LEGO reveals new line - Power Miners

[The Kid]

Well, I for one loved Rock Raiders. I had most of the sets (didn't have the HQ sadly) and recently pickesd up the Chrome Crusher and Rapid River sets for a bargain £7 after dismantling my first copies. RR was one of my first lines that I can remember really taking a shine to (excluding Harry Potter, back when the sets weren't too outrageously expensive and Star Wars).

Bring on Power Miners!

TK

[Norrington]

Yay! A potential rip of of "Journey to the Center of the Earth". Maybe we'll get a "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" rip off soon enough

[The Rancor]

YESSSSSS!!!

(I just sold all my classic Rock Raiders so this is good news)

[Scyzoryk]

Who knows, maybe the miners will be some futuristic dwarfs digging their way to the Earth's core with Pie bombs.

That's something I would say coughbitercoughcough

[SuvieD]

Or Rock Raiders.

Could this be the rumoured Space theme?

Better not be, but it wouldn't surprise me.

I just hope they use lots of dark teal like the former rock raiders did. I love that color and there is just not enough of it to go around.

[canadianD]

That's something I would say coughbitercoughcough

oh no the Pie's are following me! futuristic dwarf's that sounds like something someone would make a comic of hummmm i wonder..............

[legomilk]

Lego sets bring in 2009 more than this year.

Only I just wonder what this is set see photo

if someone have an idea let me know

[lfadn]

OH HO HO YOU MEAN ROCK RAIDERS RITE?

[Karto]

Aqua-Raiders 07 was a rival a-la Mars Mission and I wouldn't include it in the theme. But why don't you see the rest of it as a huge theme? It's a variety of underwater-themed warring factions. They all take place in the same world and they're clearly meant to be played with together. Also notice that Aquazone, Stingrays, and Hydronauts were all released the same year. If they're classified as different themes, LEGO wouldn't have released three incredibly similar underwater themes in the same year. :P

Where did I write that these aqua themes weren't meant to fit to each other??? I told that even with all these sub-themes together, I still don't see a 'major line with plenty of models'... I know my English isn't very good, but still...

Go to BrickLink and see how much the Rock Raider's HQ is going for. Also, have a look through this topic. More people are positive about the return of Rock Raiders than otherwise.

OK I've been to bricklink and what? One set that barely reaches the value of a mid-range town set of the 80s - W O W - and all the other crap is wothless... Looking at the sales for the last 6 months isn't very glorifying either.

Making profit is what a company needs to do in order to remain competitive- but it is NOT the purpose of a company. Most companies begin because the founder has a belief or talent that inspires him to begin a business in whatever it is he feels so strongly about. In LEGO's case, it's all about imagination. That's why you can break your models and rebuild them into something else. It's the core foundation of the LEGO company and it's a rarity to find such an old foundation that still values that. Another important point: if all LEGO was concerned with was making a profit, they'd go the same direction as Mega Bloks. Because most kids don't care about rebuilding their sets into something else and LEGO would probably make more profit is they simplified their sets into cool-looking action figures and playsets that can kind of come apart. I bet you wouldn't want that. And the reason why that isn't the case is because LEGO has remained true to the core fanbase and their deep set mission statement.

Now that's a good one I would really like to hear TLC's CEO telling the CFO at a board session that the priorities are the values, the morality and the imagination and not the profit (that sounds Harry-Potterish). Tell that to the guys who lost their jobs when production lines were moved to the cheaper Czech republic or China (or even earlier when full automatization entered the game)... In other words: it's all about money and nothing else. By the way, TLC started making wooden toys back in the 30s (and some metal). When the very cheap cellulose acetate (rubbish plastic, art silk) was released on the market at high production rates (30s-40s), it became and interesting base material for toys because of its price and because of the easy way to shape it. They released the 'cheap' toy (in comparison to wooden and metal toys of that time!) in the 50s and in 1958 it went outside Denmark. It was later (1962 if I'm right) replaced by acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), which is more rigid and easy to mold.

I don't feel like TLC remained 'true whit the fanbase' back in the 90s. Apparently I wasn't the only one because sales were catastrophic.

Also, please don't generalize every short-lived theme into "ugly sets, useless parts" because it's simply not the case. A lot of people thought Rock Raiders were cool, and they had plenty of useful parts. If you don't know what to do with them then I'm not surprised you seem to undervalue imagination.

Well I do generalize because I find all these sets ugly and full of useless parts. It's my opinion, nothing more. So yes it is definitely the case - for me

You seem to give a little too much value to imagination. Apparently you even imagine that companies are there to follow moral guidelines It sounds a little like american tv shows: You can see one bad guy putting his Magnum .357 in another ones *ss, but when he says 'f*ck', it's beeped out, rofl.

