I didn't even notice til the second time I watched it but Airachnid as segmented eyes!

I can totally see the Stealth Helicopter mode, the "mirror" shiny bits would the been the cockpit, and when she is walking into her ship after jack you can really see tail fin parts on her side skirts.

I wanted to see homages in the trophy case too. I wan't to say there is some Monster Pretender in there, but not really. One of the trophies kinda reminded me the Q/Einstein white haired robot head we saw in DOTM set pics.

 

It's a shame because that would have been such a great homage, too.

 

Not just that! If you look at her back there's a silver disc-shaped piece. Possibly the base of the rotor?

 

Arcee's pink is definitely subtle. It's always been there, but they may have made it JUST a little stronger after the break in episodes. It was especially apparent in this episode thanks to the lighting of them going from late afternoon haziness, to sunlit dusk, to nighttime. It was especially during the dusk period that the pink really popped. Still, I didn't notice it when I first watched the episode. They made that color faint enough that if you're not looking for it, you can miss it. At the same time though, once I noticed it, I couldn't stop seeing it. Go figure.

Speaking of the time of day, that episode did a great job of changing the lighting over time! Watching it again, I really appreciate how much they put into the atmosphere of each specific time. These guys really know what they're doing with lighting and atmosphere, as well as backgrounds and surroundings.

 

I'm surprised no one has brought up the scene when Airachnid pins Arcee to the cliff, and when she's interrogating her Airachnid climbs the wall while keeping her face at the same distance from Arcee's while going up sidedown. That kinda gave me chills, I didn't know what was going on until she was halfway turned around. I was like, "What? oh... OH!"  

I can also see her as being a helicopter of some kind. I was also thinking... what if her "alt-mode" we saw was just a partial mode and she can go further to full spider mode.

That would make for an awesome toy to be able to go into 5 modes: robot, centaur-spider mode, full spider mode, helicopter, and drill. Oh, the possibilities.  

 

Going off of the idea of Transformers being on Earth before, didn't Cybertronians come to Earth during the War to hide energon deposits?
And possibly Airachnid going to another planet with spider-looking creatures on it to hide energon and take on that alt. mode.

 

I play it off as life is abundent in unverse, but the planets that can host it are sparse and far apart. So earth is kinda of a hotspot.

 

Animated Wreckgar would like to have a word with you on the subject  

 

There's something wrong with me. I actually find Airachnid.....sexy?
This show has done something I've been missing for a long time. Good villians! Yeah, we got Megs, Swindle, and even the Elite Guard if you want to go that far in Animated. But the movies just make them Cannon fodder(still mad about Barricade being retconed), and Armada stuff is...well.....google Super Sentai villian archetype.

We get the threatening, creepy, self serving(yet strangly alluring) Airachnid

The vain, glorious bastard who'll murder you for stratching his paint in KnockOut
With his giant wrecking ball partner who speciallizes in Cosmetics-Breakdown

StarScream-who wants his old master's recognition without even realizing he's emulating the Insane Welker himself

and the best: SoundWave-the single smartest Decepticon in Transformers history. nuff said.
am I only one hoping for ShockWave? ;D

 

I wasn't at all surprised by the Cybertronian robot modes. Skyquake clearly had earth jet parts before he scanned the jet mode.

 

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-prime-discussion/387539-weird-im-attracted-arcee.html

All your answers and much more are in there

 

To Vangelus and friends:

While you didn't mention them in this podcast, I thought I'd inform you all that the "Eradicons" are actually called "Vehicons." Eradicon was a conceptual name stamped on a released pice of concept art. Lookie here for my source.

 

Man, every time I see this episode (mainly the pic in the OP), I'm reminded of Slenderman.
Oh yeah, and super cool podcast.