LEGO Rock Raiders is NOT a Space Theme*

*well, kind of. It's a bit more complicated than that.
In this episode of R.R. Slugger's Rock Raiders Retrospective, we explore the different ways to categorize and classify this iconic LEGO theme.
Resources used in this video:
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emilyinternet....
www.stonewars....
baseplate.com/...
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As always, I create all of the photography and stop motion animation you see in these videos. Brett creates all of the original artwork.
High Adventure, Deep Underground.

[@RRSlugger]

QUICK CORRECTION! In the video, I say that *Bricklink* categorizes "Ninja" as a Castle subtheme, but I got it mixed up with *Brickset* - the point still stands though, as long as you swap the names around. Sorry about that folks!

[@jays8710]

Have you searched for the catalogues she mentioned about the upcoming Underground-sets?

[@stephenbraker5273]

I definitely noticed that since I have spent significant hours on BrickLink and categorizing my own collection records. BrickLink does not categorize Ninja as a Castle subtheme, though I think it makes sense to categorize "historical" themes according to technology available, which counts Ninja as a late-era Castle subtheme (swords, castles, and horses albeit with the introduction of muskets/arquebus) even though the literal historical references were from different eras across the world. This also applies to Vikings and Fantasy Era, as the technology level is roughly the same, although incorporating fantasy/mythology rather than strictly historical reference. This method would also count Rock Raiders as a Space subtheme with advanced scanning, teleportation, hover/propulsion, and lasers likely well advanced from our current level of technology.

[@RRSlugger]

@@jays8710 Something like that was found in a Danish catalogue, but it was more so referring to Rock Raiders itself as "Underground", not a subtheme of the same name.

[@thrillhouse4151]

I kept getting Ninjago stuff recommended to me until I put the castle in the search bar, I think that was for eBay. That theme has like 4-5 castles in it and factions so I can see it. Why do all my favorite themes have unobtainable minifigure “heroes”?! Ughhhhh!!!!

[@subraxas]

"Transparent neon ORANGE"; well, I've been calling it 'RED' for like 35 years or so. 🙂

[@Republic0fMinecraft]

Objection! Rock Raiders has a space between rock and raiders. 🤔 So where do we draw the line now

[@headcrabking9054]

I think it must have the word "space" in it, such as "Classic Space" and "Space Police 3" So Blacktron, Ice Planet, and Power Miners are all not space themes

[@ZannyAisling]

@@headcrabking9054objection! Ice Planet & Rock Raiders have A Space in their names. 🤔 so where can we truly draw the line?

[@headcrabking9054]

@@ZannyAisling they have space the *type character* not space the *word*

[@piingoo]

Hold It! With that logic, isn’t every lego theme a space theme?

[@headcrabking9054]

@@piingoo nah, Znap! is still not a space theme, neither is Mtron

[@gespenstkai9487]

I feel like the "Magma Mites" idea might have inspired Power Miners's Lava Monster focused wave. Neat to know the idea for that goes that far back

[@RRSlugger]

I'd like to believe that too! They certainly sound similar!

[@SuperSecretBricks]

Bur now, does Power Miner categorises as being part of the Rock Raiders theme? Underground theme? Or Space theme?

[@gespenstkai9487]

@@SuperSecretBricks Power Miners, unlike Rock Raiders, does take place on earth, lore wise, so it would be classified as either Underground or if you really want to stretch it, an offshoot of City. Definitely not Space tho

[@dedalionarts6077]

My thought exacly. And from what I had seen, not the first time LEGO did something like this. All tho the examples I'm using are of "finished sets" rather than "ideas for later". Ex The bike in the set "Swamp raid" from LEGO Agents was originally desighned for Mars Mission. Or an transforming mech "Undersea Explorer" from LEGO Atlantis was originally intented for Power Miners.

[@Vinno1234]

the same thought occurred to me initially, but on further thought, I could also see magma just being a sort of natural escalation of any sort of underground setting- after all, you're bound to run into the stuff if you dig deep enough

[@Mario6732]

The response of Suz shows that licenses have indeed pushed out in house themes and in particular space and castle.

[@zacmumblethunder7466]

And eventually pushed out alternate build ideas in all but the creator series.

[@spinifex2d]

Well just looking though the lastest Lego catalogue proves that. With exception to City and Friends, it's all licenced themes. A real shame if you ask me.

[@DragonxFlutter]

Why make more Space or other Sci-Fi themes when you have access to Star Wars; the most successful sci-fi brand of all time? Why continue to make Castle when you have access to Lord of the Rings? Why continue to make Adventurers when you have access to Indiana Jones? Why continue to make Pirates when even Pirates of the Caribbean couldn’t draw interest? The only in-house IP they really can’t replace are City (any replacement I could think of is aimed more towards a Duplo age range), Ninjago (there’s nothing to replace it with), and Monkey Kid if that’s still around (because the Chinese would be mad). The more I learn, the more I realize that I was there for Lego’s last great in-house brand (Bionicle). And that makes me sad, honestly. If they didn’t relegate original IP to overpriced collector’s items and insidiously marketed “Gift With Purchase” items, I’d gladly support it.

