[Poll] Power Miners vs Rock Raiders

[ufjason]

I prefer rock raiders. What about you? If rock raiders had dynamite sticks, it would have been perfect.

[Solo]

Power Miners eff tee dubya! The Rock Raiders were poorly constructed short bus rejects that thankfully appeared and died off during my dark ages... They lacked style - and the teal bricks just seemed strange for the theme.

[CoR3Bu]

I don't no how you like Rock Raiders! I wouldn't even compare R.R
with Power Miners!

Colonel Reaginal Bulstrode (I was glaiciator on the Power Miners quiz thing), to attention men!

[Galagoo]

I voted for Rock Raiders. Both themes are cool in their own way - almost equally in my opinion - but even though PW has better set design, I just prefer the Rock Raider characters' outfits. Blue and white didn't really turn me on.

... I have to admit, though, that in hindsight it seems pretty disturbing that the most major factor my vote was merely the colour of minifig clothing..

[Starwars4j]

Joke topic? Rock raiders had a far superior design going for them, the only thing PM has over RR are the rock monsters and multiple colored crystals.

[Flynn]

I always loved RR because even though some of the sets were poorly constructed, if you tweaked the story a bit, it could become a very mature, deep, theme, although still enjoyable to kids. Power Miners has that too, I guess, but their colors are much too flamboyant, and instead of a shipwrecked group of people like in RR, you now just have members of a corporation (I think, I'm not to clear on the PM storyline).

[Starwars4j]

you now just have members of a corporation (I think, I'm not to clear on the PM storyline).

^Group of genocidal maniacs. Anyone could see the monsters are the true heroes of this story. Valuable lesson too...

[LFN]

Rock Raiders. It gave off a more apocalyptic aura to it, something the Power Miners can only hope to emulate. I can't imagine minifigures being more frightened of the new jelly bean rock monsters than the big brown hulking one from the rock raiders line.

[MrCRskater]

Well, it's a tough decision but I think I'm gravitating towards Power Miners, mostly because I have an affinity for bold colors (they do have a pretty sweet color scheme). Of course, this is probably one of the biggest reasons that Power Miners has been more successful than Rock Raiders, because the color scheme is more appealing (the sets practically jump off of the shelves) and the little colored rock monster characters are obviously more appealing to kids as they're more like cartoon characters than the big brown hulk from Rock Raiders.

However, Rock Raiders was very charming in its way. I do dig the retro feel, and in some ways it was reminiscent of the early space lines (classic space, blacktron, m-tron, etc.). Plus, Rock Raiders had the sweet chrome drills! Who can argue with that?!

[firehawk302]

RR FTW!!!

Seriously, PM just sucks. The color scheme is hideous and is way too bright, the rock monsters look stupid and kiddy, the story is just unoriginal and dumb, and why in hell would the rock monsters be half crystal, half rock?? And the rock monsters are the size of a minifig,! There supposed to be real monsters for Gods sake! and why is the big honkin drill gray? If it was chrome like RR, I might actually buy one of these sets. Just for the drill. And the minifigs are dumb too. Blue helmets? C'mon!

RR was awesome because they had a more industrial feel, a good storyline, MUCH better color scheme, and cool rock monsters! If only they were gray. I really have no complaints about RR. Unfortunately they were about one year before my time, which sucks.

In fact I might just leave this site just because its PM now. SW is soo the way to go.

[Solo]

Someone has their grumpy pants on today...

[firehawk302]

I'm not grumpy, I just don't like PM.

[Yoda 56]

Power Miners is way better! Nicer sets, better color scheme, awesome minifigure and monsters are in every set. What more can you ask for? Ok, maybe something! A underground mining base (fear not----its coming this summer) .

[Green Brick Giant]

RR had a cool story, and the ships and such were really neat and I think were open to more designs than the new PM. However they were really juniorized, but the design ideas were awesome.

The new one is too... too limited in designs. I have no clue what they will be doing for next year. However the sets as a whole are better built, even if the designs are lazy. Plus the little rock monsters are cute.

[comm.fox]

i prefer rock raider becasue it more nitty gritty all the character have there own personality and clothing and one way or anouther we could all relate to one of there was even a female character (jet i belive) and much more of a story to it cooler monsters.

[Lord T]

Rock Raiders played a rather big part in my childhood, what with the great game and the sets themselves. Loved those old figs, loved the Chrome Crusher!

[Blondie-Wan]

It's interesting to me to see all these posts commenting on the relative merits of the storylines. I don't think the overwhelming majority of people think of LEGO lines as even having any stories beyond what kids imagine for them. Are we talking solely about the bits and pieces of story disseminated through the sets' catalog listings and the PM website and so on, or are there actually extensive, detailed narratives publicly available out there of which I'm totally unaware? (Actually, come to think of it, I do know there were video games for RR; are those part of what we're talking about?)

RR was winding down right about the time SW brought me out of my dark ages, and hence I never got any; the last ones available were going away just as I was beginning to buy other LEGO sets than just Star Wars. I so often wish I could have come out of my dark ages at least just a year or two earlier, so I'd not only have gotten more Star Wars sets but also a number of others from around the late '90s / early '00s, and have a few more LEGO themes represented in my collection by at least one or two sets.

Getting back to the question, I actually sort of conceptualized PM as being a continuation of RR (are the narratives different enough to preclude this?), and the major differences appear to me to be PM has a greater focus on the conflict with the Rock Monsters (RR has some conflict against the larger monster as well, it seems, but it's not as central to that iteration of the idea), and of course the different color scheme. On this I'm torn - the RR color scheme seems more naturally suited to the theme, but I love, love, love green, especially a really bright green, so the prevalence of all those lime bricks in PM speaks to me. Part of me also thinks I should vote for PM simply because it's the incarnation to which I do have access, while part of me thinks I should vote for RR for precisely the same reason...