Tarantulas (BW)

2008-01-23T20:56:51Z

76.64.54.90: /* Trivia */

{{picsneeded|Toys and Transmetal version}}
:''Tarantulas is a [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] from the [[Beast Wars]] portion of the [[Generation 1]]/[[Beast Era]] [[continuity family]].
:''His name is also officially spelled "'''Tarantulus'''".''

[[Image:Tarantulasbw.jpg|right|thumb|250px|"And fries! Lots of FRIES!"]]

'''Tarantulas''' is the scheming mad scientist of the Predacon crew. The type of mad scientist who experiments on living beings, cackling in his [[trademark]]ed laugh all the while, and then if things go wrong, happily eats what's left as his midday snack (considering his appetite, that must happen a lot). He was one of the Predacons to join [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] during his theft of the [[Golden Disc]] and the search for [[Earth]]. In addition to being an utterly psychotic, sadistic sociopath (even by Predacon standards, which is something he appears to wear with pride), Tarantulas has a record for treachery rivaled by few [[Starscream (G1)|other]] Transformers. Tarantulas is actually an agent of the [[Tripredacus Council]] who is trying to coax the Beast Wars toward an unspecified goal, where neither Autobot or Decepticon won the [[Great War]].

Tarantulas has a particularly notable hatred of the [[Vok]] aliens, a hatred strong enough to make him work to eliminate them by any means.
{{quote|Lunatic.|[[Blackarachnia]] on Tarantulas|"[[Spider's Game]]"}}

''Japanse name'': '''Tarans'''

==Fiction==
===Toy Bio===

Tarantulas is a sneaky, mysterious ninja feared across the galaxy. A master of the martial arts, he's suspected in the disappearances of many [[human|earthlings]] and rumors swirl of giant cocoons where he stores his prey.

''('''Note:''' The on-package [[Bio|bios]] of the first wave of Beast Wars toys predate the development of the Beast Wars cartoon and its backstory. Instead they seem to present the characters as a direct continuation of the previous Autobot/Decepticon conflict with their battles taking place on present day, human-inhabited Earth, rather than in the distant past. Once the cartoon launched, the toyline adjusted itself to match that continuity instead.)''

===Optimus Primal VS Megatron pack-in comic===

Tarantulas is guarding the Predacon's jungle-based genetics lab along with Megatron and Waspinator. When the Maximals discover them he engages Razorbeast in combat briefly before Megatron calls retreat and destroys the lab. ''(This story predates the Animated continuity and seems to be set on present day earth, see note above.)''

===Animated continuity===
====''Timelines: Dawn of Future's Past'' comic====
[[Image:Tarantulasdawn.jpg|left|thumb|250px|See, a [[Planet X]] [[Cyber Planet Key|key]] in the corner of the pic, He's working for [[Unicron]]! Get him!]]

As [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] and his rogue band of Predacons escaped [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]] in their stolen ship, the ''[[Darksyde]]'', Tarantulas was in charge of scanning the disk for a desired set of coordinates. While Megatron was not watching, he was in secret communications with a member of the [[Tripredacus Council]]. (The reflections in his helmet show the silhouette of [[Cicadacon|General Cicadacon]].)

Using the decoded coordinates, the ''Darksyde'' opened a [[transwarp]] portal, which it and the [[Axalon (BW)|''Axalon'']] passed through.

====''Beast Wars'' cartoon====
:''Voice actor:'' [[Alec Willows]] (English), [[Yūichi Nagashima]] (Japanese), [[Fabio Vilalonga]] (Brazil)

Tarantulas was one of the original crew on the [[Darksyde]] when it crashed to prehistoric Earth. As Megatron's technical leader, he manned the scanners to appropriate Beast Forms based on the most powerful local creatures. {{storylink|Beast Wars (Part 1)}}

Tarantulas caused as many problems for Megatron as he fixed. Tarantulas always needed a [[Tarantulas's lair|separate hideout]] to plot other, evil schemes, and he managed to stay one step ahead of most of his 'allies'. The only partner he worked with frequently—though they betrayed each other just as often—was [[Blackarachnia]].

