Random set of the day: Berix
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 8975 Berix, released during 2009. It's one of 30 Bionicle sets produced that year. It contains 15 pieces, and its retail price was US$6.99/£4.89.
It's owned by 1,864 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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Voiced by James Arnold Taylor, the same guy that voices Obi-Wan Kenobi, except with Berix, it was closer to his Johnny Test voice, so it was one of the more annoying performances. The Legend Reborn, why do you do this to us?
GSR lore:
annoying hoarder from bara magna. He (he is male) is also from water tribe.
I mean no offense, but this is my early bird simplification.
At first glance, that hose did not look like it sourced from his back.
I think I got this one in a bargain bin a couple of years after the theme had ended, along a small Skrall fella, as well as... I think his name was Vorax?
@Robot99 said:
"I think I got this one in a bargain bin a couple of years after the theme had ended, along a small Skrall fella, as well as... I think his name was Vorax?"
8983-1 Vorox.
This guy had some fantastic parts. Two-tone blue Tahu sword (and a helmet that went nicely with it), two gold Chronicler's Staves, a pair of original Toa feet in dark blue, and that silver hose was nice, too.
I actually collected a few of this line, I thought they were great.
Berix was one of the first BIONICLE sets I rebuilt during my 2020 quarantine since all the Agori were quick, simple builds. Thankfully, none of his joints have cracked, and that blue Tahu sword looks just amazing. Even the random touch of a silver tube running from it to Berix's back is cool, and who could say no to two Chronicler's Staffs in gold?
Those parts and the color scheme is what drove me to buy Berix back in 2009. I had no idea his role in "The Legend Reborn" would be so prominent, so I'm doubly glad I got him!
Though he features somewhat in the comics prior to the movie, Berix's character really shone in the film. Something of a "collector" of the Water Tribe, Berix often got accused of being a thief in resource-scarce Bara Magna. His own jumpy nature only increased suspicions about his character, but Berix wasn't a criminal. With the arrival of the mysterious stranger wearing a mask, Mata Nui, Berix found himself caught up in the adventure of a lifetime with fellow Water Tribe member and Number 2 Glatorian for their village, Kiina. To and from that village (which was destroyed by the Skrall), Berix learned a lot about Mata Nui and witnessed how the Great Spirit used his Mask of Life to activate the latent Toa powers within Glatorian Ackar, Gresh, and Kiina. Although Berix couldn't gain any such powers, his own capture and imprisonment by the Skrall led to an awakening within himself regarding his own capabilities as a warrior and defender for his friends.
After Mata Nui bested the Skrall leader, Tuma, in a duel, thus igniting all-out battle between the Skrall and collected Glatorian allies of Mata Nui, Berix and Kiina were free. Berix even dove into battle himself, much to the chagrin of Kiina, who had come to care for the so-called thief.
Even after the Skrall defeat, Berix pledged himself to Mata Nui and followed him as he journey into the north of Bara Magna to find a source of power for the colossal robot buried beneath the villages of Bara Magna. Unfortunately, Berix was wounded in an ambush and Mata Nui chose to go on alone in order to not risk the lives of his newfound friends. I presume he survived, and after Mata Nui's victory over Makuta and the recreation of Spherus Magna, Berix looked forward to a future with friends old and new.
@R1_Drift said:
"8983-1 Vorox."
Ah, I was close. Thanks!
I'm gonna keep the lore brief today:
Long ago Spherus Magna was a prosperous world ruled by eight elemental tribes. When a mysterious substance known as Energized Protodermis was discovered in the planets core war broke loose, with each tribe trying to collect as much of the substance as possible. In the end they drained so much EP from the planet that it exploded into three smaller worlds. The ocean moon of Aqua Magna, the jungle moon of Bota Magna, and the desert world of Bara Magna.
The people of Bara Magna had to adapt to this harsh climate in order to survive. In the end, the Glatorian system was established, where each tribe would send a warrior to represent them in an arena in non-lethal combat over resources.
One of these survivors was Berix, An Agori of the water tribe. Berix was a scavenger, hunting the wastes for broken vehicles and loose scrap to collect and sell back at the villages. However, he built up a reputation as a thief as he would often nab anything and everything he could get his hands on, so long as it was unattended for a while.
When Mata Nui arrived on Bara Magna he found Berix as an unlikely ally. Alongside Ackar, Kiina, and Gresh the heroes uncovered an traitorous alliance between Metus of the ice tribe and Tuma of the Skrall. The two were defeated in combat and banished. With the Skrall scrambling to find new leadership the remaining tribes made peace and combined their villages together into one mega village. Berix didn't do much during this adventure, but he was there.
Huh. I looked at this one, and figured it was Hero Factory instead of Bionicle.
@Lego_Lord_Mayorca:
Shortly before I kinda dropped out, I got sent a ridiculous number of those Chronicler Staves in silver (we’re talking gallons-with-an-“s” here), and I don’t think I’ve managed to hand out even 100 of them yet. I’m not sure I’d want to bring more into my home at this point. My dad, for reasons that defy logic, even expressed interest in them at one point, so I gave him some. A few weeks later he returned them. After moving across the state, and then into my condo, I stumbled across them at one point, and pulled out the smallest bag (which I can’t currently find, giving me hope that I managed to unload at least that much), but in the ~15 years since I moved in, I lost track of the main box again. So they’re in here somewhere, lurking, and will someday read their collective heads. So many heads...
