Random set of the day: Mine Mech
Posted by Huwbot,Today's random set is 8957 Mine Mech, released in 2009. It's one of 18 Power Miners sets produced that year. It contains 67 pieces and 2 minifigs, and its retail price was US$7.99/£6.85.
It's owned by 5427 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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28 comments on this article
Ooh, nice. I remember seeing this in Clutch Powers.
Also, for anyone who’s interested, I’ve compiled a two part history of Huwbot’s Clikits phase:
https://invisibletimmy.blogspot.com/2019/07/star-best-girl-history-of-huwbot-and-his-clikits.html?m=1
That’s part one; part two is the post following it.
My first LEGO set that brought me out of my dark age!! This one holds a spot near and dear to my heart. 10 years later, and I'm a Store Supervisor with LEGO! Big journeys really do have small beginnings!
I've seen people give this set a lot of flak but I still love it. It's short, chunky, and industrial-looking—perfect for an enclosed space like a mine.
Aw, I remember this! I still have most of the pieces lying around somewhere... I loved Power Miners!
I loved Power Miners, too, and this was a must-buy as soon as I saw it.
https://invisibletimmy.blogspot.com/2019/07/star-best-girl-history-of-huwbot-and.html?m=1
The second part
Really neat mech. I liked the Power Miners sets as a kid, but never got any. The monsters were probably my favorite part.
Power miners holds a special place in my heart. An important part of my introduction to Lego.
Loved this so much as a kid. I so wish they'd reboot power miners today. Who's with me?
My first mech! Really cool build.
I was never particularly keen on the look of this one, always looked a bit clunky when put next to the other power miners sets
I remember saving up money from doing chores for my parents to buy this. One of the first of many mechs I'd buy :)
Yay! Power miners! Huwbot's 5 (?) favorite theme!
:D i have this on.
one of my second power miner sets :)
I remember buying this from Toys-R-Us instead of buying a remoter control WALL-E
I occasionally rebuild mine in the vain hope that I'll turn around on its misshapen design, but I always end up with the realization that it is just not that great.
Was this REALLY ten years ago ? Feels like yesterday. I loved the industrial green & orange colour scheme, and combining sets for bigger builds. And the Rock Monsters were simply genius.
Aww this was one of my first sets. So nostalgic.
Thought that this was another SDCC exclusive set.
@giovannesl Those were better times, when there weren't Comic-Cons or regional exclusives...
And far away, from a twenty-something-year-old who's stubbornly unwilling to let go of his childhood, a distant cry is heard:
"Give me Rock Raiders any day!"
In all seriousness, I completely accept that Power Miners were probably the better sets; I never had any myself, but that's the sentiment I've heard expressed, and I can believe it. But the Rock Raiders theme was incredibly important to me as a child, and still holds the most special place with me out of any Lego theme.
Still, my nostalgia aside, it's nice to see there are so many people here that have love for Power Miners :D
I don't care for the Power Miners theme, but I do like the rock monsters.
My childhood! Ah the good old days!
If miners, than Rock Raiders were much better.
However, this green little rock monster hangs on my keychain over the past years, and bought one minifig type of that for cheap for my son.
God, I miss Power Miners...
Power Miners was easily one of my favorite themes growing up, and I'd managed to collect nearly the entire line. I always imagined that the rock monsters were the good guys though—and the miners were just trying to steal their food (crystals)! The little critters could ride this one around pretty well, which was a plus...
An often unacknowledged feature of the first year of Power Miners was that the white stripes on the stickers glowed in the dark! The second year replaced this with silver stripes for the lava setting, which was appropriate to the setting and design language, but not so unique.
All in all, I felt like Power Miners was an amazing spiritual successor to Rock Raiders. It didn't have the same dire, survivalist tone, outer space setting, or gritty color palette, but in terms of complexity, playability, and the diversity and detail of its vehicles and monsters it was a decisive step forward.
The blue-collar vibe and manic expressions of the miners also introduced a different sort of charm than the edgy, long-haired designs of the Rock Raiders characters which in hindsight seem pretty firmly rooted in that late 90s context. The most glaring flaw of Power Miners in hindsight is its lack of female characters, though Rock Raiders' "token girl" Jet was not a huge step up in that regard.
Also, Power Miners ended up moving on to a lava biome, which really appealed to my Power Miners nostalgia. It echoed Ice Monsters and Lava Monsters that I'd seen about in Rock Raiders concept art and the video game instruction manual, but never got to encounter in the game due to how buggy it was on my parents' computer, and which never ended up showing up in sets! Would've loved to see even more Power Miners sets with an ice biome, and maybe even some Ice Planet 2002 motifs such as heated saws and drills.
One way or another, Power Miners brought about some outstandingly fun sets, parts, figures, and videos with the time it had!
A neat wee set. We love Power Miners. :o)