The 'morality' followed by TLC has always been a joke either. It's pure marketing - a lot of parents don't like to see their children 'play war' (but the parents usually loose this fight!). So what's TLC's compromise: they release themes to play war in all sorts of timelines but not contemporary.

Aqua = war

Pirates = war

Castle = war (besides the dwarfs who prefer digging and hairy women)

Star Wars = look at the second word

Space (Classic Space, Futuron, Space Police, Black Tron, M: Tron, UFO, etc.) = war

Ninja = war

Western = war

Dino = war

Insectoids = war

Exo Force = war

Fabuland = psychological warfare (just kiddin...)

[johnsocal]

Lego sets bring in 2009 more than this year.

Only I just wonder what this is set see photo

if someone have an idea let me know

Thats the LEGO WeDo robotic set for kids.

[Dan Church]

The power miners sound too similar to the rock raiders, but I'm excited about the farm and the new indy sets.

Dan

[5150 Lego]

Now that's a good one I would really like to hear TLC's CEO telling the CFO at a board session that the priorities are the values, the morality and the imagination and not the profit (that sounds Harry-Potterish). Tell that to the guys who lost their jobs when production lines were moved to the cheaper Czech republic or China (or even earlier when full automatization entered the game)... In other words: it's all about money and nothing else. By the way, TLC started making wooden toys back in the 30s (and some metal). When the very cheap cellulose acetate (rubbish plastic, art silk) was released on the market at high production rates (30s-40s), it became and interesting base material for toys because of its price and because of the easy way to shape it. They released the 'cheap' toy (in comparison to wooden and metal toys of that time!) in the 50s and in 1958 it went outside Denmark. It was later (1962 if I'm right) replaced by acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), which is more rigid and easy to mold.

I don't feel like TLC remained 'true whit the fanbase' back in the 90s. Apparently I wasn't the only one because sales were catastrophic.

As a part buisness owner myself, i can agree with everything you just said. Without profit, there just isn't going to be a buisness. While the idea may to be as true to the original "value" of the company, when all is said and done, most companies will change those set values as needed to continue if profitisn't enough to keep the buisness going.

You seem to give a little too much value to imagination. Apparently you even imagine that companies are there to follow moral guidelines It sounds a little like american tv shows: You can see one bad guy putting his Magnum .357 in another ones *ss, but when he says 'f*ck', it's beeped out, rofl.

The 'morality' followed by TLC has always been a joke either. It's pure marketing - a lot of parents don't like to see their children 'play war' (but the parents usually loose this fight!). So what's TLC's compromise: they release themes to play war in all sorts of timelines but not contemporary.

Aqua = war

Pirates = war

Castle = war (besides the dwarfs who prefer digging and hairy women)

Star Wars = look at the second word

Space (Classic Space, Futuron, Space Police, Black Tron, M: Tron, UFO, etc.) = war

Ninja = war

Western = war

Dino = war

Insectoids = war

Exo Force = war

Fabuland = psychological warfare (just kiddin...)

Another great point. People love to argue that lego has a "No violence" policy, but its clear that if they ever did in fact have that policy, it was thrown out the window a long time ago. When you bring up points that over half of the themes lego has contain violence, the next arguments are that you'll never see hand guns in any theme. When you start to see guns, then its argued that you'll never see guns in a sub-city theme. When that happened, now its you'll never see a contemporary war type theme.

Its only a matter of time before that happens as well.

But back to the topic at hand, this could have the potential for a good theme. I'm never one to dismiss any theme intill i've seen pics of the upcoming sets. With new theme's alwayscomes the posibilites of new parts, mini fig torso's, and faces, and just new parts in general. We'll just have to wait an see!

[Algernon]

Where did I write that these aqua themes weren't meant to fit to each other??? I told that even with all these sub-themes together, I still don't see a 'major line with plenty of models'... I know my English isn't very good, but still...

Do you understand the definition of a sub-theme..?

The Clone Wars sets have droids and clones. Both are different factions under the same theme... AKA, sub-themes. Yet... they are still the same theme: Star Wars.

OK I've been to bricklink and what? One set that barely reaches the value of a mid-range town set of the 80s - W O W - and all the other crap is wothless... Looking at the sales for the last 6 months isn't very glorifying either.

How is it worthless? My point is that the sets are selling. Sure, it's not the most popular theme LEGO's come out with, and I wouldn't be surprised that sales are low. But that doesn't make it a worthless theme. It just makes it unpopular, which is completely different. Popularity is not equated to quality... at all. Advertising budgets, compatibility with the target audience, prices... all of this factors into how well a theme sells. That doesn't make it bad. And you neglected to reply to my point that the vast majority of EBers responded positively to the announcement of Power Miners, because a lot of people LIKED Rock Raiders.

