Maybe cos he's not fun, but phenomal  

Cheetor tier  
Yh, Rattrap is definitely fun

 

Not on mine everything's pretty tight actually.

 

For me, Blackarachnia has one of the more interesting story arcs within the Beast Wars cartoon. A Maximal protoform turned Predacon, but forever scheming against Megatron. Eventually moving past her ‘looking out for number 1’ nature due to her relationship with Silverbolt to become an integral part of the Primal’s team. For a show that had so many characters with slippery allegiances, Blackarachnia managed to stand out.

It’s hard to consider the origins of Blackarachnia’s animation design without wincing. The legends tells that the designer was taken to a strip club for inspiration, hence her voluptuousness. Regardless about how one feels about the final product, and I’ve read compelling arguments that Blackaracnia’s design – perhaps inadvertently – provides a good point of identification for female TF fans, it’s hard for me not to feel a bit creeped out by the tale. But there we go. For better or worse, she is what she is.

I must admit that it does feel odd to be writing about a Blackarachnia toy when I’ve not written, and may not get the chance to write about Tarantulas. Normally I’m able to talk about the relationship between the ‘original’ and the ‘repaint’ in a very different way, where I talk about the original first, but not this time. Obviously Blackarachnia is a bigger character than many other examples of the repaint; it’d be disingenuous to compare this to Sideswipe and Red Alert, but I hope you’ll take my point.

In terms of meeting ‘cartoon model accuracy’ neither the Hasbro or Takara versions quite manage to hit the nail on the head. Personally, I like Takara deco a little more and, for better or worse, that’s the version I’ll be looking at.

Now, in terms of what came before I don’t really have anything from later than the Axelerators, so I can’t really say too much in terms of comparison to what came directly before Beast Wars. But man, the jump in articulation from the class of ’93 to the early Beast Wars figures is really something. Blackarachnia comes with two points of articulation in JUST her neck. That was pretty much unheard of in the ‘old days’. And continues as we move further. Simple as they seem to us now, those ball joints just provide so much fucking mobility, most evident in the hips. Suddenly a world of poseability possibility opens up that just wasn’t there back in the ’80’s.

The mold fits the character well too. There’s something both lithe and powerful to the design that works well for both Blackarachnia and Tarantulas. They didn’t always manage to achieve this match up with other toy/characters, but we’ll return to that topic a few waves in, I imagine.

So, I may not talk about the ‘mutant masks’ again, because I tend to ignore them, thinking they’re a rather naff idea. That said, with this mold it is an excellent way of differentiating between Tarantulas and Blackarachnia. It works so well that I even tell myself that the ‘robot’ head is intrinsically more feminine than the ‘mutant’ head. Of course it isn’t, but there is a certain verisimilitude to it that really works. And you know, they’re actually both really nice headsculpts. Much better than most ‘Mutant’ headsculpts. Sorry. I really can’t stand them.

It’s not all great. The spider mode legs I find to be incredibly cumbersome. Like Brian Eno’s Roxy Music era feather boa jacket, it looks fun but is a total nightmare in practical terms (what? I never told you I tried on Brain Eno’s jacket. Ask me about it later. I’m writing now), and (in what may well become a theme) and I really can’t get behind those mandible hands. I just want robots to have normal hands. Even with old G1 faves like Shockwave and Whirl, I’m annoyed by gun/claw hands. Also I’m also not a fan of the gun. It looks a bit dorky and I hate that bit of string.

In the ‘undecided’ column is the translucent plastic used for forearms, torso, and thighs. It’s both neat and bothersome. The effect is cool but, for me, robs the toy of some of it’s verisimilitude. It ways that visible ball joints should, but don’t, it reminds me that I’m looking at an object and not a character. But it looks cool. But it…

Anyway, the spider mode is a thing of loveliness. I think they’ve done a fantastic job of making the deco really ‘pop’, with the gold against the black and those green that catch the light so well. The small amount of articulation in her front legs (I kinda ignore the fact these are meant to be missiles as I find the idea of using your legs as projectiles too upsetting) allows some degree of pose-ability in this mode. My only real complaint about this mode is that the arms/mandibles don’t plug in as securely as they could. I’m (very graciously, I might note) prepared to accept this may be wear on my version and a fresher and minty-er version might do better.

Were it not for a lack of gold-y orange legs, yer Kingdom Blackarachnia would be a perfect CHUG version of the character, were it not for the toy being so incredibly flimsy.

Now I’m usually fairly resistant to the arguements that the fandom is getting ripped off as the toys become smaller and more hollow. This is the real world and a business like Hasbro needs to be fairly brutal about these sorts of decisions to keep satisfactory profit margins. I get it. However, when the toys get smaller and more fragile I start to back off.