This was one of my earliest LEGO sets :)
@PurpleDave said:
"Huh. I looked at this one, and figured it was Hero Factory instead of Bionicle.
@Lego_Lord_Mayorca :
Shortly before I kinda dropped out, I got sent a ridiculous number of those Chronicler Staves in silver (we’re talking gallons-with-an-“s” here), and I don’t think I’ve managed to hand out even 100 of them yet. I’m not sure I’d want to bring more into my home at this point. My dad, for reasons that defy logic, even expressed interest in them at one point, so I gave him some. A few weeks later he returned them. After moving across the state, and then into my condo, I stumbled across them at one point, and pulled out the smallest bag (which I can’t currently find, giving me hope that I managed to unload at least that much), but in the ~15 years since I moved in, I lost track of the main box again. So they’re in here somewhere, lurking, and will someday read their collective heads. So many heads..."
The Chronicler's staff was meant to be a collectible part in 2003... BUT Lego promptly used it as a normal piece in wide release sets in 2004 and kept it in production for the rest of Bionicle. So the idea you ended up with hundreds of "collectible" parts that promptly became worthless just seems to be the part's broad history in general.
I’d stopped collecting most Bionicle by this point; the sets had gotten too samey or shoddy for my liking and unfortunately Berix was no exception. I just had no interest in building the same thing six times just with slightly different things in its hands
@rople said: "My boy has been forgotten again."
Well, there might be a reason for that.
*whistles*
@PurpleDave said:
"Huh. I looked at this one, and figured it was Hero Factory instead of Bionicle."
Mark Surge without the hero core...
@TheOtherMike said:
"This guy had some fantastic parts. Two-tone blue Tahu sword (and a helmet that went nicely with it), two gold Chronicler's Staves, a pair of original Toa feet in dark blue, and that silver hose was nice, too."
The sword is just medium blue, though, only the helmet is two-toned.
While not boasting interesting builds, I do appreciate the Agori for their part in bringing bright colors back into the line and also some very sweet recolors.
@xboxtravis7992 :
Oh, it gets more complicated than that. Yes, it was supposed to be a collectible item, and they ran a production run. Then they abandoned their original plans for releasing it. So they sent me a box of them to distribute however I saw fit. But I wasn’t independently wealthy, I didn’t make any money from running MoD, and I didn’t have an operating budget, so shipping them would have been entirely out of pocket, plus there would have been complications with the federal age limit on collecting personal information like mailing addresses, so I didn’t manage to disperse more than a tiny handful, and those only to other members of my LUG. Then I started looking for a new job, relocated to the other side of the state, and basically lost track of the box for a few years. By the time I ran across it again, I discovered that the parts had been included in several sets, so aside from the sheer quantity and volume involved, they’re unremarkable. But when that box arrived, most MoD readers would have offered body parts for even one of them.
Berix, the dyslexic vote leave Bionicle :~P
@Lego_Lord_Mayorca said:
"Berix was one of the first BIONICLE sets I rebuilt during my 2020 quarantine since all the Agori were quick, simple builds. "
Is this build really only FIFTEEN parts (according to the Brickset description)?
@Padmewan said:
" @Lego_Lord_Mayorca said:
"Berix was one of the first BIONICLE sets I rebuilt during my 2020 quarantine since all the Agori were quick, simple builds. "
Is this build really only FIFTEEN parts (according to the Brickset description)?"
Only one part has two colors, so it's pretty clear to see all 15 parts in the main set image.
On the subject of the Chronicler Staff, one thing I really liked about the design was how it was clearly designed to look like a folded-up Staff or Light blade. It makes me wonder now how many people have incorporated that dual design into a MOC, or an animation.
@Padmewan:
2 - 2x feet
4- 2x legs
6 - 2x hands
8 - 2x arms
10 - 2x Chronicler Staves
11 - 1x Tahu sword
12 - 1x hose
13 - 1x torso
And I’m guessing the last two are the head shell and the eye/brain. The thing worth noting here is why the piece count is less than half that of the original Tahu. The Toa Mata didn’t have any balls or sockets incorporated into the torso, so you needed three parts to add hips, and four to add shoulders. This doesn’t have a gearbox, so that’s another seven or eight parts, depending on whether one or both arms are geared. Then they needed extra parts for the combiner models, so Tahu got two pieces to add a voodoo ball to his chest, on top of having that goofy left hand.
@PurpleDave said:
"Huh. I looked at this one, and figured it was Hero Factory instead of Bionicle.
this may be heresy... is there much difference? "
@Padmewan said:
" @Lego_Lord_Mayorca said:
"Berix was one of the first BIONICLE sets I rebuilt during my 2020 quarantine since all the Agori were quick, simple builds. "
Is this build really only FIFTEEN parts (according to the Brickset description)?"
The final few years of Bionicle tried streamlining the smaller sets with these bigger bulkier parts, so the 2008 Matoran, 2009 Agori, and the 2010 Stars line and also Hero Factory's first wave all used this core build. It was generally not well received by the fandom, who felt that Lego was trying to raise prices on the small sets while reducing piece count.
At launch the early Bionicle small sets weren't much bigger (such as the Turaga) but featured more traditional Technic builds and came in at low prices (like $4 USD) so you can see why fans got upset to see the 2008 Matoran style stick around to the end of the theme since it was pricier and more juinorized.