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Set Review: 8992 Cendox V1
 Sunday, August 9th, 2009 at 8:48pm by Andrew, BZPower News Manager[Source: Great Being #1] We've got another set review today for your reading pleasure. BZPower Reference Keeper Great Being #1 has taken a look at the Cendox V1, the smallest vehicle set this year. As you may recall last year's entrant in this category, Vultraz, didn't go over so well. How does this set fare? Read on to find out!
Presentation
The Cendox V1 is zooming towards you and shoots a Thornax off beside you at an enemy. The picture on the cover of the Cendox V1 box is pretty nice with the action pose, the shield and the elemental background (although I think they messed up with the backgroud because I'm pretty sure Crotesius is an Agori of fire not ice). The pose on the back of the box is nice too with the Agori showing off his tricked out ride. Not much else on the back except a couple of other sets and a couple of functions.
So when we open the box and dump out the stuff we see an instruction booklet (front of the box anyone?) and two bags of pieces (one of them exclusivly with a strange new black piece). I was surprised to see that the majority of pieces in the set were actually black and silver rather than black and yellow - there are really only about a dozen or so yellow pieces in the whole set. Building
To tell you guys the truth I wasn't expecting anything special from the build of this set considering it's the cheapest vehicle and the reviews from Vultraz last year really set low expectations. So you can imagine my surprise when I notice this set actually doesn't have that bad of a build.
Building the Matoran - I mean Agori - was so simple I actually did it with my eyes closed. So nothing here to say except that he really could change into Radiak.
Now onto the build of the V1 itself; while the build is fairly simple it uses a decent amount of pieces in interesting ways. Some of the build reminded me a bit of when I built the Rockoh T3 so I guess that's a good thing. I was kind of disappointed to find the treads were fully plastic with no rubber part. There were a lot of pins and axles used in this build, so many that in fact I think that there was every single type of each present in the build. Set Design
There were lots of new pieces in the Cendox V1 - most of them though being that new black piece. Even considering that there were about 7 or 8 different new pieces on display here.
The most notable only unique mold to this set is really Crotesius' mask. Even with that though there's Kiina's shoulder armor in yellow, the yellow gear piece and the black flat peice. Old molds in new colours consist of Brutaka's blades in black and the life counter in black. The new black flat pieces are all attached together to form the treads of the Cendox.
As you can see above the treads interlock seamlessly making them pretty much the perfect piece for the job. The only problem with them though is that they aren't coated anywhere with rubber to help with grip on smooth surfaces like hardwood and tiles making them mostly stay in place when riding on the floor rather than spinning around like they were designed to do. Another problem I find with the set is the colours. The design team did an alright job with the tri-coloured system but the pins and axles are rather garish. In the CGI you don't notice them but when you build the set they make you almost want to poke out your eyes. Playability
Well this championship vehicle is a lot of fun to play with. On carpets the treads actually work and the steering does too. Crotesius has the standard 9 points of articulation and adding that up with the vehicle's steering that gives you about 12 points to work with - plus the spinning of the treads. I also like the Thornax launcher up front; it's well placed and you can easily fire it with one hand while driving with the other. Over all this set is just fun to play with. Final Thoughts
Note to all Canadians - TRU for some reason is selling the set at 28 CAD which is a bit more expensive than LEGO and Wal*Mart who are both at 25 CAD so be wary of that. Now once all is said and done this decision really depends on your budget. I had about $40 to spend so I got the Cendox and Vastus. That's a great deal considering I got a Glatorian, an Agori and a vehicle. If you've got 25 I'd go for this because you get an agori in there too rather than buying one for 8 dollars separately. But if by any chance you've got more money I'd probably advise you to spend it on another one of the vehicles (Kaxium V3? Baranus V7?) or if you can find one of the 2008 vehicles on sale (I really recommend the Rockoh T3). (All prices CAD.)
Oh and if you've got both this and Mata Nui put him on and post a picture, I'd love to see how that combo would work out considering how the colour schemes match up well. Thanks go out to Great Being #1 for taking the time to do this review. Be sure to thank him when you can in the Talkback. As always, keep checking back for more reviews and all the latest Bionicle news!
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