Blackarachnia is an excellent action figure. She really does look like she stepped out of the cartoon and comes with all the crazy articulation that you’d require to make her pull off the limber poses you might wish for with a character like this. The implied furrow in her brow imbues her with all the devious expression that you’d expect, and the helmet overall is spot on. I’m also a sucker for how expressive her spider arms are in ‘bot mode. All that said, there’s a class of toy that sends shivers up my spine, let’s call that class ‘please don’t ever fall off the shelf. I’m worried that you break into tiny bits’, and Blackarachnia is a prime example of that class. She’s going nowhere near the front of the shelf.

It’s the spider mode which has delighted me the most, and pushed Blackarachnia to the top of the Kingdom Wave 1 Deluxes. The body is fun enough, with nice and faithful detail, but it’s those legs, those wonderefully expressive and poseable legs that really make this such a fun toy. I know if I was a kid playing with this I’d barely ever change it out of spider mode, because this is where the fun is.

Unfortunately, much like Cheetor, she has some pretty serious tolerance/QC issues. I’d been warned that the tab that connects her chest to her torso was fragile and prone to breakage, and I’d been suitably light of touch when transforming her. In fact, I’ve only transformed her from ‘bot to spide and back to bot once in the week I’ve owned her. But the tab still broke. A week. I’ve had her in hand a single week. That is piss poor. If this is going to be a feature of the BW contingent of Kingdom then this is going to be a pretty miserable line to collect.

 

Wild. All the other joints on mine are pretty tight too, but the those hips (both axes of movement) are just shy of flopping around if I give him a gentle shake. Makes the thigh swivels seem fine by comparison. (Luckily, those are exposed so hitting them with some future will be easy as pie.)

 

I believe that’s yours? x2

 

How did you remove Grimlock’s chest cover?

 

It's held in by two screws on the inside of his chest.

 

I think someone said you access them from the back of the figure.

 

What @Scarlet knight said , it’s held by 2 screws from the back .

 

Megatron's a good figure, it's just that there's two primary things that irk me.

First is a minor one, but I'm scared of the longetivity of the soft-plastic panels. Not in the sense of ROTF Bludgeon where it'll melt the figure, it feels like this is a completely different material to the treads. It's more so the fact that I'm scared that one day they'll just... pop off? It feels like one of the panels in the tail is already coming loose.

My second issue is in the transformation. I already complained about this in the review section for the toy, but the chest lock-on system ended up being too tight that I ended up cutting myself on it. And keep in mind, I'm an adult, I'm scared as to what'll happen to the kids playing with this toy. I'm slightly bothered less by it now, given how I can't really see myself how they would've gone at this any other way without sacrificing his articulation. Even if I'm not a personal fan of it, I can see why it's like that... just not THAT tight.

And really, fact of the matter is... I just like the other figures more! Cyclonus, Blackarachnia, and Primal are basically mini-MPs, Paleotrex is fun to mess with, and Warpath's a fun rendition of the character, especially considering I skipped the Generations one (and hot take: the transformation's actually kind of fun). And this is just Wave 1, keep in mind. We've got 3 more waves coming, and that's not counting the exclusives we're gonna get soon.

Maybe he'd actually be higher if he didn't have QC issues.

 

‘Sorry. Boss says you’re done.’

 

Walmart was trashed today in the toy isle, but I managed to get these two, hopefully I can find the rest later this week after they restock.

 

Slag-spoutin' Saurions

Slag-spoutin' Saurions by Wes, on Flickr

 

Paleotrex's screaming face is the stuff of nightmares.

 

I'll admit, I was never a big fan of Beast Wars as a toyline but Kingdom has got to be one of the greatest first waves of any Generations sub line. They had me first with the Fossilizers and Blackarachnia is the best version of this character I have ever had.

BW Megatron then really surprised me. The rubber style panels are hard to line up but he has some heft which is something I missed with lighter TFs. After that Cyclonus comes along with some fantastic engineering that beautifully hides the kibble and gives us a MP quality TF.

Then unintentionally I ended up saving the best for last. Primal was just a complete surprise in terms of build and overall fun factor. I especially like they designed his alt mode to either walk upright or on all fours. Cheetor, Warpath, and Rattrap are also great and while on the lower end of kingdom wave 1 experience, I have no real major gripes on any of them (except the thin plastic tab on Cheetor). Overall I have to give kudos to Hasbro on wave 1.

 

God, I truly hope you represent a lot of Transformers fans. I really want Beast Wars to stick around in the long run. You give me hope.

 

Still really enjoying Warpath!
Got three years to fit in one photo here..but it's the bot in focus that counts for the forum posts right?

 

Question for the Cheetor owners. I ordered a Cheetor for baby ILD, it's on pre-order. Baby ILD is 5, she's advanced, but still rough with figures. Will she break Cheetor? I heard Cheetor has thin plastic, does it snap easy?

Just to add, she has a large bin of transformers ranging from legends to voyagers, and has never broken a transformer. I just worry about what I am reading about this Cheetor. Are breaks for this figure majority or minority?