, a caveat: I don't "do" stickers, bud.

The Whole Thing

Here it is, fully assembled. As well as the lava, I modified some of the machinery, but kept the set basically the same and stayed within the same area size. The only part I didn't touch up was the little vehicle, which no longer makes any sense anyhow. There were some bizarre mechanical oversights on Brain's part when he designed this place, so I extended a small bridge out behind the crane to give access to the controls, and put clips on the corners of the cage walls so that they actually, y'know, work. I also swapped the yellow soft drink cans for Coca Cola; who the heck goes to the centre of the Earth with a crate full of Fanta Lemon??

The Lava River

Here's what's beneath one of the platforms; I can't remove the other one because it's now built into the rock. All the pieces are lined up right-to-left to give the impression of flow, and I used diagonal pieces to make it look like it's streaming around the supports. I'm not convinced that that sells the idea, though.

There's also a gout of lava shooting up through the platform. Mind your step.

The lava under the cage, continuing the right-to-left flow. However, by now I'm running out of orange plates so I'm really scraping the barrel.

Here's the rock. Much more solid and sturdy than in the official set, and less square. I took out the exploding mechanism since it no longer makes sense without the wheeled vehicle. It's oozing lava: my idea was that the rock was once a lava upsurge that cooled and solidified, but it still active beneath the surface. Was I thinking too deep here? Again, this is me using every scrap of brown that I possess. Anybody who saw my Ghostbusters MOC will be familiar with that line.

And this is the back of the rock. The rock is roughly triangular, so the Miners had to add a support column themselves. The lava here is red because those two orange studs were literally the only orange bits I had left. So my excuse here is that this is cool lava, and I added some brown to emphasise that. Kinda makes sense, since the rock itself is cooled lava. You can also see where I extended the platform out behind the crane, but it's nothing major.

And finally, the redesigned water cannon. Since it can no longer clip onto the "lava" like before, I attached it to the platform using connectors that allow it to go up and down, and these new hydraulics naturally necessitated the addition of a fancy new lever. I also replaced the grey slopes with green to make it more Powerminersy, and added pressurised water tubes and lava heat shields on the base.

And that's basically what I wasted my Sunday doing.

[Forresto]

This is a brilliant mod! This is a perfect example of how they could have made this medicore set into a brilliant set!

[squidman85]

That's great!WWell,i'm working on the mod too,but i want to built a platforms around the jail.

[Darth Legolas]

The lava doesn't seem to have taken much work, just a lot of pieces. The rock is interesting, but personally it doesn't affect me. The thing that strikes me is the water cannon design. Sire, if water were that close to lava it would evaporate in seconds, but hey, if rock monsters were real, we'd all be dead. The design is great! I love how it can defend the base from all of those angles, and it looks very good too!

Boy to I feel sorry for the guy who tips the cannon back too far. Nice job!

[Dunjohn]

The lava doesn't seem to have taken much work, just a lot of pieces.

Yeah, exactly. Working with what I had was the tricky part (and to be honest, it made it a bit more fun too), and trying to make it look like it was moving was about the limit of my abilities. I'd have liked to make it look like it was surging and oozing around, as well as simply flowing. As for the water, it's pressurized! With science! It works perfectly that close to lava! ;)

TLC normally don't put much focus on environments in their sets, which made this set in particular easy to modify. I'll probably be picking at this for a long time to come, trying to get it just right. Looking forward to what Mantaman comes out with, make sure you post pics!

[Delta 38]

Looks very nice. It's a pity the actual set doesn't have so much detail to the environment.

[prateek]

This MOD is awesome! That lava you've got going looks really realistic and I love the lava spewing out of the rock

[Fires-storm]

Wow, what a truly amazing modification! I loved the rock raiders sets, and the power miners are a pretty good follow up, so this mod is very pleasing to me. I love all the detail you packed in, and I got a chuckle out of the lava spout through the grate. good work, and keep bricking!

Edited March 6, 2010 by Fires-storm

[sok117]

Its' okay, I would try to make a bigger Lavatraz and a bigger base, pretty much what I'm saying is give the thing some roids.