The Power Miners sets pit Power Miners against Rock Monsters in a race to collect Power Crystals, a source of food for the Rock Monsters. The Rock Monsters consumption of the crystals has the side-effect of creating catastrophic earthquakes on the surface, hence the Power Miners drive to collect all the crystals before the monsters cause more city-leveling destruction.
It's hard to see who the bad guys are here. Both "sides" are working under their own agenda - trying to survive the world they live in and only brought into conflict because of a limited resource (i.e. the crystals) that both groups want to control.
It's interesting to note that the Power Crystals have no direct value to the miners - they are only valuable through restricting the monsters access to this food source. It doesn't appear that any other avenues have been explored for reducing the damage caused by the Rock Monsters, though arguably the opportunities for negotiation are limited by the Monsters' apparent thuggish stupidity - plus a Lego set where Miners and Monsters sit down to hammer out an agreement over Power Crystal access-rights would have little appeal to series' key demographic.
The problem of which group is in the "right" is problematic on several levels. First off, the Miners are clearly the invaders - entering the domain of the Monsters with the intent of limiting their food supply. Deliberately starving the Monsters raises an awful moral dilemma, trading the lives of the Monsters against the lives of humans unfortunately affected by the Monsters eating habits. If we give no agency to the Monsters then it's no worse an issue than having to deal with aggressive animals - humans simply would not have survived if they tolerated human-killing creatures, and the decision to limit the Monsters' diet (and population) is no different than humans protecting themselves against sharks or lions.But clearly the Monsters do have some form of agency. They have characteristics that could be defined as human, and they - or at least the Firox - engage in guerrilla-like tactics than indicate a high level of intelligence. This brings into question how aware the Monsters are of the damage they are causing, and potentially how deliberately the earthquakes targeted human cities. Without knowing the true motivations of the Monsters the issue of finding an equilibrium between Monsters and Miners is complex at best.
Similar themes are explored in the Mars Mission sets, where Astronauts and Aliens vie for control over crystals needed by both parties to power their vehicles and other equipment. In these sets the behaviour of humans is more easily characterised as suspect, with the Astronaut capturing and imprisoning Aliens. Yet the very inscrutability of the Aliens, coupled with their willingness to attack human mining outposts, obscures the question of whether the Astronauts' response to the the conflict with the Aliens over crystals is valid self-protection against a hostile foe or one of anthropocentric militancy.
I asked my five-year old who he thought the baddies were in Power Miners. Without hesitation he said "the Monsters". When asked why he seemed a little more troubled, thinking it over for a while before he responded with "because the Miners know something about the Crystals". Completely in keeping with the back-story, yet at no point did he address the long-term effects of the Power Miners activities on the Monster population. Typical five-year old.
One of the new Power Miners sets for 2010 - the "Lavatraz" set - will see the Miners attempt to capture a Lava Monster is a water-cooled trap. If they are successful, and their efforts aren't foiled by a subsequent "Escape from Lavatraz", then perhaps we will see some genuine opportunities for dialogue created - albeit between captive and guard. And if hot-heads on both sides are cooled - both figuratively and literally - then maybe concrete solutions to the rivalry between Monsters and Miners can be found and a real, lasting peace can be created.
We live in hope...