Now that's a good one I would really like to hear TLC's CEO telling the CFO at a board session that the priorities are the values, the morality and the imagination and not the profit (that sounds Harry-Potterish). Tell that to the guys who lost their jobs when production lines were moved to the cheaper Czech republic or China (or even earlier when full automatization entered the game)... In other words: it's all about money and nothing else. By the way, TLC started making wooden toys back in the 30s (and some metal). When the very cheap cellulose acetate (rubbish plastic, art silk) was released on the market at high production rates (30s-40s), it became and interesting base material for toys because of its price and because of the easy way to shape it. They released the 'cheap' toy (in comparison to wooden and metal toys of that time!) in the 50s and in 1958 it went outside Denmark. It was later (1962 if I'm right) replaced by acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), which is more rigid and easy to mold.

I don't feel like TLC remained 'true whit the fanbase' back in the 90s. Apparently I wasn't the only one because sales were catastrophic.

You're selectively picking apart my arguments to give yourself an edge. That won't work, because I'm just going to keep repeating myself until you notice it. If LEGO threw morality and imagination out the window and focused on making money, LEGO would be much different than it is today. MEGABLOKs has always been a little smarter financially... but we all hate them. Why? Because there's no imagination involved. There's a reason why people stay LEGO fans into their adult years, and it's because LEGO doesn't forget them.

What exactly is your argument here? That LEGO is or isn't predominantly concerned with making money? If they WERE a money machine we wouldn't see Power Miners and Space Police on the list for 09... we'd see more Star Wars sets, which are bound to sell more. You're not very clear on your point and it seems like you're more interested in contradicting me than making yourself clear.

You seem to give a little too much value to imagination. Apparently you even imagine that companies are there to follow moral guidelines default_laugh_new.gif It sounds a little like american tv shows: You can see one bad guy putting his Magnum .357 in another ones *ss, but when he says 'f*ck', it's beeped out, rofl.

The 'morality' followed by TLC has always been a joke either. It's pure marketing - a lot of parents don't like to see their children 'play war' (but the parents usually loose this fight!). So what's TLC's compromise: they release themes to play war in all sorts of timelines but not contemporary.

Aqua = war

Pirates = war

Castle = war (besides the dwarfs who prefer digging and hairy women)

Star Wars = look at the second word

Space (Classic Space, Futuron, Space Police, Black Tron, M: Tron, UFO, etc.) = war

Ninja = war

Western = war

Dino = war

Insectoids = war

Exo Force = war

That's your imagination, not mine. I'm saying that LEGO does have some degree of morality and faith in terms of imagination. Not companies in general. And I haven't... even once, I think... mentioned war. I don't know why you're bringing that up.

[Eilif]

That's exactly what TLC did starting mid 90s and that's probably the main reason why they lost almost everything.

I disagree with this statement. Sub-lines were not the reason they almost lost everything. While it's true that some of the sub-lines -rock raiders and dino-island- were not particularly well executed, It's very well documented that the real reasons were, wastefull business practices, an inneficient supply and delivery chain, and focus on non-brick-based product lines.

For everyone who thinks they know why LEGO almost died, I recomend thoroughly reading this article. http://www.strategy-business.com/press/art...7-1876-26315955

Whether or not it's financially wise , and I'm giving LEGO the benefit of the doubt that it is in their best financial interest, it's clear from LEGO's own lips that well executed short-lived, and profitable sub-lines are, at present, part of their business strategy. Post turnaround Exo-force, Dino attack, and Agents are all examples of apparently profitable sub-lines that were well executed, but clearly lines with limited lives.

[LEGOMAN132]

I disagree with this statement. Sub-lines were not the reason they almost lost everything. While it's true that some of the sub-lines -rock raiders and dino-island- were not particularly well executed, It's very well documented that the real reasons were, wastefull business practices, an inneficient supply and delivery chain, and focus on non-brick-based product lines.

For everyone who thinks they know why LEGO almost died, I recomend thoroughly reading this article. http://www.strategy-business.com/press/art...7-1876-26315955

Whether or not it's financially wise , and I'm giving LEGO the benefit of the doubt that it is in their best financial interest, it's clear from LEGO's own lips that well executed short-lived, and profitable sub-lines are, at present, part of their business strategy. Post turnaround Exo-force, Dino attack, and Agents are all examples of apparently profitable sub-lines that were well executed, but clearly lines with limited lives.

Thank you for the link.