[@spinifex2d]

@DragonxFlutter Yeah I was only around for the end of the original themes Rock Raiders, Adventure, knights kingdom, Castle, bionicles etc. But the thing is variety is the space of life which you get with new space sub themes every few years. There isn't much variety with star wars except for when they used to do EU stuff I guess. Isn't everyone sick of Star Wars anyway. I just long for the days of fun Lego themes that embraced the fun and charm of Lego...

[@yeeoof1995]

i want my coloured ships back... :(

[@flamentnagel]

theorycrafting more "Underground" set concepts could be a wonderful idea for the Summer Of Slug 2025 community theme

[@Thinginator]

YESSSS just came here to suggest that! I would be all over that. I just recently already made up my own mining faction of Aquazone, basically underwater Rock Raiders. I'd absolutely submit that moc as part of it.

[@dedalionarts6077]

​@@Thinginatornot to be rude but doesn't something like this allready exist ? That been the original Aqua Raiders theme ? (Or Aquanots for that matter, since their mission was to mine chrome crystals) Could you elaborate what did you mean with "Underwater Rock Raiders".

[@Bionickpunk]

Technically, Bionicle is a Lego Space theme, cause everything happened inside a giant robot shaped spaceship, and the time it wasn't on the Great Spirit Robot is when we dealt with alien worlds. Heck, Hero Factory is a theme with a Galaxy spanning police force, not that different from Space Police line.

[@kingboss9512]

I ALWAYS HEAVLY headcanon that HF also takes place in Lego space universe if you count some of the original 2010 ads which featured humans

[@floodedmoat]

Lego taxonomy is becoming a legitimate field of study and I’m all here for it

[@sara-qp4wv]

Join me soon for my Brick Nerd article, "Power Miners is a LEGO Underground theme"

[@SuperSecretBricks]

Or is it a Rock Raiders theme? 😅

[@Robot_Eva]

Wait hold on you're actually on to something here

[@GermanPeter]

Honestly, I subscribe to that idea. I mean, even if both don't take place in the SAME underground, the aesthetics are the exact same. Which also goes for "Space" sets.

[@Lordodragonss]

Power miners is part of City theme. It's even said in comics xD

[@SolomonMagnus819]

Rock Raiders travels through space and mines foreign planets. They experience foreign aliens (rock monsters) if Mars Mission is space, then so is Rock Raiders

[@mystic-malevolence]

I've got it! Sci-fi - Lego Space Fantasy - Lego Castle Slightly more than Modern - Lego City All Lego themes can be boiled down these three categories. Dino Attack is Lego City, Chima is Lego Castle, and Nexo Knights is, of course, Lego Space. (This is a joke.) Actually, this almost makes it sound like the decision to step away from Lego Space because of Star Wars was a part of the licensing agreement. I wonder if that's still relevant today?

[@benjaminstorace6699]

Joke it may be, but your reasoning is solid enough to actually serve as a basis for categorization.

[@DragonxFlutter]

In terms of the licensing agreement, I don’t think so. At least not directly. Every time Lego tried to do a sci-fi theme after acquiring the Star Wars license, it just didn’t have the pull to attract buyers. Why would a random kid want something as generic sounding as “space police” when he could beg his parents for a much more recognizable Star Wars set instead? At the end of the day, it’s all brand recognition. Why waste marketing money trying to compete with yourself when you could put that money into an IP that practically does the advertising for you?

[@youmukonpaku3168]

not sure whether it's more cursed that this puts Adventurers in Castle or that it places Life on Mars into City. Both are second place to Bionicle is Lego Space as a conclusion of this categorization. I love it.

[@CappnRob]

I think the most divisive thing for Rock Raiders is really just the marketing. Roboforce promo and magazine art features the robots clearly operating on a Traditional LEGO Space Environment: a bizarre, rocky alien world likely lacking an atmosphere with Tron Lines TM in the sky and the like. That, to me, is the DEFINITIVE LEGO Space Aesthetic: even more than the builds, its how LEGO presented them. (Also, for Roboforce, it was heavily marketed in tandem with UFO, with some promo material using the same Green Planet background that UFO featured, suggesting they were on the same planet. I believe Insectoids used this backdrop too, which tracks given Insectoids and UFO are both supposed to represent two species from the same planet). This is why Aquazone doesn't often get called a space theme, and its why more "low key" themes that clearly involve outer space aren't considered space themes either sometimes, such as Life on Mars, as its more an extension of Town-Spaceport (something you brought up in your overview of the 2024 Space video). Similarly, all Rock Raiders marketing material features only caves! Even the Hover Scout, while surely in the same design language as small space-faring craft in previous themes, is shown to be used to float around through caves, so I think that's why people may not see Rock Raiders as a Space theme. Hell for the longest time I didn't even know Rock Raiders had a mother ship, because surely if such a thing was important it would've made into a set, right? Instead the "mothership" set for Rock Raiders is their big VTOL propeller driven vehicle. And maybe that's the OTHER thing, aesthetics of the builds. Roll cages and Propellers don't suggest Space-faring utility. In other Space Themes that feature some sort of terrain excavation, you find that flying craft are very versatile, being presented as both atmospheric craft, ground effect vehicles, and spacecraft all at once. With Rock Raiders, you don't have that, much like how all the vehicles in Aquazone are clearly submarines and couldn't be used for anything else but that. It's weird, subconscious ideas like this that i think affect people the most I believe. HOWEVER, PERSONALLY, Rock Raiders is at least Space-Adjacent. If Roboforce can count, Rock Raiders can count, and Aquazone is part of that club too I think. On a similar note, Ninja is absolutely a castle theme. It features Castles! I think the qualifier there is a lot less ambiguous haha. Still undecided on Life on Mars, though. I kind of like it as more of a 20 Minutes into the Future Lego Town sort of theme, but I can't really argue against why people would consider it a part of space lol. I also think UFO is in an interesting position when compared against its spiritual successor Alien Conquest. Alien Conquest is clearly depicting a B-movie style invasion of a Ambiguously Contemporary Earth, where as UFO is clearly not - but a lot of UFO's tv commercials (and the name UFO) and design language of them having flying saucers certainly suggests they were meant to be this.... but instead they just fight the Roboforce lol.

