Random set of the day: Zadakh
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 8617 Zadakh, released in 2004. It's one of 54 Bionicle sets produced that year. It contains 32 pieces, and its retail price was US$9/£5.99.
It's owned by 1987 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
Help me come to life! If you like the set I've chosen for you today, please pledge your support for me on LEGO Ideas so I have a chance of becoming an official LEGO set!
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25 comments on this article
Yay Bonkle!
I summon Bionicle dudes for backstory on this guy. Hopefully thorough and detailed
@fakespacesquid said:
"I summon Bionicle dudes for backstory on this guy. Hopefully thorough and detailed"
Okay let me try...
The Vahki were the robotic police force of the urban island of Metru-Nui in the Bionicle lore. They were created by Nuparu a talented engineer (who has other starring roles in Bionicle canon), and they followed the commands of the island's leader Turaga Dume. All Vahki could shoot powered "Kanoka" disks from their jaws, and carried different enforcement staffs intended to stun, apprehend and interrogate law breakers. The Zadakh were assigned to Po-Metru the Region of Stone in the city. There were eight types of Vahki, six assigned to the various city districts and two special unit types used to break up riots and quell wild animals in the city. The main six units had multiple modes of travel, from bipedal walking, four legged crawling and self propelled flying.
Makuta Teridax the villain of the Bionicle story kidnapped Turaga Dume and then used his shapeshifting powers to hide himself as the venerable leader. Using his disguise, Makuta as "Dume" turned the Vahki into a brutal Orwellian police force, kidnapping average citizens and enforcing his will until the heroic Toa Metru managed to rescue the citizenry. A massive power surge due to failing infrastructure in the now abandoned city caused most of the Vahki to short circuit and shut down shortly afterwards. The Visorak a spider-like horde soon invaded the island, destroying the last of the Vahki.
@xboxtravis7992 said:
" @fakespacesquid said:
"I summon Bionicle dudes for backstory on this guy. Hopefully thorough and detailed"
Okay let me try..."
That’s the good stuff. A bit sad but I guess Mata Nui giveth and Mata Nui taketh away
Loved these guys, sadly never got them. I did get Nokama and Matau though
Since I got five Vahki all at once, after building the first few in a row, fatigue started to set in. But it wasn't from the building process; it was from seeing the exact same pieces and the exact same steps used to create almost exactly the same model as the last one, save for color variations and different Staffs of Command.
Now, don't get me wrong. From a story standpoint, I appreciate this. As the mass-produced robotic police force of Metru Nui, the Vahki should all be built the same. And since it is all one big city, without much in the way of radically different climates or environments, this one-size-fits-all solution seems to work out for the police force of Metru Nui, forgiving for a moment that the Makuta was actually in charge of them in the final months prior to the Great Cataclysm. But from the stories told at the time, even before Makuta started cracking down on the Matoran, the Vahki were definitely held in an unhappy regard by the Matoran. A necessary evil, since their island city had been steadily losing its Toa guardians over the course of the centuries. Hmm, I wonder who could've been behind that?
Anyway, in the real world, I definitely saved Zadakh for either my last or next-to-last build, and I was pretty underwhelmed. The caramel brown was no longer a novelty, and while the blue "eyes" and the throwback to the Gali hooks in the staff design was appreciated, I was definitely only glad to have Zadakh in my collection because it completed it. For the third time in a row, I had a full set of all six BIONICLE canister sets. In fact, 2004 would be the first year in which I had the complete BIONICLE lineup of sets (no combiner models, just the 12 canister sets, six small boxed sets, and four large character/creature sets). Heck, I even had all 3 comics that came with Lunchables at the time.
After the first few Bionicle waves, I tend to find myself looking at the villains and thinking, "do I own this one? Or one that's a slightly different colour?"
@Lego_Lord_Mayorca said:
"Since I got five Vahki all at once, after building the first few in a row, fatigue started to set in. But it wasn't from the building process; it was from seeing the exact same pieces and the exact same steps used to create almost exactly the same model as the last one, save for color variations and different Staffs of Command."
Without a doubt the weakest part of early Bionicle were the clone sets. One Vahki is a great toy, but only really get six if you are a completionist (I got my sixth and final Vahki this year actually off Bricklink). I appreciate that post-2007 Lego tried to break the clone builds of Bionicle with the Barraki and Mahri, but by then a large part of the line had been nothing but clones. I figure that was a side effect of each wave using many many brand new parts molds. Once you design a figure like the Vahki where only like a few parts on it are old parts and everything else is brand new molds, it likely got expensive to attempt to make each figure "unique" and instead easier to pump out the same figure in five other colors. I thought CCBS made a good move via trying to standardize parts and prevent releasing dozens of new molds each year, but even then I feel CCBS didn't peak as a system until Bionicle Gen 2 and the Star Wars sets.
Vahki do look great as army builders though for their uniformity, and I appreciate that as a benefit of the clone build at least.
@Lego_Lord_Mayorca:
Heh. I did that to myself. In the story, it was revealed that all six Toa had Exo-Toa suits, so I bought six so I could do the same thing. By the time I got to the last one, I wasn't even cracking open the instruction book, partly because it made the build take longer. However, there was a flip side to this story. Only Tahu actually fit in the stock Exo-Toa. Any other Toa needed to be made more Tahu-shaped, or the front wouldn't close (I don't think Pohatu could even fit into the space where the pilot is supposed to go). So, after building all six, I had to then figure out how to tweak five of them to fit four Toa that were slightly different shapes than Tahu, and one that was upside-down.
Bionicle was solidly in my dark ages. And although I appreciate the explanations and backstory given by those such as @xboxtravis7992 and @Lego_Lord_Mayorca, after a while it starts to feel like I’m listening to Monty Python’s RAF banter.