[Kliq]

People love to argue that lego has a "No violence" policy, but its clear that if they ever did in fact have that policy, it was thrown out the window a long time ago. When you bring up points that over half of the themes lego has contain violence, the next arguments are that you'll never see hand guns in any theme. When you start to see guns, then its argued that you'll never see guns in a sub-city theme. When that happened, now its you'll never see a contemporary war type theme.

Its only a matter of time before that happens as well.

Well it might just be my personal opinion, but I don't think that is a bad thing. LEGO going against their 'no violence' policy has been a plus in my book. TLC coming out with a contemporary war type theme?? Please, don't get my hopes up.

Now as for Power Miners, I hope that it is what Rock Raiders tried (and was at points) to be. I loved the concept and the sets had a really unique look. I think I only picked up one of the sets while they were out, just a small delivery cart type thing, but I would love to get the full line when these come out.

[Norrington]

All I hope is, that it's steampunk.

[Tarfful]

Wow, I wasn't expecting this, it turns out that TLG really can keep a secret after all.

We're finally getting a Rock Raider v.2, 2009 keeps looking better and better.

As aforementioned I hope the new theme has a Steampunk twist, that would be wonderful.

-Tarfful, who hopes top see some prelim pics ASAP.

Edited August 29, 2008 by Tarfful

[Asuka]

You seem to give a little too much value to imagination. Apparently you even imagine that companies are there to follow moral guidelines

If LEGO threw morality and imagination out the window and focused on making money, LEGO would be much different than it is today.

I´ve no problems to think that these seemingly contrastive points of view´re in the end two sides of the same coin.

Money might be the fuel for the motor of society, but it still needs a driver to adopt a course. And it´s not without

any reason that human beings need some ethic and moral. And imagination.

It would be a little hard for most companies to market their products without considering the manifold aspects of human

nature anyways, and of course they need to calculate precisely to make profit to keep things running as well.

Beside this, LEGO´s still a construction toy, so the imaginative interests of their clientele was part of the business strategy

right from the start.

To examine the conflict orientated nature of so many LEGO lines it just needs to look at the functionality and the diverse

mechanism of child´s play.

It's very well documented that the real reasons were, wastefull business practices, an inneficient supply and delivery chain, and focus on non-brick-based product lines.

For everyone who thinks they know why LEGO almost died, I recomend thoroughly reading this article. http://www.strategy-business.com/press/art...7-1876-26315955

Thanks for that very informative link, Eilif!

I really hope that PowerMiners´ll become an interesting and well designed new line, no matter how long it´ll last.

And I really hope they won´t, on their journey into the underground, bury out my dead and gone MarsMission Jellies...

[Manta]

Sounds neat, I like the idea of monsters, new molded pieces please? Hopefuly they are better than the jellies.

[KimT]

All I hope is, that it's steampunk.

Yeah that would be awesome.

And now my mind drifts into a world of steampunked vehicles

[Oky]

For some reason, the word "power" in the theme title makes me think it is not steampunk. I would want a steampunk theme as much as you guys, but to me, it sounds like a somewhat futuristic theme just like RR was.

I liked RR, and I love futuristic stuff just as much as steampunk, so I'm looking forward to this theme nevertheless. I will probably not buy anything over the $20 price point, though.

[Thomas B.]

A new Rock Raiders? That's awesome, I just hope it's not steampunk.(No offense.) The Shadow Admins really need to look into this, because I don't believe it's true.

[M'Kyuun]

A revival of Rock raiders sounds ok to me. However, I wish TLG would explore ideas beyond mining and drilling in their space/sci-fi themes. I mentioned terra-forming in another thread. There could be hydroponics greenhouses, cargo docks, surface seeders/conditioners/harvesters, power and atmospheric generators, med bays, etc.

Personally, I hope the Power Miners are futuristic sci-fi rather than steampunk. Although steampunk interests me less than straight up space/sci-fi, I think a steampunk theme has far too much potential to relegate it to just a mining theme. Actually, having given it some thought, since TLG is interested in conflict based play, there could be two factions: Steampunks and Clockworks. Both sides would have airships, sailing vessels, ground vehicles, mecha, as well as Victorianesque buildings. I personally love clockwork styled artwork and mecha...something about seeing the gears that make it all happen is just awesome. I like the steam powered stuff as well, with tubes and tanks and gauges everywhere. Anyway, I think the differences in styles and construction could make for some interesting building, as well as allow the designers some license to really apply their imaginations to a theme that hasn't been done to death in other media. And, they could play with ideas such as power mills, weather machines, maybe even laboratories where they make biological abominations ( as minions or as a mass workforce).

[The Kid]

A thought... if the PM are indeed similar to RR, perhaps they will also utilise the mine carts and tracks seen in sets such as Dwarves' Mine (and hopefully later to be seen in a Temple of Doom set ;-)).

TK