Random set of the day: Cendox V1
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 8992 Cendox V1, released during 2009. It's one of 30 Bionicle sets produced that year. It contains 151 pieces, and its retail price was US$19.99/£14.99.
It's owned by 1,430 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 $73.20, or eBay.
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20 comments on this article
Hardly ever do you see a boring Bionicle set. This thing is awesome.
2009 socket joints molded in dark red. That guy is not long for this world.
Can’t wait for V2
Looks like a cross between a snowmobile and Rosebud.
So what's the lore on this one? I'm guessing it's from Mad Max world aka Bara Magna.
@TheOtherMike said:
"2009 socket joints molded in dark red. That guy is not long for this world."
I still have him. But I don’t know if I have touched him in the better part of a decade. :P He might crumble if I pull him out of the box.
The bike was the cool part anyway.
I don’t do Bionicle but this is cool.
To quote dis036 :”You are correct sir!”
I like the raw design of the bike, but I've always wished Lego Technic to delve into sci-fi designs like the B model of 42063 BMW R 1200 GS. Today's space sets are ok but sci-fi may open up a whole new chapter in Technic.
One I actually don't know the lore off the top of my head for, but brushing up here's the gist:
Ages ago the Elemental Tribes of Spherus Magna lived more or less in harmony. That was until the discovery of a mysterious substance leaking from deep within the planet, Energized Protodermis. This silver liquid was a source of immense energy and had strange powers, and the tribes went to war over it.
The Fire Tribe would often ride into battle on bikes with a large rear tread and front plow, useful for traversing the snowy terrain of the Ice Tribe's territory, where most of the Protodermis springs were found.
As mass amounts of the substance were pumped from within the earth, and the Agori slaughtered each other to take it, the Great Beings made a horrible discovery. Energized Protodermis was more eldritch than they thought, and its reality bending magic was literally holding their planet together. If too much was extracted the world would be destroyed. Despite their warnings the thirst for profit was too strong, the pumps kept running, and the battles kept raging.
Eventually this culminated in an event known as The Shattering. The very elements of Spherus Magna collected together as huge chunks of the planet were jettisoned into space. When the dust settled all that remained were the desert world of Bara Magna, the ocean moon of Aqua Magna, and the Jungle Moon of Bota Magna.
Bara Magna were hit the hardest by this apocalypse, and the people came to shun war. They established the Glatorian system. Whenever there was a dispute over resources champions from each tribe would engage in (preferably non-lethal) arena combat for their villages, and the winner would take the spoils. A subsystem of matches were put in place that involved mounted vehicle combat.
One day while exploring the Fire Tribe Agori Crotesius found an old wreck of a Fire Tribe bike from the Core War. he fixed it up, and took it to the arena. As he won more and more matches he would modify the machine, including coating its front blades it exidian metal and mounting a Thornax launcher. He dubbed his creation "Cendox," an Agori phrase meaning "serpent strike." With his snake of metal he became a great champion of Fire.
Since I saw some people ask about V1, BIONICLE did this odd thing for both 2008 and 2009 where vehicles would have version numbers, but usually used these as the ending of completely different vehicles in the line rather than upgrades for a specific vehicle. While we never saw a Cendox V2 we saw both a V2 and V3 of the Kaxium, then a jump to V7 for the Baranus, then a jump to V9 for the Thornatus, and the Skopio got the more unique designation of XV-1. In the Cendox and Skopio's case the V1/XV-1 makes a lot of sense, as the Skopio was the first of its kind and the Cendox was the first of the bikes to be called that, but for the other vehicles we've never seen their earlier makes or models. Even for the Thornatus if I'm understanding correctly the V9 specifically refers to the first unit actually manufactured and not a model number. But for the Baranus, V7 IS a model number. Its weird.
By 2009, BIONICLE was a victim of "overstuffing", the unofficial term I use for the overabundance of boxed sets (i.e. anything that didn't come in a canister or was more than $12), most of which had little to no relevance in the main BIONICLE story. Cendox V1 here is a prime example of that. In fact, I refer to it as "2009's Vultraz", since it was at the same price point and had even less bearing on the story than Vultraz did. And I don't wanna hear this crap about, "Ermmmm, you obviously didn't read Greg F's 2010 blog post about a missing chapter of the 2009 web serial, 'Shadows in the Sand'". In 2009, there were comics, a DVD movie, I think a few young adult novels, and the web series. I know it has been over 15 years, but I don't recall Cendox V1 or its driver having any particular visibility in the story back then. For that reason, plus the still-limited budget I had as a college student in 2009, I never fussed about getting this set or most of the other "cameo" vehicles like Baranus V7.