I have all 6 Vahki, but Zadakh is my top favourite. Its colour scheme is really nice with combo of light Brown, light trans blue and silver.
Also the 2 Staffs of Suggestion are the only Vahki stall pieces with 2 axle connections!
Just looks so nice!
@MCLegoBoy Hey, just wanted to say hi. I used to use MOCpages from 2014 onwards as DavidZaBuilder or David or something and followed your page. (I wouldn't expect anyone to recognize my name lol) Seeing your name and profile was a major throwback and now I'm nostalgic haha.
This is easily the weakest Bionicle wave in its first few years. These were just so basic. Still, it's one of the better Vahki. That brown colour is pretty cool.
I liked Bionicle as a kid, but now I fail to find the appeal.
Also, after 2007 the parts became really brittle. In just a single set I had like 3-4 broken pieces - and I didn't play much with it.
Gotta sell those few sets I have.
SURRENDER OR RUN.
TURAGA DUME SEES ALL.
A BUSY MATORAN IS A HAPPY MATORAN.
Ah Zadakh, the might-makes-right, smash-anything-in-our-path-to-get-to-the-target Vahki
@ZGMFToddD said:
"Also the 2 Staffs of Suggestion are the only Vahki stall pieces with 2 axle connections!
Just looks so nice!"
That's actually really interesting. There's no example of the part being used anywhere else in 2004 where having two different axles are essential.
@HangryDave said:
" @MCLegoBoy Hey, just wanted to say hi. I used to use MOCpages from 2014 onwards as DavidZaBuilder or David or something and followed your page. (I wouldn't expect anyone to recognize my name lol) Seeing your name and profile was a major throwback and now I'm nostalgic haha. "
I do what I can. :)
@MCLegoboy said:
" @ZGMFToddD said:
"Also the 2 Staffs of Suggestion are the only Vahki stall pieces with 2 axle connections!
Just looks so nice!"
That's actually really interesting. There's no example of the part being used anywhere else in 2004 where having two different axles are essential."
For that matter, none of the Vahki staffs were ever released in alternate colors.
For whatever reason, the Vahki are dirt cheap on Bricklink... you can buy a used one for less then 6$. Which is a good thing, because this way, you can easily buy multiple of them and make yourself a army of Vahki.
@SearchlightRG said:
"For that matter, none of the Vahki staffs were ever released in alternate colors."
I think the Keerakh one showed up in a different colour in an Exo-Force set? It was marbled black-and-red, though, so Bricklink gives it a different part listing due to not being a solid colour: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?id=59824
@SearchlightRG said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
" @ZGMFToddD said:
"Also the 2 Staffs of Suggestion are the only Vahki stall pieces with 2 axle connections!
Just looks so nice!"That's actually really interesting. There's no example of the part being used anywhere else in 2004 where having two different axles are essential."
For that matter, none of the Vahki staffs were ever released in alternate colors."
Actually, set 7702 Thunder Fury had Keerakh staff in marbled black and red.
While the fact that early sets were essentially clones is admittedly dull from a building perspective, it definitely kept costs down. If you look at the MSRP for canister sets after the Barraki, the price goes up almost every year. The original Toa Mata were $7, the Mistika in the end were $13. There were several factors that led to the end of Bionicle, but I think that driving the main characters out of "impulse buy" range to nearly double what they were had a significant impact. For example, it now cost $78 for an entire line of canister sets instead of $42.
Granted, there would have been no way to avoid this unless they just kept making cloned sets, so it seems like it was a lose-lose situation.
Me at the time: The Vahki are just Rahkshi clones. Same swinging shoulders, same knee and hip articulation, same elbowless arms, just now with a big head. Except now they're really freaky robot police that make me definitely NOT want to live in Metru Nui. Doesn't the Bionicle team have any better ideas?
Me now: Same.
@Dash_Justice said:
" @SearchlightRG said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
" @ZGMFToddD said:
"Also the 2 Staffs of Suggestion are the only Vahki stall pieces with 2 axle connections!
Just looks so nice!"That's actually really interesting. There's no example of the part being used anywhere else in 2004 where having two different axles are essential."
For that matter, none of the Vahki staffs were ever released in alternate colors."
Actually, set 7702 Thunder Fury had Keerakh staff in marbled black and red.
While the fact that early sets were essentially clones is admittedly dull from a building perspective, it definitely kept costs down. If you look at the MSRP for canister sets after the Barraki, the price goes up almost every year. The original Toa Mata were $7, the Mistika in the end were $13. There were several factors that led to the end of Bionicle, but I think that driving the main characters out of "impulse buy" range to nearly double what they were had a significant impact. For example, it now cost $78 for an entire line of canister sets instead of $42.
Granted, there would have been no way to avoid this unless they just kept making cloned sets, so it seems like it was a lose-lose situation.
"
It got worse with G2 regarding the price climbing up from "impulse buy" to serious investment. The 2015 wave to get all six Toa cost $105 USD, $15 for the three "smaller" Toa (Lewa, Gali, Pohatu) and $20 for the bigger Toa (Tahu, Kopaka, Onua). I don't remember the cost of the 2016 Toa wave off the top of my head, but I think since Kopaka was bundled with Malum he came in a $25 or maybe even $30 set. Don't get me wrong I adore what the G2 sets did, but I wonder if that price hike is a factor as to why G2 crashed and burned since it firmly removed Bionicle from the "impulse buy" range.
Huwbot, how do we get the word out? 200K + members, over 9,500 logged on in last 24 hours, but only 2,229 supporters? Something doesn't jibe...