LEGO Rock Raiders
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| Availability | 1999–2000 |
|---|---|
| Total sets | 15 |
| Characters | 7 |
| Website | lego.com/rockraiders |
LEGO Rock Raiders is a discontinued LEGO playtheme released in 1999. It featured 8 main sets, 4 promotional Kabaya toy sets, and 3 Mini Heroes Collection sets.
Story
The Rock Raiders
LEGO Components
Sets
The Rock Raiders sets [1]
| Year | Item No. | Name | Pieces | Figures | Designer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 4910 | The Hover Scout | 39 | Jet | |
| 4920 | The Rapid Rider | 38 | Bandit | ||
| 4930 | The Rock Raiders[a] | 38[2] | Axle, Bandit, Docs, Jet, Sparks | ||
| 4940 | The Granite Grinder | 108 | Axle | ||
| 4950 | The Loader-Dozer | 89 | Axle, Rock Monster | ||
| 4970 | The Chrome Crusher | 167 | Axle | ||
| 4980 | The Tunnel Transport | 349 | Docs, Jet | ||
| 4990 | The Rock Raiders HQ | 402 | Bandit, Docs, Jet, Sparks, Rock Monster |
Play Features
Minifigures
Chief is cool and not worth the price.
- Axle − The driver. Don't trust his evil twin Axel!
- Bandit − The sailor
- Chief − The leader
- Docs − The geologist
- Jet − The pilot
- Sparks − The engineer
- Rock Monster − Large figures
Write a little about each figure, maybe some of the media-exclusive ones too?
Unique parts
The theme introduces an abundance of unique parts. Many of the parts are large and have been criticized for being "juniorized".
Media
Video games
The Rock Raiders franchise got 2 separate video games: One for PC, and one for PlayStation 1. They featured vastly different gameplay, where the PC game was a resource management RTS game, and the PlayStation game was a third-person action game. Developed by Data Design Interactive and published by LEGO Media International.
PC
The PC game was a RTS-style resouce management game where the player has to complete tasks while fending off hostile creatures and managing environmental dangers.
PlayStation 1
The PlayStation game
Comic books
Each set had comic books! There were some in magazines too.
Story books
Rock Raiders got 3 separate story books.
- Rock Raiders – An "interactive puzzle storybook" written by Anna Knight, illustrated by Roger Harris, and published in 1999 by Dorling Kindersley as part of the LEGO Game Books series.
- Race for Survival – A short novel written by Marie Birkinshaw, illustrated by Roger Harris, and published in 2000 as part of the Dorling Kindersley Readers series.
- Rock Raiders: High Adventure Deep Underground – A graphic novel written by Alan Grant, storyboarded by Robin Smith, and illustrated by LEGO Media International. It was published by LEGO in 2000.
History
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The Rock Raiders theme began production in 1997 with the codename "Underground". The sets stopped being produced in 2000. They wrote about it in The Ultimate LEGO Book.[3] The Rock Raiders construction sets took eight months to develop.[3]
Several other concepts for underground LEGO themes were developed at LEGO Futura during the mid-1990s before Rock Raiders.[4] Advance artist Christian Faber claims that Rock Raiders was partially influenced by his unmade Cybots concept.[5]
Prototypes
RR Prototypes r kewl.
Release
Rock Raiders was commercially okay-ish.
Legacy
Many speculate the Raiders are still Rocking to this day.
LEGO Rock Raiders was succeeded by the incredibly popular BLock Raiders - an absolute marvellous game made by Stewart Green, a legendary computer programmer.
Oh yeah there's also Power minurss
Gallery
Prototypes for now
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Early drill element -
Later drill design; the pointed end was replaced with a stud in the final design -
Early tipper bucket, still similar in shape to the Toolo bucket -
Early set 4940 -
Early set 4940 -
Early set 4950 -
Unreleased set 1155 -
Unreleased set 1156 -
Unreleased set 1157 -
Unreleased set 1157 -
Unreleased set 1158 -
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Notes
References
- ↑ "Underground Adventures!". LEGO Shop-At-Home. Enfield, Connecticut: LEGO Shop At Home Services. Summer 1999. pp. 2–5.
- ↑ a b "Get the Brickonium Before the Rock Monster Gets You!". LEGO Shop-At-Home. Enfield, Connecticut: LEGO Shop At Home Services. January 2000. p. 31.
- ↑ a b Pickering, David; Turpin, Nick; Jenner, Caryn, eds. (1999). "The Design Concept". The Ultimate LEGO Book. London: Dorling Kindersley. pp. 30–31. ISBN 0-7513-5948-3.
- ↑ Konstanski, Daniel (2022). The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks. Unbound. p. 202. ISBN 978-1-80018-196-0.
- ↑ Faber, Christian (8 April 2012). "The beginning. Birth of a ball joint". Faber Files. Archived from the original on 17 November 2023.
External links
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