When Tarantulus learned of the [[Vok]] and their impending return to Earth, he spent his best efforts to capture a working [[stasis pod]] to craft an escape shuttle. At the hour of the Vok's return, he finally crafted one. Megatron had known of his and Blackarachina's plans, and threw a wrench in the works—[[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]]. Inferno stomped into the room, interrupted his download of the stasis pod's datatracks, torched Tarantulas, and was defeated by Blackarachnia. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

Fortunately for him, Blackarachnia picked up his discarded download visor. Tarantulas jumped into her mind, controlling her (presumably from his stasis-locked body). When the [[quantum surge]] knocked out all of the Transformers on Earth, his body was upgraded to a Transmetal form, complete with a motorcycle vehicle mode. He maintained a link to Blackarachnia's mind, but was forced to severe it when she threatened to to commit suicide - which would also off-line him. He also set up a second lair in [[Grid Arakis]], which held a large cache of stable [[Energon cube]]s and had been written off by both sides. {{storylink|Tangled Web}}

At some undisclosed point, Tarantulas discovered the ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]'', the flagship of the [[Decepticon]] fleet. Although his longterm goals for the vessel are unknown, he did manage to restore the ship to working function, complete with a Predacon control console. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

When the transwarp explosion finally reached through the time warp and had enough potency to enter [[Cybertronian]] space, Tarantulas true allegiance was revealed; he was a member of the [[Predacon Secret Police]] and an agent of the [[Tripredacus Council]]. The Tripredacus Council was the first alerted of the transwarp explosion, and realized it was Megatron's ship. Ravage was sent to ally with the Maximals, arrest Megatron, and then betray and destroy them all.

Allied with the Maximals, and with his stealth ship, they easily overwhelmed Megatron. Tarantulas knocked out the power to his ship at the exact moment, allowing an easy capture. {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 1)}}

Megatron managed to manipulate Ravage into his servitude using a recording of the original [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] on the Golden Disc and gained his freedom. Tarantulas joined Ravage on his stealth ship for an attack on the [[Axalon]]. {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} However, Tarantulas was blown to pieces by Rattrap through a combination of the rodent's demolition bombs and the explosion of the ship. {{storylink|The Agenda (Part III)}} Tarantulas survived, though, and was quickly put back together by his spider drones.{{storylink|Optimal Situation}}

Megatron, in all his wisdom, forgave Tarantulas' treachery, as it was simply the Predacon way and Tarantulas was too useful to execute, even though Megatron made it very clear that he never trusted Tarantulas, even before Tarantulas did anything treacherous. Tarantulas appeared back in the Predacon camp on a regular basis—though it would later become clear that he was still very busy working on his own agenda, apparently during his numerous unexplained absences. He battled the Maximals alongside Megatron's Transmetal raptors (a harbinger of [[Dinobot II|things to come]]), {{storylink|Cutting Edge}} and helped the other Predacons construct a massive disruptor ray (which ultimate backfired on them). {{storylink|Go With the Flow}} When the Maximals attempted to remove Blackarachnia's shell program, he revealed to Megatron that he had included "certain safeguards" that guaranteed she would not survive, and joined the other Predacons in an attack on the Maximals that was meant to disrupt the attempted shell removal. He fired the missile which knocked the Maximals' power offline at a crucial instant, seemingly bringing an end to his "treacherous creation". Enraged by the death of his beloved, [[Silverbolt (Fuzor)|Silverbolt]] attempted to kill the scientist, but was thwarted by [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]], who was later defeated by a revived—and [[Transmetal]]ized—Blackarachnia.{{storylink|Crossing the Rubicon}}

Tarantulas participated in the Predacons' next attempt to retake the ''[[Ark (G1)|Ark]]'', but manipulated [[Quickstrike]] into throwing Megatron onto the lava, while he set the Ark's engines to overload. At this point, he claimed to be descended from neither the Autobots nor the Decepticons, which was why he was willing to destroy the core members of both factions then present (in stasis-lock) in the Ark. Megatron survived his lava-dunking, gaining a new body in the process. However, Megatron had lost his patience. While he tolerated Tarantulas's treachery, he could not tolerate incompetence. Tarantulas survived, however, and fled back to his lair. {{storylink|Master Blaster}}

When the [[Vok]] emissary [[Tigerhawk]] arrived on Earth shortly afterwards, Tarantulas managed to disable and capture him. Tarantulas intended to force the all-powerful being into his servitude by drawing the Vok influences out of his body and reprogramming him. Tarantulas' scheme backfired, however, as his energy beam device expelled two actual Vok out of Tigerhawk. The formless spectres attempted to take over Tarantulas' body. Panicking, he opened fire on them—a futile gesture that merely served to spin the energy device around, till its rays were blasting him and his lab equipment. Overloaded by the beams, Tarantulas exploded, leaving nothing behind but his boots; the remainder of his equipment detonated seconds later, blowing the lair to rubble. Cheetor managed to rescue the inert Tigerhawk, and Tarantulas was presumed dead. {{storylink|Other Victories}} When Megatron learned of Tarantulas' death, he referred to him as "[[Unicron's Spawn]]". {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