[@RRSlugger]

Well put! I can't say you're wrong about any of this. 😊

[@CappnRob]

@@RRSlugger I think ultimately it’s easier to look at this stuff as a spectrum rather than a hard yes or no. Stuff like Nexo Knights blurred lines between Castle and Space after all, and themes like Mars Mission blur between Town Space and Classic Space.

[@Dreadwolf3155]

tron lines!!!!

[@CappnRob]

@@Dreadwolf3155 hecc yeah dood, they were technically only around from Futuron until I think Exploriens (or whatever came before them) but I consider the Tron Lines across the skyline a key aesthetic element of LEGO Space lol

[@TheICombaticon]

As far as I'm concerned, I feel like any conversations about "does (BLANK) count as (BLANK)" eventually fall apart for the same reasons that "is a hot dog a sandwich" conversations eventually fall apart: categorizations are tools for helping to convey information, and as such aren't meant to consider every single literal ramification of their divisions. Calling any one theme or another "LEGO space" or "LEGO castle" is mostly shorthand as a way for all of us to quickly understand what the other peraon is talking about due to our generalized expectations of what each entails, and arguing over edge cases or oddities misses the point of why we try to have categories at all. And this is especially true of terminology that exists mostly among fans and the creators had little to no involvement in popularising. Maybe this isn't the answer that anyone else is looking for, but I've been thinking a lot about these kinds of arguments in general this year and so I felt like the perspective I've come to would be more interesting to ahare than getting into heated debates over semantics with other people would.

[@Bionickpunk]

Hot Dog is indeed a sandwich. An oddly filled sandwich, but a sandwich non-the-less.

[@RRSlugger]

Well said! While this is definitely something I find interesting to ponder, it's not a hill worth dying on. 👍

[@cabinfever5788]

Exactly, this entire video reminded me of Wittgenstein for this reason. He argued that we cannot pinpoint the meaning of any word to a set of properties or anything like that. What, for example, belongs to our concept of a "game"? Whatever you think is the essence of games, there is always a counter example. I really like his notion of "family resemblance" in this context. We sometimes immediately see that people are siblings by their facial characteristics (e.g., a certain shape of the nose, eyes or ears) and yet these characteristics cannot be exhaustively formalized. Well then, the same must hold for our Lego space and Lego castle themes. Simply put, Rock Raiders is at least space-esque, and it depends on our purposes whether it is part of space or not! It's strange how one can suddenly start philosophizing about Lego haha, perhaps it's time for a new discipline

[@TheMaghorn]

Watching these videos over the last few months has reinvigorated my love of Lego, and now I have a complete set of the Rock Raiders theme. Slugger's content has cost me more than any other KZbin channel.

[@Brickticks]

No matter which way you drill into the brickonium ore, Rock Raiders is still awesome, and deserves all the praise it gets. Darn I need to rebuild my Loader Dozer, but Rocky the Rock Monster is kinda enjoying chilling on top of Grand Emporium with a pair of chrome drills, so perhaps not.

[@enelabe]

I love how you find any excuse to talk about Rock Raiders (and I'm absolutely here for it)

[@thecosmonaut4221]

Rock raiders, my favorite space theme

[@Danny-no2zp]

Seems like it is a LEGO Space theme, but they branded it as underground to get around restrictions imposed from picking up the Ster Wars license 😅

[@RRSlugger]

Another possibility!

[@elithornton5641]

I want to believe you, but this coming from the Slugger of Rock Raiders, this feels like Rock-Raided propaganda

[@elithornton5641]

I’ve actually watched it now and the Slug is right. Listen to the Slug, everybody

[@RRSlugger]

@@elithornton5641 Hahahaha ❤

[@nakenmil]

In an alternate timeline, Lego had an ongoing licensed comic book with a writing team that was left adrift and had to come up with their own ongoing stories and lore and kept adding the new sets into the stories, they had a flourishing internal lore and storylines, where Rock Raiders and AquaZone traveled across planets with Mtron and Exploriens to defend from evil aliens and robots and so on. KZbinrs make three hour video essays explaining the insane continuity and time travel retcons of this comic. Fans often make MOCs of their personal Legosonas. In this alternate timeline, there's no Sonic comic book.

[@Robot_Eva]

Much like the unique alien mini figure and slimy slug prototypes, it's hard not to mourn the possibility of an entire series based around various underground factions. Imagine if the rock monsters got their own theme, or a blacktron style rival mining crew theme

[@VanAleph]

Rock Raiders is the hagfish of Lego space themes

[@ScottaHemi440]

clints reptiles enjoyer i see xD

[@lbricks7631]

Man, I love RR Slugger videos.

