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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another well designed and nicely priced LEGO set, January 22, 2009
Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars Educational:4.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: LEGO Power Miners Mine Mech (8957) (Toy)
Since the catalogue came with the little ROCK MONSTER dudes peeking around pages these have been a buzzword around the house, unfortunately I was looking up rock monsters not POWER MINERS but thats another story. This set hasn't hit the stores yet but amazon has them for the proper retail pricing and free shipping which made our birthday searching easier.
This set is good for the money and connects with the stone chopper to make yet another cool vehicle the CAVE CUTTER.
The green Boulderax the included rockmonster is all my 8 year expected and the included minifigure that runs the Aliens loader like Mine Mech is a little Monocled fella. I love LEGO especially the more inexpensive and easier to put together sets that are less heartbreaking to see "go to pieces" eventually.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
good design but poor construction, April 13, 2009
Durability:1.0 out of 5 stars Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: LEGO Power Miners Mine Mech (8957) (Toy)
This toy is a disappointment. Mom and Dad (the writers) got two Mine Mechs for our twin boys, who love Legos and have an ever-growing collection. Unlike all the other kits we have, the Mine Mech is poorly made, so some key pieces do not fit together tightly. Others are so difficult to fit together (ball-and-socket hinges for the mech's arms and legs) that most young children can't connect them without an adult's help. The loose-fitting pieces form key junctions between larger sections of the vehicle, so even the mildest handling by a careful adult or child will cause it to fall apart. We considered using glue to hold these key pieces together, but since this defeats the whole purpose of Legos - build and rebuild! - we gave up and sent it back. Skip this model! Go for Lego Racers instead!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Power Miners 8957 and 8956 sets, December 26, 2009
Durability:2.0 out of 5 stars Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: LEGO Power Miners Mine Mech (8957) (Toy)
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.
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