Customer Reviews

LEGO Power Miners Set #8709 Underground Mining Station (Limited Edition)

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So, Power Miners are the hot new thing with Lego nuts since they've been featuring them in their newsletters and online. This was one of my 10-yr. old nephews first Power Miners kits and he loves it. It took him about half a day to get together. Everything, including the cable car works exactly right as it's shown on the box. (though we did have a minor scare, when we couldn't find the cable because it wasn't packed in one of the plastic packages, and we didn't notice it tucked along the side of the bottom of the box.)

Things he particularly liked about it:
-Has 3 figures, plus a monster. (Apparently, the more figures the better)
-Number of accessories (crystals, dynamite, walkie talkies, mining gear - and even carrots? We've deduced, the power miners need them to keep their vision going while down in the dark.)

-Plenty of action.
There's a moving dump tuck loader, monster that throws, crystal lift, dynamite launcher, etc.

These add up to a lot of on-going, imagination-based playability once built. (My description, not his on that one.) At one point, he had the monster attack the whole station- but he rebuilt it then in about 15 minutes

Here's the things that could be improved:
- The monster was much smaller than either of us anticipated. The way they position it on the package with it's arms up, makes it look bigger. It's really just a little bit bigger than the other figures.

- It's lacking vehicles that the figures can drive. If you already have those from previous purchases this is a great addition. We bought the first two starter kits from the series (LEGO Power Miners Stone Chopper and LEGO Power Miners Mine Mech at the same time (he paid for these from his allowance!) and that makes it even better.

In fact, if you are purchasing a gift for someone without any Power Miners sets, I would definitely recommend getting the other two first (they are #1 and #2, in the series. This is #11).

TIP: As always, with these kits it's worth shopping around. as they can vary so dramatically. Some reviews don't get posted that discuss this too much. (So, my TIP is: it's best to visit a lego's store, if you have one nearby, to consult someone on dramatically better value optiona).

My son really wanted this toy but ended up a bit disappointed. The bucket is supposed to carry the crystals up to the top and dump them down a chute into an awaiting truck. The first problem is that the bucket slips and doesn't move well. The next and more significant problem is that when the bucket is at the top it doesn't dump completely. So, after carefully building the whole thing and trying it out, it doesn't work well.

Considering the cost of the Underground Mining Station, there are many better designed Lego system for less money.

My 9 year old son really wanted this LEGO toy for Christmas. He loves LEGOs and he and his brothers create things all the time. This was probably the most challenging one he has had to build. I consider him and above average LEGO builder so if your child needs help with other LEGO's, be prepared to help with this one. There are alot of small pieces creating intricate details so keep the little ones away. Once finished it was very cool and they played with for about a week until they dismantled it and incorporated it into their Indiana Jones LEGO with the mine cart on the track. I do not know If it will every be rebuilt to its original state but it was a very cool setup. Oh and the crystal monster is an everlasting LEGO feature in all of their current creations!