[@Maniac4Bricks]

Is it April 2025 already!? Wow I didn't think I slept for that long last night.

[@samlowther9487]

As someone who doesn’t know much about Rock Raiders, i’d say it makes more sense for Rock Raiders to be a space theme instead of not being a space theme. The alien like rock monster looking guys, the futuristic equipment and aesthetics and not to mention the lore itself setting it in a distant galaxy!

[@JasonVenable69]

Technically everything is in space, so Lego city, castle, pirates, etc. all space themes :^)

[@hab0272]

Lego pirates also takes place in the space inbetween land and involves vehicles designed for far travels.

[@atlas16198]

New rr slugger upload we're so back chat

[@Cats-TM]

Fun fact: the word "factoid" originally meant "an inaccurate statement or statistic believed to be true because of broad repetition, especially if cited in the media". But, because of broad repetition, has come to mean a small fact.

[@RRSlugger]

Dang... Well that's ironic! 😅

[@alexbarrett3832]

Very cool. I love the shot of Jet in an explorean space suit. My head canon was always that the LMS Explorer was a later generation of explorean ship. Personally I consider Rock Raiders to be a space theme, and can see the case for Aquazone. Ninja and vikings are also castle themes and Pharaoh's Quest is an adventurers theme.

[@Halo1Buff]

Considering the opening cinematic of both versions of the video game , i always considered Raiders a space theme and always thought it a shame we never got an LMS Explorer.

[@Reptiliomorph]

You're my favourite Lego youtuber, Slugger. Thanks for your hard work and detail orientation!

[@RRSlugger]

Thank you! ❤️

[@urzaz]

Slugger: "Many folks out there consider Aquazone to be a part of LEGO Space" Me: "WELL THEY MUST GO TO SCHOOL!"

[@Zack-zv1qs]

Rock Raiders isn't a space theme... it's a lifestyle

[@ChadSmith-ef4lu]

LUGNET, that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. A long time...

[@JohnBainbridge0]

*If A implies B, B does not necessarily imply A.* "My cat is grey," does not imply that all cats are grey, nor that all grey things are cats. Sure, a Space set doesn't necessarily have to go to space, but if it does go to space, that's Space. Sure, it wasn't originally intended to be a Space theme, but it became one in the show. Sure, some people might not consider the show lore to be relevant, but those people are wrong. It's in space now. It's Space. (imho)

[@RRSlugger]

I like it! Makes sense to me. 😊

[@the-NITRON]

Urge to sing the "Sonic Underground" theme but switch the lyrics to fit Rock Raiders, now that we know LEGO had a project named "LEGO Underground", is... rising!!! D: I must resist!!!!! GAH!!! *_"Rock Raiders formed, New theme awaits!~"_* *_"Retailers warn of a deadly fate!~"_* *_"Give up your new theme, separate!~"_* *_"Bide your time, lie in wait!~"_* *_"LEGO UNDERGROUND!~ LEGO UNDERGROOOUUNND!!!-"_*

[@klikkolee]

1:15 that is clearly transparent -- somewhat literally; if you can clearly see an image through it, it's transparent, regardless of color. A translucent material blurs the image due to diffusing the light as it passes through. This was taught in school for me, and it's also consistent with the first definition of "translucent" I got when looking up the word: "Transmitting light but causing sufficient diffusion to prevent perception of distinct images"

[@saffral]

Looking at other sets, it would be very easy to picture Lego Pirates as a follow-up to Lego Castle, as that is more-or-less how it worked in real life, and one could even juryrig castles with cannons and pirates for a fun crossover. In much the same way, Rock Raiders can easily tie into Lego Space, it gives a lot more purpose to *why* they're in space, rather than being there for the sake of space. With Rock Raiders' brutalist/industrial aesthetic (most sets lean more industrial, but on the larger builds and especially the LMS Explorer I think the brutalist stylings make the builds pop) it could even exist as a former era of design, left behind as being too blocky or instead a more modern refutation of the classic ornamentation as they go more utilitarian and solidly built with their designs. Anywhere can fit and in space there's room for anything, even the Time Cruisers.

[@skeletonpatch]

I’m literally building an Imperial Guard Brigantine MOC right now that has Lion Knight motifs in its décor to imply that the redcoats are descended from the Lion Knights. Though due to economic restrictions, as bluecoat torsos are cheaper literally half of the crew is made up of them. It would be nice to have an obvious Castle faction to tie the bluecoats to as so far all I can come up with is the Black Falcons, who make me think of the Holy Roman Empire more than France and doesn’t seem a great match…

[@spacemanspud7073]

You should do a whole series on the underground concept art and maybe attempt to build some of the models. Seems right up your alley

[@PaleozoicBricks]

Wait what? Ninja and vikings are not considered castle themes by bricklink. That's more of being lumped in as a historical theme on places like eurobricks. Also if alien conquest counts as space rock raiders does too.

