Review: 8964 Titanium Command Rig

[lisqr]

I'm surprised to not find any review for Power Miner's flagship set. So I'm going to review it. It's my first review, hopefully you'll like it.

Set# - 8964

Name - Titanium Command Rig

Theme - Power Miner

Year - 2009

Piece Count - 706

Minifigs - 5 (including rock monsters)

MSRP - US$99.99

front

back

I'll go through the play features later.

It comes in 5 numbered bags and 1 unnumbered bag and bunch of other things. Bag 1 has been assembled already.

The minifigs. The miners are the standard crews. Not that interesting.

The red rock monster's left arm can function as a catapult. You trigger it with the switch on the back. The catapult arm on my monster is a bit loose. Not sure if it's just mine.

The small rock monster is in another bag. I'll show it later.

All minifigs have back print. Pretty standard for PM.

Two instruction books. It's weird that one is horizontal and the other is vertical. And they are different sizes.

Inventory list

If you can't see, it comes with 50 black technic pins, plus 3 extra. Just from this you can tell that this set is pretty technic heavy.

DSS. It's pretty small for a set this size. Not going to apply.

Bag 1 makes the frame. The printed keyboard piece is interesting.

After Bag 2, those wheels are HUGE.

Half way though Bag 3 and end of instruction book 1.

You can't see very well. But I hate the way the hook is done. If you want to take this set apart, you need to untie the knot. Else the pulley is stuck with the string.

After Bag 3, the crane is finished. And here is the blue rock monster.

Interesting way to do inversion. Although I'm not sure it's necessary here.

Bag 4 makes the tower. It's very sturdy with all the technic poles.

And finally after bag 5, it's done.

Leftover

The best part of this set is that it TRANSFORMS. It not only transforms, after transformation all the functions still works. It's probably one of the best transformation design I've seen.

The only flaw with the transformation is that the control room is slanted when it's upward. But it's not that bad.

Now let's go through all the functions listed on the back

1. Transformation

2. Main drill spins when moving forward. In fact the dark gray section of the drill spins in the opposite direction, which is pretty cool.

Here's how it works

There are wheels beneath. When spinning the wheels pull another set of gear-like things...

Which spins the black axle in the middle, which spins the drill.

And in its upward position, you can spin the gear with your hand and in turn spins the drill. So the drill works in both formations.

Clearer image of the wheel in the tower position.

3. The crane itself can be raise and lowered with a lever that controls a gearbox.

4. The hook can also be moved up and down with a gear. Again I don't like the way the string is attached on this section neither.

5. The other hook that I mentioned earlier can be used to err... hook onto things... Not exactly useful.

6. You can put the cage inside. And it's possible with both forms.

7. Throwing rock monster

8 & 9 flick fire stuffs (dynamite and net)

Also the control room's roof comes off.

I'm not going to give a score because I think it's meaningless. So I'll just talk about how I feel about this set.

Design: I love its design. The transformation and drill function are just great. The whole set feels very technic. I'm not a technic builder. I never had any technic sets. But I think technic design works great here. It gives the whole thing an industrial feel. It is a little shaky when you pick it up. But you can't help it when it's bigger than a modular house and with only 1/3 the brick.

Build: A little challenging, but in a very good way. It's not boring and repetitive. When you finish and see all the pieces and functions come together, it feels great.

Playability: If I'm still a kid, I'd be playing with this all day non-stop. With all the functions, this set is very playable.

Minifigures: Depends on what you have already. If you have all the PM figs, then it's just a repeat. I didn't have any big rock monster, so I wanted one. But after getting it, it's not as good as I thought. It's a bit unstable with it's tiny legs and large body. Plus the arms are a bit loose on mine.

Parts: Some parts are interesting like banana and printed keyboard, if you don't have one already. But overall there aren't any parts that stand out as rare and useful. There are quite a few rare but specialized parts, like the big wheel, the drill and the crane.

Price: I think $100 is a bit expensive for 706 pieces, especially when 50 are black pins . But I got it after a 25% discount. At $75, it's not as bad.

Overall: It's a great set with lots of cool functions and playability. I'd definitely recommend it when its on sale.

Some extra pics

The new rock monster is bigger than it's predecessor. But I like the old one better. It's much sturdier and less cartoonish.

Recreation of the cartoon from one of the magazine.

The Power Miners have to face off with the Crystal King.

Drill, Drill the hell out of the monster

Crystal King: ARRRRRRRR!!!

Any questions?

Edited March 1, 2010 by WhiteFang
Indexed and poll added

[prateek]

Cool review. I like this set, because of the transformations

[Aanchir]

What a coincidence! I bought and built this set yesterday, and considered writing a review for it. But I couldn't get a box pic without glare, and eventually lost patience.

A few comments:

• One flaw I encountered is that it is reluctant to move backwards when the rig is lowered. This is because the gears are prone to simply "push" the rig up, thus backwards movement is bumpy and doesn't affect the drill.
  
• There are two crystals randomly placed on the rig. I have no idea why they're there, or why they're not in the color of either of the set's rock monsters.
  