If you are a latter-day BIONICLE fan and thinking about picking this set up because it is smaller and cheaper, don't bother. Save up for a Thornatus V9 or Skopio XV-1. Way cooler sets and in the case of Thornatus, a far more prominent role in the 2009 movie, "The Legend Reborn".
Did this guy ever actually appear in any of the story? I remember the massive spider-tank and the chariot with the two-headed beastie appeared in a web serial Greg Farshety wrote, but I’m drawing a blank on this one
People didn't like this wave? These go so hard!
Of course I decided to go to bed early on a Bionicle day. Could have been worse, could have been Star Wars that I would have been more knowledgeable about, but now I feel like I let the BIScord server down by not alerting them to a Bionicle day right at release.
Strangely, this was the one that kicked off my time recovering sets I had owned but had sold over the years. The reason? I originally got it from the USA as a gift, and I found one second hand with instructions sold in the Netherlands for a decent price.
So I got it. And it rekindled my nostalgia and old love for the Bionicle theme. And now, I have all sets of the theme again that I once owned, and more! I never had a dark age, but that was like returning from one but for a specific theme. I had it with a few other themes with sets that took too much space at the time.
Anyway, the Cendox V1 is a simple but fun technic build with good detailing through the constraction parts and with a basic and on his own bland agori figure. The bike's front blades freely move to adjust to terrain and it steers, although with the figure holding both handlebars the side to side isn't great. But the fun part here is both how it looks and how it plays, as having such massive blades at the front and the launcher make this a fun weapon for the character. It's also more unique than a car would be. I like the color scheme a lot as well. The vibrance of the yellow pairs well with the dark red of the figure.
@Lego_lord said:
"I like the raw design of the bike, but I've always wished Lego Technic to delve into sci-fi designs like the B model of 42063 BMW R 1200 GS. Today's space sets are ok but sci-fi may open up a whole new chapter in Technic."
Okay, I don't think I knew about that alt model. I want that set now, or at least the parts to build the alt model.
@GSR_MataNui said:"As mass amounts of the substance were pumped from within the earth, and the Agori slaughtered each other to take it, the Great Beings made a horrible discovery. Energized Protodermis was more eldritch than they thought, and its reality bending magic was literally holding their planet together. If too much was extracted the world would be destroyed. Despite their warnings the thirst for profit was too strong, the pumps kept running, and the battles kept raging. "
Surely not a metaphor for anything...
@Lego_Lord_Mayorca said:"By 2009, BIONICLE was a victim of "overstuffing", the unofficial term I use for the overabundance of boxed sets (i.e. anything that didn't come in a canister or was more than $12), most of which had little to no relevance in the main BIONICLE story. Cendox V1 here is a prime example of that. In fact, I refer to it as "2009's Vultraz", since it was at the same price point and had even less bearing on the story than Vultraz did. And I don't wanna hear this crap about, "Ermmmm, you obviously didn't read Greg F's 2010 blog post about a missing chapter of the 2009 web serial, 'Shadows in the Sand'". In 2009, there were comics, a DVD movie, I think a few young adult novels, and the web series. I know it has been over 15 years, but I don't recall Cendox V1 or its driver having any particular visibility in the story back then. For that reason, plus the still-limited budget I had as a college student in 2009, I never fussed about getting this set or most of the other "cameo" vehicles like Baranus V7. "
I'd been into it since day one (actually a little earlier than that, since I saw a preview image of 8532 in the Lego Club magazine, and was intrigued by this robot with claws and a hockey mask), but by the end, I wasn't keeping up with most of the story material, just reading the comics that came with the aforementioned magazine and buying The Legend Reborn. (I always got a kick of how much Michael Dorn delivered some of his lines as Mata Nui in a very Worf-like manner.) I kept buying the sets, even if I had no idea what role any particular model vehicle played in the story.
@GSR_MataNui I think you’re expecting too much logic from a franchise where planets are held together by magical space mercury.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @GSR_MataNui said:"As mass amounts of the substance were pumped from within the earth, and the Agori slaughtered each other to take it, the Great Beings made a horrible discovery. Energized Protodermis was more eldritch than they thought, and its reality bending magic was literally holding their planet together. If too much was extracted the world would be destroyed. Despite their warnings the thirst for profit was too strong, the pumps kept running, and the battles kept raging. "
Surely not a metaphor for anything..."
Hey, not everything can be a Fabuland reference, dude. Except this. This clearly is.
My brother got this as our first 2009 vehicle. My family liked that it was a snowmobile... for a desert planet...
@Alia_of_AGL said:
"My brother got this as our first 2009 vehicle. My family liked that it was a snowmobile... for a desert planet..."
Did you know that much of Antarctica is considered a "polar desert" climate? It basically means cold temps with very low precipitation.