[@RRSlugger]

Thanks for the fact check!! I got it mixed up with *Brickset* which DOES categorize Ninja as a Castle subtheme. The point still stands if you swap the names around. 👍

[@PaleozoicBricks]

@@RRSlugger Ahh, that would do it. Also going to the topic of the video. I think this makes Rock Raiders "Retroactive Space", In a sense where when it originally released its easy to say its not space, but as time goes on its harder to justify it. From what was said about the magma mites, I think the best option for their vehicles would be something similar to the armorizers seen in transformers legacy united. Would have loved to see a lego space dwarf faction if this theme persisted.

[@deinonychus6860]

I have to disagree on Mars Mission for one specific reason: the space shuttle included in the Astro base. There is obvious space travel going on even without considering the lore. You could less significantly make the same point for the alien flying saucers, too. (Ironic, given they’re Martian natives) The only way out of categorizing mars mission as space is by categorizing it as launch command, but Mars Mission is a serious departure from Lego Town, the home theme of Launch Command.

[@Justin-Hill-1987]

Rock Raiders was one of three LEGO themes with the "Raiders" suffix, the others include the LEGO Aquazone subtheme Aquaraiders (1997) and the standalone LEGO Aqua Raiders theme (2007).

[@NooceneSounds]

Roboforce does have a couple space ships! the heads of the robots detach to be stand-alone flyers. great content, as always!

[@argentinianspotter]

Thanks to you, I decided to buy the Chrome Crusher! Possibly my favourite RR vehicle. I have it now on my workbench.

[@1ofthe3]

Like you said, to each their own preference on how to class them, but, if you’re on a journey through space in search of rare minerals to mine, these guys have better resume than the average miner, chuckles. These guys are very diverse in what they do and, once they’re back on course where they need to be, they’ll be right back to exploring other planets and harvesting as much data as possible! They are space miners! 😁

[@adamn.4615]

I never thought of Rock Raiders as a “Space” theme, but I didn’t know any of the lore at the time. It was obviously in the future like Space, but for all I knew, this was all going on under Earth’s crust. Same could be said for Aquazone. I assumed at the time it was Earth in the distant future after humans set up colonies under the ocean.

[@SpringDavid]

Ever since I saw that one video of Solar Sands calling you the Patrick Bateman of lego, I've not stopped watching.

[@RRSlugger]

Haha thank you! ❤️

[@MistahhMingus]

The rock raiders lore was what split my mum and dad apart. It matters.

[@legogodzilla]

I'd be here for a series of MOCs exploring the Underground World filled with factions with alliterative names. Rock Raiders, Magma Mites, Tunnel Terrors, Borehole Brigade, Crystal Company, things like that.

[@jaumeroca9612]

In my opinion, Rock Raiders 1. Happens outside Earth, 2. It is a cool 2000s theme: It's a space theme.

[@constructionproduction4965]

I think it has to do with a mix of things, like looking at the sets at face, looks like a older version of power miners and that to a lot of people, especially for people born after rock raiders end but grew up with power miners might think, “oh it must take place on earth like power miners” but also not a lot of people aware of the context to Rock raiders in the video game and that it takes place in space. One reason I can think of is, I think the majority of Lego fan aren’t aware of the string of games that released around the late 90s or think of the string of newer Lego games in the mid 2000s like Lego Batman and Star Wars than the ones that came before and especially for rock Raiders where it’s one of the niche ones out of the ones that came out in the late 90s I mean, some people heard of rock Raiders the game, but have they played it or seen Contant from it probably not, so a lot of Lego fans think it’s not a space theme just cause of face value and there not a lot of giveaways either to say confidently to someone looking at the theme at face value that it’s a space theme like the small hover vehicle you mentioned I’m sure for some people seen it face value not thinking it’s a space theme will just think of that as they’re just trying something different

[@RRSlugger]

This is a good point! Many LEGO fans these days were born into a post-Power Miners world, and that retroactively casts Rock Raiders in a different light, indeed. 👍

[@puppetguy8726]

I think both Ninja and Vikings belong under the castle umbrella. But sure, Ninja being set sometime after 1543 is kind of inbetween Pirates and Castle themes time-wise.

[@AndrewChumKaser]

The slug is known for many things: but consistency is rarely one of them.

[@dr.archaeopteryx5512]

Foolish Slugger. EVERY Lego theme is a space theme, for everything happens within space!

[@jordantm16]

Oh my god! I did a physical double-take when I saw pictures from James Gurney’s Dinotopia series at 6:02 !!! That book: ‘The World Beneath’ was released in 1995, and I grew up reading that book over and over as a 7yr old kid. I had no idea it influenced the Lego RR series but knowing that it does makes so much sense to me!!! I used to spend hours pouring over those paintings of underground caverns, only for TLG to release an ‘underground’ theme only a few years later that I absolutely loved that was influenced by it 🤯!Truly blew my mind. Thank you RR Slugger for showing me this. I only wish I knew what book it was you had on screen there?

[@RRSlugger]

Right?? I was equally mind blown to learn that the science fiction works Rock Raiders was based on were from this book called Dinotopia, haha! I had the same revelation, but in reverse. 😆 The book I was showing off is called "The Ultimate LEGO Book", by DK publishing, 2000. It's wonderful and gives a great look into LEGO at the time!

