Random set of the day: Rock Wrecker
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 8963 Rock Wrecker, released during 2009. It's one of 18 Power Miners sets produced that year. It contains 225 pieces and 2 minifigs, and its retail price was US$34.99/£24.99.
It's owned by 2,812 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $65.00, or eBay.
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30 comments on this article
Much love to Power Miners, and all, but this looks like some kind of nightmare death contraption that a Bond villain would use.
Power miners was one of the best non-licensed Lego theme's
This set has one of the coolest functions in any Lego set ever. When you push it along, all eight saw blades spin in unison without the use of any gearing whatsoever. The four smaller saws at the front come into contact with the rubber front tyres, while the lower pair of big saws on the side touch the side of the tyres and consequently spin as well. The upper pair of large saws are interlocked with the lower pair, and as a result spin in the opposite direction.
It’s exceedingly simple but so ingenious.
Yeah, I gotta be honest. I don't recognize this at all. Then again, I was mostly just about collecting all the different rock monsters, and didn't really care about the sets themselves.
Those stickers on the big blades do not look fun to put on at all. Also, I don't that net is going to do much against that rock monster. Speaking of which, @PurpleDave: Do you mean you just collected the monsters themselves on the aftermarket, or were you just so laser-focused on them that you paid no attention at all to the sets they came in?
@TheOtherMike The stickers weren’t that bad since the open centre hole made it easier to align. Hold it like a soft taco shell and put it over the middle.
I also echo the positive sentiments of this set, and like the spinning blades. The rock monster was not unique except for the crystals growing on it, and it’s one of the Power Miners sets I am glad to own. Trying to get 100% but some are rarer than others.
Not the best Power Miners set, but, GEOLIX
@Monopoly said:
"This set has one of the coolest functions in any Lego set ever. When you push it along, all eight saw blades spin in unison without the use of any gearing whatsoever. The four smaller saws at the front come into contact with the rubber front tyres, while the lower pair of big saws on the side touch the side of the tyres and consequently spin as well. The upper pair of large saws are interlocked with the lower pair, and as a result spin in the opposite direction.
It’s exceedingly simple but so ingenious."
I came in to say exactly this! Fond memories of getting this one as a gift forever ago and being very impressed at how well the gimmick works despite it just being friction on rubber tires
@TheOtherMike:
I bought a couple of the smaller sets, where the cost of shipping would have eaten up any savings, and I bought the Crystal King set because of obvious reasons. The rest, yeah, I just grabbed them on Bricklink, along with the matching crystals (still pissed that they opted out of making the 5-point crystal in trans-yellow). I do recognize some of the sets when I see them again, but this is not one of them.
I cannot comprehend how this design is only 225 pieces.
Hoh yeah, now THIS is awesome!
Ya know...I'd pay GOOD MONEY to see this thing "head on" w/the "Saw Tank" from "Indy 4"...Ok, ok; they can be "remote controlled"...:D
Plus, now I want a "Rock Monster" (looks around for "the B-52s":)) like that. Why? Think it'd look great fighting Superman..."Kryptonite Doomsday":D
The photos don’t really do it justice, it’s actually a bit longer and more substantial than shown here it’s just the saw blades hide everything. But I concur with everyone else who says it’s so much fun to push along and see just everything start to spin and saw
Poor thing got destroyed in the catalogus when the giant rock monsters appeared.
Sadly I missed this one
Reading the comments has inspired me to add this to my wanted list. I mean, sure sets that went off the shelves years ago never go from there to my owned list, but a man can dream...
@NotProfessorWhymzi: Are you sure your username shouldn't be NotAuricGoldfinger?
Other miners: "How many saws does this thing need?"
Rex: "y e s"
In March I picked this one up from a seller for a great price in a bulk lot to sell later. It was very bulky and there was a weird hole in the middle that looks like either a troop compartment or some sort of oversight.
I feel that this set is weirdly propped up by its one function and the Geolix. Otherwise the only great tning is that it has a coffee machine. (Yes, really. In the cockpit).
I'm not much of a vehicle guy and Power Miners was full of them. 8962 Crystal King is a beautiful exception though. (not to be confused with the very-definite-for-realz-this-time-final-final-final-boss from Ninjago 71772).
That said, I miss original themes like this so much! Good luck finding anything licensed that covers this kind of subject matter. These are just great toys most of all! Good thing we now have Dreamzz at least beside the long-runners.
