LEGO Power Miners Mine Mech
by LEGO
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Product Summary
Manufacturer: LEGOBrand: LEGO
Release Date: 2009-01-01
Model: 8957
Color: Multi
Product features:
- Features spinning saw blade, claw arm, moveable legs to walk or pose model and opening cockpit
- Includes miner, rock monster and accessories
- Rock Monster head opens
- Combine with No.8956 Stone Chopper to build the Cave Cutter
- 67 pieces
Toys and Games Reviews of LEGO Power Miners Mine Mech
Customer Review: Power Miners 8957 and 8956 sets
Summary: 3 Stars
I've been a Lego nut since they were invented practically (I'm the proverbial little old lady in tennis shoes who still plays with trains, erector sets and my huge antique Lego collection). An issue I have with current Lego toys is the vastly specialized array of pieces; I think more creative thinking gets done with the older style sets. But I guess constant specialized products drives the high-hype toy marketing business model.
However, these days I get my Lego "fix" when friends usually put one or two of the small Lego sets in my Christmas stocking, and I now have a 7-year old in the family again to buy Legos for; he likes the construction and city services sets.
This year I got 8956 & 8957 in my stocking.
Since I don't follow Lego advertising or magazines, I don't know what the "Power Miners" theme "story" is about except some kind of underground/mining theme, so I don't know what the little robot-like crystal guys are. Are they "the enemy"?
I presume that as usual these sets are targeted at boys, and designers seem to think boys' toys have to be about some kind of war with good guys & bad guys. (Do the good guys have to be so ugly and menacing looking?) This is too bad, as these could have been about neat mechanical devices for mining, and from these two and pictures of others, they do have sort of fantasy mining and tunneling devices, like the 8960 is similar to the devices actually used for tunneling. I'd prefer to think of the little crystal guys as robot helpers like R2D2, that you send into tight spots too dangerous for human workers.
The 8956 is a neat little tricycle trencher-digger that is fun to play with. However, the instructions show the trenching cutters pointing the wrong way; they wouldn't work the way they're shown in the instructions. The package cover does get it right. I was also disappointed that while both 8956 & 8957 have pieces shaped like gears that go on the axles, they don't function as gears, they're just for looks. These aspects of the models are disappointing because Legos can be good for exploring mechanics if done right.
I agree with another reviewer of 8957 that it is poorly designed.
Some points: it is structurally unsound (comes apart too easily).
The ball and socket joints are good (but very tight, even painful to assemble), but aren't used that well or realistically.
The device won't stand up properly and tips over too easily, depending on what you do with the tool arms. And I shudder to think what would happen to the operator if one of the two tools was actually used on rock - the reaction forces would probably send the whole vehicle flying apart.
Another problem: the cab has two joy-stick type controls (??), but they are positioned behind the operator, and the man figure can't actually hold them. This bugged me so much that I ditched the pick ax and the funny little red gizmo (fire extinguisher? emergency flare? water bottle? Hand held laser rock cutter?) that were held by the little black pieces on each side of the cab, and swapped the black pieces positions with the green ones that the joy/shift sticks are fastened to, which moved the sticks forward where they can actually be put in the operators hands. (Besides the pick and the red gizmo would probably get caught in the tool arm mechanisms and brain the operator: bad worker safety design.) I gave the pick and the red gizmo to the two crystal robot guys to use.
The 8956 detail stickers (I don't like the stickers in general; too specific) put engine exhaust ports right beside the operator. Bad idea and/or careless design.
Still, I had fun putting the two sets together and will soon take them apart and see what else I can come up with. The two little sets are a nice combination for the price.
Description of LEGO Power Miners Mine Mech
The one-of-a-kind Mine Mech is an experimental mining walker built to go where the other Power Miners vehicles cant. Its enhanced movement and armor make it perfect for exploration and emergency rescues, and its spinning plasma cutter and crushing claw mPlastic Toys
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