[@jordantm16]

​@@RRSlugger- thanks for letting me know the name of the book. Very kind of you. The connection between RR and Dinotopia seems odd until you realise that that particular Dinotopia book shown in those two pictures is VERY heavily influenced by 'Journey to The Centre of The Earth' by Jules Verne. It's interesting to think that maybe at some point 'Underground' might have been a Jules Verne inspired adventure series. "High Adventure, Underground" indeed!! 😁

[@andrewchapman2039]

I for one do consider AquaZone part of LEGO Space, so as to separate it from more conventional underwater themes like Atlantis and Alpha Team.

[@saulmanjarrez9922]

I find the need within our community to taxa LEGO themes fascinating. It speaks volumes about our collective interest in LEGO's history and the plenty of ways past design languages have informed subsequent LEGO themes and specific sets. I am glad LEGO is starting to take this part of our community more seriously and hope they bring along more interesting projects with direct connections to their own history. I yearn for more themes and sets that exemplify the design philosophy they had in the 90s: Rock Raiders, Time Twisters, Paradisa, Adventurers, you call it!

[@Pecet0wiec]

Thanks to you I bought recently two Rock Raiders sets and constructed one by my own. Thank you, what a fun series!

[@DragonxFlutter]

Honestly, I can buy that idea of Space, “Underground” and “Underwater” being sibling themes under a general “sci-fi” banner. It’s like Castle, Pirates, and Western being under a “historical fiction” banner, or the various rebrandings and addons of Town being under a “semi-realistic modern life” banner.

[@thrillhouse4151]

I can see the Magma Mites commercials in my head. The theme song would be like MAG-MA MITES! ( D - F - G all evenly spaced). I can smell how extreme that theme would’ve been.

[@MortexBerri]

A custom “underground” subtheme MOC series would be awesome! I would watch

[@octanethermoplastic]

Oooh! I love it when new details come to light about internal development, fascinating. Side note, as Lego colours have internal numbers who wants to start naming their colours that way, goodbye bright blueish green, hello colour 107! (Source the 2020 modular bookshop)

[@empatheticrambo4890]

For me, this raises the question of whether Blacktron and Rock Raiders could bump into each other. For me, that wouldn’t quite click. So I consider it mostly it’s own thing

[@colinroberts2060]

I never really thought of "Power Miners" (which "Magma Mites" may have been an early concept of) as a "Space theme", but the earlier Rock Raiders theme has often been kind of a stumper for me. Even then, there are far fewer transparent/translucent elements in Rock Raiders, in comparison to many other Space-oriented themes (like Spyrius, Unitron or Exploriens as examples), as well as the early waves of Star Wars to an extent. In some cases there, the only transparent/translucent elements were the lightsaber blades.

[@roisinbyrne3893]

If it’s got either aliens, space travel or are just straight up on a different planet, it’s a space theme

[@ToaOfFusion]

Lego fans: "Where are the Lego Space themes?" The LEGO Group: "My siblings in Mata Nui, the Lego Space themes never left. It's called Lego Star Wars."

[@clydemarshall8095]

Transparent means you can see through it. Translucent just means light passes through it. Translucent pieces can be opaque. Since you can clearly see through transparent neon orange, it is indeed transparent

[@RRSlugger]

I think it's definitely debatable with some "transparent" LEGO colours though - trans dark blue and trans green come to mind...

[@HotDogTimeMachine385]

We need to find her and get more information about the second wave!

[@VestedUTuber]

Like I said before, I've always thought of it as one of those themes that exists within the umbrella of Space but focuses on surface vehicles and atmospheric craft rather than ships. Insectoids could be considered very similar in this regard, as that theme was mostly surface vehicles and atmospheric craft as well with the theme only really having one actual ship, that being the Celestial Stinger. I'm pretty sure M-Tron had a bunch of surface vehicles as well, Robo-Force was all mechs yet was directly marketed as a space theme, and Unitron was most well-known for its monorail set. As for classifying Ninja as a Castle subtheme, I personally do so because the theme 100% fits the general format of a castle theme. After all, Flying Ninja's Fortress, despite the name, _is_ a castle, just one of Japanese design rather than Medieval European. It has the secondary fortress and outpost sets, Samurai take up the role the knights of previous castle themes, and there's two battling factions like any other castle theme. So, if the shoe fits...

[@lopmon.apologist]

If we started calling it "Lego Science Fiction" or Lego scifi, everything would be so much easier.

[@In-Gall_Tegidda_n_Tesemt]

Totally remember this game! Great to be a 90s kid...

[@georgecook83]

See! Putting Ninja in the Castle theme always struck me weird, and I have always assumed that Rock Raiders were space. Looks like they are on another planet.

[@SouthWilliams]

Oddly enough I never actually considered Rock Raiders as a space theme until this video brought up the thought bubble. For me, it's a given theme, if not an official theme. It does make sense to me that it can be considered a space theme because it takes place in space to an extent. =w= Regardless though, I love Rock Raiders. >w

[@boogerwizard6319]

Imagine this: Deep Rock Galactic IP collab with LEGO. Space dwarfs mining and fighting off giant bugs? Yes please

[@benjaminstorace6699]

We need a 90's Lego game collection released for modern systems and consoles. Racers 1 and 2, Rock Raiders, Loco, Chess, etc.