• I personally like the new Rock Monsters better than the RR ones; the cartoony feel seems more appropriate to LEGO, and they're far more compatible with other LEGO stuff.
  
• That last picture with the blur is pretty epic. Was that intentional, or was it just an accidental blurrier version of the previous pic that ended up looking really cool?
  

[Big Cam]

Wow, it's like the Clone Turbo tank for Power Miners.

Power Miners isn't really my theme but it's an interesting set, and a good review.

[lightningtiger]

Thanks 'lisqr' for the review !

Saddly I didn't enjoy this one not one bit and as a result lost my interest in PM , threw myself back into train/town and Star Wars. In any case - very clever design, but a pain to assemble and heck I've built the 2ft. crane from 2005 - but that I enjoyed, ah well that's life - I'm a conformist! everyone !

[Fugazi]

Power Miners falls outside of my current interest sphere, but I can't help admiring the great design and functionality of those sets. Were I some 20 years younger I would totally want all of the PM sets! Thanks for the review!

[Aanchir]

Power Miners falls outside of my current interest sphere, but I can't help admiring the great design and functionality of those sets. Were I some 20 years younger I would totally want all of the PM sets! Thanks for the review!

I agree with respect to functionality-- Power Miners 2009 sets felt very much like an introductory course in Technic building. Even the lamer sets like Stone Chopper still had a lot of Technic parts by proportion. Power Miners 2010 is considerably less like this, but that may be a consequence of having only four sets-- after all, the Magma Mech uses a lot of Technic parts (if not the most clever functions), and the function for the Claw Catcher is brilliant!

[lisqr]

What a coincidence! I bought and built this set yesterday, and considered writing a review for it. But I couldn't get a box pic without glare, and eventually lost patience.

A few comments:

• One flaw I encountered is that it is reluctant to move backwards when the rig is lowered. This is because the gears are prone to simply "push" the rig up, thus backwards movement is bumpy and doesn't affect the drill.
  
• There are two crystals randomly placed on the rig. I have no idea why they're there, or why they're not in the color of either of the set's rock monsters.
  
• I personally like the new Rock Monsters better than the RR ones; the cartoony feel seems more appropriate to LEGO, and they're far more compatible with other LEGO stuff.
  
• That last picture with the blur is pretty epic. Was that intentional, or was it just an accidental blurrier version of the previous pic that ended up looking really cool?
  

In response to your comments:

My rig moves back and forward just fine. But this set is a bit fiddly, a small misalignment can cause problem.

I think the two crystals are suppose to be the power source. If you look at the stickers on the slanted pieces, it says fuel injection.

The blurry pic was an accident at first. Then I thought it was a good idea, so I took a couple more to get a better result.

[Aanchir]

In response to your comments:

My rig moves back and forward just fine. But this set is a bit fiddly, a small misalignment can cause problem.

I think the two crystals are suppose to be the power source. If you look at the stickers on the slanted pieces, it says fuel injection.

The blurry pic was an accident at first. Then I thought it was a good idea, so I took a couple more to get a better result.

My brother figured out the forward-backward thing-- we hadn't "locked" it in the down position with that little orange valve. It works just fine now.

And it'd be pretty weird if the crystals were the power source, since they made such a big deal of "power crystals" in Rock Raiders, Life On Mars, and Mars Mission. If it were a plot element in Power Miners, you'd think we'd have heard about it.

[Cine22]

Hi Friends, I am Cine and I have read your site in a very deep and I would like to appreciate you on this brilliant effort. You have provided some thing so much different that I can't have words for thanks.

[fff]

Nice review. I'd get it one with that discount as well. Here 90€ is a bit expensive...

[SirWacky]

Yep I own this set and I like it!

I love the way it transforms too!

Also great review!

[dr_spock]

I just finished building this with my son. It is quite playable for him. I like the throwing rock monster. It can toss mini-figs around the room.

Edited July 21, 2010 by dr_spock

[Orcasek]

I'm not a fan of those pillars or wheels so I won't be getting this seeing as there are basically no good parts.

[Classic_Spaceman]

15 minutes ago, Altelay said:

I ve been researching about injectables on my own but also still have questions for you non prescription cialis online pharmacy 

For when you have a hard time getting your drill up! 
 

[Murdoch17]

6 hours ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

For when you have a hard time getting your drill up! 
 

You might want to remove that link from your quoted post, as it is spam and could be reported as such @Classic_Spaceman.

[Classic_Spaceman]

34 minutes ago, Murdoch17 said:

You might want to remove that link from your quoted post, as it is spam and could be reported as such @Classic_Spaceman.

I already deleted the URL, since for some reason I could not remove the link. Clicking it just reloads this page. 
 

Relevant: 

On 2/28/2010 at 7:06 PM, lisqr said:

Drill, Drill the hell out of the monster

 

Edited June 2, 2024 by Classic_Spaceman

[PaleozoicBricks]

This was one of the few i had as a kid. Such an awesome set.