@Randomness said:
"This is still a fairly mediocre Day of Random, overall."

Well, you'd know, wouldn't you, considering your username and all? that said, agreed. I never had any real interest in the minifigure packs. The only one I ever even thought about getting was 3564, and that as a gift for my brother, as he was a fan of Karl Malone at the time. Of course, in a few years, when they made the display stand smaller and more versatile, got rid of the cards, and sold new minigures by themselves (even if it was in blind bags), *then* I got interested!

Lovely set of alternate outfits (barely changed from their original depictions, but I think they look very good none the less.)

Is it Mini Heroes as in Heroes that are Mini, or Minis that are Heroic?

Why did these dudes want those crystals from rocks so bad?

my favourite set of all time. Wish LEGO make them return!

Not gonna lie:
I miss fig-packs like this, still remember the two-pack of yellow astronauts...but I digress...Thing is: we're never going to get sets like 'this' again...why? Two reasons: Star Wars and Hasbro. And it's a dang shame, because of an agreement, in court, between the two companies (Hasbro and Lego); sets like this and similar (*COUGH*MAGNETS*COUGH*) had to be sold ala 'Kraggled'. Only ones I can think 'escaped' were the Star Wars 'Planet Sets' and the TRU Bricktober Multi-fig-packs...

@TheOtherMike:
Oh, I very much wanted all four Star Wars packs and the Green Ninja pack, but I didn’t have the capability of placing an online order at the time.

@brick_r:
I’ve heard the Hasbro story for years (I even used to spread it myself), but in all that time, the only “proof” I’ve seen is that I’ve heard the Hasbro story for years. I’ve also heard that TLG wised up about how magnet sales are into sales of larger sets, at a time when they were on the verge of rapidly expanding the range of SW minifigs.

@lordofdragonss:
Nothing has wings, and the cockpits have roll cages instead of windscreens.

Doc has a Fabuland shovel in this set. It's oversized but awesome!
No wait, that's the OTHER minifig pack also featuring Doc. No idea why he appers in two of them, but that is a slightly different outfit at least

The inclusion of Axel though. He's in half of the mainline sets already!

"Don't mind me; just committing arson with my flamethrower and not a shifty look about my face whatsoever."

@ThatBionicleGuy said:
"I never felt the need to get this set, since I had 4930 and 3347, which had already achieved the whole Rock Raiders team for me; but I remember my parents buying this and 3348 off Shop @Home as a birthday gift for a friend who was also into Rock Raiders but didn't have any of the sets.

Theme lore has been covered above, but as to the characters:

Jet, the only girl on the team, was a hotshot pilot who most loved zooming around on her hover scout (4910) ahead of the rest of the team.

Axle, the brown helmet guy with the sideburns, was the team's driver and a master of anything with wheels - according to one source, he had also been the LEGO world racing champion at some point, which may be a reference to the fact that (aside from the helmet) he can be built as the player character in Lego Racers 2, a game which concludes with winning that title from Rocket Racer. He was also a constant source of bad jokes.

Docs, the grey-capped guy with the bandana, was the team's senior geologist and leader of the surface crew (while Chief usually directed operations from back on their spaceship, the LMS Explorer) and generally the most down-to-earth member of the team, no pun intended. Apparently he's called Docs because he's qualified as more than one type of doctor, hence it being plural--

Which raises the supposition that these are actually nicknames or code names of some sort, and not what they were actually born as. This does leave the question of what their actual names would be as completely unaddressed, but...

-
Also: ROCK RAIDERS, AAAAAHHHH! :D :D :D Always my favourite theme!"

Chief is the chief
Jet loves zooming around
Axle loves driving axled vehicles
Docs is an erudite
Sparks is the technician
So what does Bandit do...?

@Arnoldos said:
"Chief is the chief
Jet loves zooming around
Axle loves driving axled vehicles
Docs is an erudite
Sparks is the technician
So what does Bandit do...?"

Bandit is the sailor, typically scouting ahead or ferrying cargo along the underground rivers in his Rapid Rider (4920). Not sure how his name relates to that, though.

@Binnekamp:
Apparently the reason they repeated Docs was so they could make Chief as difficult to obtain as humanly possible, short of setting up shop at SDCC.

@Formendacil:
Thanks to an error in the color of hands used, 3-pack Palpatine is still unique. Bricklink currently claims both versions shipped in 3340, but I don’t know if that’s because it’s true, or because people saw that he has yellow hands on the box, and assumed it must have shipped that way.

@ThatBionicleGuy:
Maybe Bandit is related to Marvin Murchins…

@PurpleDave said:
"Thanks to an error in the color of hands used, 3-pack Palpatine is still unique. Bricklink currently claims both versions shipped in 3340, but I don’t know if that’s because it’s true, or because people saw that he has yellow hands on the box, and assumed it must have shipped that way."