[@stephenbraker5273]

This type of discussion is quite interesting to me, though I have way too many thoughts to type in a simple comment... I have a strong personal reference point, albeit anecdotal, from having lived through the introduction of most of the defining themes and seeing how they interacted with existing collection through the 90's and early 2000's. Themes from the 70's and 80's were quite precisely defined, especially for Town/City and the Trifecta of Space, Castle, and Pirates. It was during the 90's that many of these definitions became harder to apply with specific new themes that could interact with the old themes but in new ways. Instead of having precise definition, themes seemed to have their own identity apart from a whole-world inclusion while still having references and tie-ins to adjacent themes (whether or not for lore or just marketing), so they could play well on their own if it was all the child had but could also mesh well with existing collections from previous themes. In general, the trouble is that there are different reasons that themes could be related, and a chosen taxonomy depends on personal preference or focal points. I tended (and still tend) to categorize themes primarily on geographical/cultural and technological basis the most strongly, so Ninja and Vikings are Castle subthemes while Ninjago or Chima are not. Nexo Nights is clearly a fantasy version of a Space theme due to these bases. This also sets Rock Raiders as a Space subtheme (due to futuristic technology and intergalactic locations) and Power Miners as a City subtheme (due to roughly similar technology to real-world modern technology and taking place on Earth, though in a fantasy setting). LEGO in Space fits these distinctions as well, since technology is either current or only slightly futuristic and they have direct reference to being missions from Earth rather than fully established worlds on foreign planets or in other galaxies. Life on Mars is still a line-blur since the human element is a subtheme of "LEGO in Space" while the Martians are a clear fit as a futuristic/sci-fi "Space" subtheme. If the current City "Space" (LEGO in Space) subtheme sets included advanced alien technology and vehicles, it would have the same line blur in my mind. Since it only has a slight exploration of the idea "what if we find life in space" rather than a full dive into the concept, it is still a "LEGO in Space" subtheme in my opinion. Now, a whole new theme category for underground would be quite an expansion on the unique place Rock Raiders holds between other typical themes!

[@Luis519RS]

In the vastness of space exists all lego.

[@slothfulcobra]

Before I checked out the videogame, I had always thought that Rock Raiders was some kind of steampunk thing. It came out at around the same time as Disney's Atlantis, which also ended up in caves where the characters had a giant drill and an improbable amount of flying vehicles for dealing with caves and water. I conflated a lot of the two.

[@RRSlugger]

Honestly, there could be some correlation there! LEGO was often looking over the shoulders of other media creators at the time.

[@roseconleey103]

wow! magma mites is a fascinating new reveal. if I still had any of my old power miners lava monster figures I'd definitely be tempted to make my own knockoff magma mite. also, I want to say an old lego book I used to get from the library in the 2000s also called ninja a castle theme. can't confirm that tho

[@mattsmocs3281]

I put it this way rock Raiders is a space theme because they have a giant space barge that they showed up to on a planet to do mining operations so even though we only see the side where they're actually mining and not the massive ship they still have a spaceship and they still use it to get around to different planets

[@Mrlolol7779]

imagine if they took the worldbuilding and storytelling experience they’ve gained from BIONICLE & Ninjago and applied it to a fully fledged spiritual revival of classic lego themes in a combined universe. it seems like they tried in the early 2000s but were scared to create a proper shared universe outside of lighthearted lego club promos (rock raiders -> power miners, aquazone -> aqua raiders -> atlantis, adventurers -> pharaohs quest, space police 3)

[@lukestarkiller1470]

Well I might as well through my hat into the ring and say that Fright Knights is technically a space theme because it was shown to take place on a volcanic planet in one of the Lego UFO commercials. They’re also shown interacting with the aliens from UFO in a lot of marketing material. Fright Knights also has a few little flying machine sets that look very similar to the little flyers you pointed out in this video. So it’s technically a space theme.

[@dangalfthedruid]

3:40 You got me there!

[@TheWampam]

I think the "Space" theme is an interesting thing. Similiar to Town or Castle it was one of the "generic" themeworlds from the 70s to the 90s. But while town and castle really stayed generic, Lego's space got a character of its own with a design language mainly defined by the usage of specific parts.

[@skeletonpatch]

I don’t know what the timeline for Bricklink as a website is, but Ninja has been counted as a Castle sub-theme in official material at least as far back as The LEGO Book from 2009. That same book groups Rock Raiders, Adventures, Power Miners, Western, Time Cruisers, Aqua Raiders/Aquazone, Alpha Team/Agents, Exo-Force and even Racers, Ferrari & Sports for some reason under “Adventures”, treating them as sub-themes to that. This was probably done to make the book more accessible to children (looking through it again it’s dominated with two-page images of sets that would have been concurrently available when the book was still in print, methinks there’s a motive behind that), so that book probably doesn’t hold up as a classification standard. Though Pirates has its own chapter, as it should. Standing Small, the minifig-focused book sold alongside 2009’s The LEGO Book, places Rock Raiders and Power Miners together as “Underground”, though it does make mention of the Rock Raiders being stranded on Planet U while the Power Miners are inside of Earth.

[@NiiRubra]

7:42 Oh yes! Please do theory craft what Magma Mites, and other subthemes, could have been. I'm intrigued by the idea.