The power miners certainly had far more effective ways to destroy than this thing....
And of course geolix is awesome.
One of my favorite Power Miner sets. Second only to the Thunder Driller.
LOL. The TV show "How It's Made" used this set (without the net launcher on top) as an example of a Continuous Miner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfksYaXDbB4
@Monopoly said:
"This set has one of the coolest functions in any Lego set ever. When you push it along, all eight saw blades spin in unison without the use of any gearing whatsoever. The four smaller saws at the front come into contact with the rubber front tyres, while the lower pair of big saws on the side touch the side of the tyres and consequently spin as well. The upper pair of large saws are interlocked with the lower pair, and as a result spin in the opposite direction.
It’s exceedingly simple but so ingenious."
"No gearing whatsoever?" Aren't those sawblades on the sides acting exactly like gears? Yes, perhaps this set doesn't have traditional Technic gears, but it's still using a gearing technique.
I just realized something. I rememberreading somewhere that yellow and lime are colors that are more easily visible in low lighting conditions. Maybe that would be the in-universe reason for the color scheme.
I doubt the designers thought about it that much. Although... the 2007-2008 Mars Mission theme also had sensible color scheme of white and orange, colors that reflect sunlight the most.
I had 2 Power Miners sets from the initial wave. Overall it was a cool theme, but I had 2 problems with it.
1. It wasn't Rock Raiders
2. Quality issues as pieces easily broke. Snapped hinges and cracked joints.
In universe lore, are the blades painted orange or do they get super heated?
@Dare_Wreck said:
""No gearing whatsoever?" Aren't those sawblades on the sides acting exactly like gears? Yes, perhaps this set doesn't have traditional Technic gears, but it's still using a gearing technique."
Not according to the explanation that was posted. The small blades are pressed against the front of some tires, so the leading edge spins upwards as the tires roll forwards. The lower large blades are riding against the lower sidewall of the outermost front tires, so their leading edge spins downwards. The upper and lower large blades are cross-linked with shafts (UL-LR, UR-LL), so their leading edges would also spin downward. In the gap between upper and lower blades, this means the upper teeth are moving backwards while the lower teeth are moving forwards. If they came in contact, they’d just lock up the mechanism (or shear each other off, if this was a real mining vehicle).
@PurpleDave said:
" @Dare_Wreck said:
""No gearing whatsoever?" Aren't those sawblades on the sides acting exactly like gears? Yes, perhaps this set doesn't have traditional Technic gears, but it's still using a gearing technique."
Not according to the explanation that was posted. The small blades are pressed against the front of some tires, so the leading edge spins upwards as the tires roll forwards. The lower large blades are riding against the lower sidewall of the outermost front tires, so their leading edge spins downwards. The upper and lower large blades are cross-linked with shafts (UL-LR, UR-LL), so their leading edges would also spin downward. In the gap between upper and lower blades, this means the upper teeth are moving backwards while the lower teeth are moving forwards. If they came in contact, they’d just lock up the mechanism (or shear each other off, if this was a real mining vehicle)."
Nah, the shafts don't go all the way through the vehicle. The edges of the sawblades do indeed act as gears, with the upper ones driven by the lower ones.
@Lyichir:
If that’s true, then the upper blades are facing the wrong direction, as the back sloped edge of the teeth will be rotating forward instead of the front hooked edge. But they may rely on hook-to-hook contact to make them rotate, so “fixing” the design may break the functionality.
The Arkham Knight’s vehicle that he chases the Batmobile with in that one section!
I hated the PPP of this set at 12 so I wrote a negative review on here, the review was downvoted heavily and I have since removed all text from it.
I'm sure a lot of people love this set, but how can this thing roll forward? It can only really dig a hole at the base, and the side saws just lightly chip at some wall, but there's this whole cockpit section with nothing to cut rock. Kind of seems like just running into a wall if you ask me, but I don't know anything about mining.
@MCLegoboy said:
"I'm sure a lot of people love this set, but how can this thing roll forward? It can only really dig a hole at the base, and the side saws just lightly chip at some wall, but there's this whole cockpit section with nothing to cut rock. Kind of seems like just running into a wall if you ask me, but I don't know anything about mining."
but it's so cool! practically nothing in the star wars universe makes sense either but we still love them because they look awesome, and at the end of the day these are all just toys!