It's definitely true; I got that pack brand new in probably 2001, and my Palpatine came out of the box with yellow hands. Probably I had a later batch one after they realised and corrected that error.

@ThatBionicleGuy:
Could be. I had not heard of that happening before, but I know they did correct the misprinted torsos from the first Harley Quinn minifig.

I grew up with Power Miners so I’ll always prefer it to that end but probs to Rock Raiders for including a woman in one of their sets (a bragging right Power Miners never had).

@EtudeTheBadger said:
" @Arnoldos said:
" @unclghost said:
"A landslide has occurred."

An energy crystal has been found!"

Your oxygen is running out!"

A new cavern has been discovered!

@PurpleDave:
You may be right that the story is just that: "The Story". However, I still think/believe that much like any 'mythology'/'legend': there must some 'truth' in the story, as it has been around this long. It also seems that the last time I bought Lego-magnets (w/Bricktober figures, natch...), they were 'Kragled'...and these weren't SW figures, just Lego themes...and, as per "the story"; they were 'Kragled', so that kinda' leans into "the story"=truth (more/less). At least, that how I perceive things:)

@ElephantKnight said:
"ROCKRAIDERS! MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE!

ROCKRAIDERS! SPACE THEME IN DISQUISE!

(In joke between myself and a brother. Sung to the tune of the Transformers)"

I like that. Needs a TV show to go with it.
(also doesn't disguise have a "G" in it, not a "Q"?)

@brick_r:
Ah! Right! I almost forgot. The original magnet minifigs had magnets glued inside the legs, but they wanted to get away from them because, you know, choking hazards and small children. So they came up with the sealed magnet brick, and just put the minifigs on those. The problem there was that people had been buying the minifig magnet packs as a cheap way to get the characters. The resale market was fairly small, though, because people weren't interested in buying the magnet version of a minifig. Once the sealed bricks happened, however, the minifigs themselves were just standard minifigs. The market took off (I actually got 17 copies of the Toy Story pack so I could use the extra yellow, blue, and red bricks to display Series 1, 2, and 7 on my fridge with matching magnet bricks...plus more Claw Aliens). In 2011, they finally produced a pack that had black magnet bricks, which was something I'd been waiting on for quite a while.

And then 853102 hit shelves. It was the very first magnet pack that had the minifigs glued to the sealed magnet bricks. It's not Star Wars. It's not even licensed.

Very close to the elusive Chief!

Actually this was the most most boring Rock Raiders minifig pack, though there is still a bit to discuss here.

Docs:
In contrast to all other renditions, this version of Docs now wears a black tool belt (?) in a leg assembly borrowed from either Axle or Basil the Batlord... Also he's the only Rock Raider to get 2 different minifig cards!

Axle:
It's his first and only appearance with black visors (although that's not really special like at all), most likely representing welding protection. Since he sometimes assisted Sparks in maintaining the vehicles and given his new tool in this set, it seems rather fitting (it also matches pretty well with RR's color scheme). Oddly though his name is misspelled as 'AXEL' on his card. Also both his flame and megaphone/space gun are unique fr a Rock Raiders set.

Jet:
The most extreme change for this sub-series, Jet changes both her visor and pants for this rendition, both with rather interesting implications. First are the new visors. Whilst not an interesting or rare part at all, I assume Transp.-Light Blue was the closest thing to an actual Transparent Teal (Bright Bluish Green) available to the designers at the time. Chief cle49arly was altered for his real rendition, as in the video game, he wore a chrome silver helmet with a visor in a non-existent 'Transparent Bright Bluish Green' color. My guess is, they tried to emulate that in Jet's visor, since the part was neither bound for cancellation nor did the color ever appear in Rock Raiders at all. Her new legs are clearly a way of getting rid of old stock, namely Insectoids, as this was the onloy other theme to use the combination. It does however match up nicely with Axle and Docs I have to admit. Anyways I kept imagining what the might have tried to represent here: Jet in more casual garb? Thinking of Jet wearing Insectoids Navigator Sharp's pants like drawn in the Time Cruisers comic was weird anyways...

As a final verdict I also have to tell, that I was really disappointed by the design of the minifig stands in comparison to their Star Wars counterparts: The Rock Raiders logo looks really cheap and almost bootlegged, but yeah at least it's there and it's a dedicated mold... Also this series COULD have been the perfect opportunity to introduce the printed legs seen in the video game, but the choose against it. If you're a Rock Raiders fan and have all the mainline sets (49X0) you will not be missing anything if you skip this set. However it DOES look nice on display with the other 2 sets, especially if you have Chief.