[@DamianDelmar]

I somehow never realized that this theme was supposed to take place in space, i always assumed that they explore deep underground locations on earth

[@slothfulcobra]

Honestly I think the broader overarching category of themes I put Rock Raiders in is "lego themes with distinctive unique characters", because that's really what pops out to me about the theme, and there's not many themes that go that far. Adventurers, Life on Mars, Alpha Team, Exo-Force, and Lego's Atlantis are some of the big ones that really go all the way, but it can get blurrier with like Knight's Kingdom or the Extreme Team, and obviously Bionicle and Ninjago go even further. Classic Lego is defined by genericism, everybody has the same kind of blank smile, and it was up to the audience to interpret and project who they were. As things developed, Lego developed a lot of in-house fiction to help support their newer characters in the 90s and 00s, but then the rise of licensed themes largely supplanted that. So now even though modern Lego faces are much more complex, the company doesn't use them to imply specific characters when they're in an in-house theme like City.

[@MegaIorex]

1:15 That is transparent though as you can see things through it. If it were translucent it would let let light but not distinct shapes through

[@RRSlugger]

I think it's debatable, especially with colours like trans dark blue and trans green. Often times you can't clearly see what's on the other side.

[@klikkolee]

@@RRSlugger It really isn't debatable. I looked up those Lego colors and the bricks were definitively transparent. It doesn't matter if the brick shape causes distortions or if the color is dark. "transparent" and "translucent" are well-defined material properties -- if the light is not being diffused (which would specifically make the image look blurred), it's definitively not translucent.

[@RRSlugger]

@@klikkolee Hmm, I certainly could be wrong about that! Perhaps a better example of the translucent effect would be one of those trans neon orange boulders from Life On Mars. Maybe I should have put a picture of that up instead? It’s very interesting - I’ve received all sorts of comments on this topic, from folks like yourself telling me it *is* transparent, to folks telling me that “trans neon orange” is *supposed* to stand for translucent neon orange, not transparent neon orange. 😅

[@klikkolee]

@@RRSlugger It looks like there's a fine texture on the boulders.This kind of texture will from a practical standpoint diffuse light, so it's reasonable to refer to the part as a whole as translucent, but the material itself appears to still be transparent. I see a similar thing with images of trans neon orange slopes -- when viewing through the textured face, the part appears translucent, but looking only through non-textured faces shows that the material is transparent.

[@dariuskikstra3994]

Oh yea well. Yes it is a space theme! What now Slugger? Balls in your court

[@robotiguana404]

Would love to see future videos speculating what each underground sub theme or faction might have looked like. Endless possibilities

[@Eisenwald64]

They still had to test them on Earth before going to space! Also, I see we have a bunch of city mining sets, maybe they could bring back underground!😊 It depends on what you mix the sets with; how about Rock Raiders x Bionicle or Life on Mars. I get the impression that the slugs in Rock Raiders have thick hides due to the volcanic and crystalline nature of the caves. Since there are energy crystals they eat and possibly sulfur salts further down, table salt will do absolute bubkis to the Rock Raiders slugs!

[@JMPDev]

Summer is over 🍂🐌

[@ARobertBluefield]

no that is transparent, not translucent. translucent just means light passes through, transparent is when you can clearly see whats on the other side, transparent neon orange, is correct.

[@RRSlugger]

I think it's debatable, especially with colours like trans dark blue and trans green. Often times you *can't* clearly see what's on the other side.

[@sockraiders]

I have no clue why alien conquest is apparently space but rock raiders isn’t. Alien conquest takes place on earth, rock raiders takes place in space. Seems pretty clear cut to me haha

[@nihili4196]

Okay, even if it would be considered Underground instead of Space... Because due to Star Wars, Underground were meant to replace Space, it wouldn't be a different theme as much as evolution of it. If Space themes were to be replaced with Sci-Fi esque Underground themes focusing on singular zones and exp-loration of them, I can guarantee that most fans would most likely consider them Space anyways. After all, by that point we would already have Ice Planet and Aquazone as space themes, without Space proper Underground would become a new Space. So in a sense, it doesn't matter if Lego doesn't view RR as space theme if RR was meant to create a substitute to fill the same niche that Space filled.

[@RRSlugger]

My thoughts exactly! ❤

[@zarda1484]

Rock Raiders is an answer to the movie Armageddon. They drill asteroids and mine out planets and moons.

[@PlasticToa]

me when there's turn-of-the-millennium unused LEGO concepts and internal info at the function

[@Dreadwolf3155]

it would be quite interesting to see one of the larger rock raiders sets get the 'el dorado fortress' treatment. THose 90s sets and themes were high on imagination but limited by the chunky building techniques of the time. I mean to say that the original El Dorado fortress did not suffer from this nearly as much as RR, thus i think RR could benefit even more from the remake.

[@Ensign_games]

I havea great idea for the next summer of slug, the next community theme will be Magma Mites! or a wide LEGO Underground community theme. although you seemed like you also had the idea at the end of the video.

[@Zenlore6499]

Power Miners fit the Underground supertheme, right? Even if it’s officially just Rock Raiders in there, I feel like the spiritual sequel/successor should be too! And I’d love to learn more about Magma Mites, that sounds fun!

[@MortexBerri]

Magma mites sounds like power miners wave 3

[@Indianadixon]

I feel like magma mites was an early idea that ended up being fully realized in the lava monsters in Power Miners

[@RRSlugger]

Completely possible!