====3H ''Primeval Dawn'' comics====
[[Image:Primeval Tarantulas.jpg|right|thumb|Tarantulas doesn't really hate the Vok so much as he wants to kill them and wear their skin as a Vok suit, even though the Vok don't have skin—he's that insane.]]
Following the Beast Wars, Tarantulas' body returned to life, reanimated by the Vok powers he previously absorbed. The undead Tarantulas, along with a rebuilt Ravage (as [[Tripredacus Agent]]), nurtured new troops to life through enigmatic means, growing [[Razorclaw (BW)|Razorclaw]] and [[Iguanus (BW)|Iguanus]] in tubes. The remaining Vok anticipated Tarantulas' plan to destroy the rest of them, take their power, and fashion the timestream to his desires, and so they assembled an army of their own consisting of [[Primal Prime]], [[Airazor (BW)|Airazor]], and [[Tigatron]]. Tarantulas met this opposition in battle, overwhelmed them, and ripped the [[Matrix of Leadership]] from Primal Prime's chest. Wounded critically, the Maximals withdrew to the [[Ark]]. Tarantulas ordered Ravage to take Razorclaw, Iguanus, and their new recruit [[Spittor]] and assault the Ark in order to finish them off.

''([[3H Productions]] dissolved before this storyline could be completed. It can be assumed that the Matrix of Leadership was restored to Optimus Prime's body at the end of this altercation, and that the Maximals were triumphant.)''

====3H ''Universe'' comics====
When the influence of [[Unicron]] sways [[Blackarachnia]] to the side of darkness, she is surprised to see Tarantulas (still in his undead body) greet her as she joins the ranks of the [[Minions of Unicron]].

{{-}}

==Toys==
===Beast Wars===
*'''Tarantulas''' (Deluxe, 1996/1997)
: ''Japanese ID number:'' '''D-4''', '''VS-4'''

: Part of the first wave if ''Beast Wars'' product, Tarantulas transforms into an organic spider (NOT a tarantula). His abdomen contains a spring-loaded missile launcher, which fires the anchor-missile kept in his spider-butt. This missile is attached by a string so he can hang from things like a real spider. The launcher can be removed and used as a robot-mode weapon, using any of his front four spider-legs as missiles. Like all early Deluxe-and-up ''Beast Wars'' toys, his has two different robot-mode "heads", a robot-mode one and a "mutant" face. He is almost always depicted using the mutant face.

: There is a variation of this toy in the [[Hasbro]] line: later releases (the smooth-bubble) lack the yellow paint on his elbows.

: The Japanese release of Tarantulas was originally unchanged, and could also be purchased in a two-pack with [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]. Later, a slightly-color-altered version was released, using a brighter shade of green and a slightly-darker gray. The color-altered version also replaced the blue eyes on the 'robot' head with gold as well as the black eyes of the 'mutant' head.

: This mold was used to make the first [[Blackarachnia]] toy.

*'''Orcanoch''' ([[MicroVerse]], 1997)
: A small, non-transforming micro-figure of Tarantulas came with the [[MicroVerse]] [[Orcanoch]] playset. It was presumably painted based on the original design, as its a bright copper rather than purple.

*'''Tarantulas''' (Deluxe Transmetal, 1998)
: ''Japanese ID number:'' '''D-44'''

: Part of the first assortment of [[Transmetal]]s, Tarantulas transforms into a robotic spider. He also has a third "transport" mode, flipping down a wheel from his abdomen and a saw-blade under his beast-head, making a spidey-cycle. The saw detaches for robot mode to become a hand-held weapon.

: The Japanese version is slightly different, replacing the "TARANTULAS" [[tampograph]] with "DESTRON" and the Predacon sigil, plus his robot-mode eyes were painted as a single visor to better match the show.

*'''Tarantulas''' (Deluxe "Fox Kids" Transmetal, 1999)

: A [[redeco]] of the Transmetal Tarantulas toy in grays, silver and black. He and a Transmetal [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] redeco were part of the little-seen second wave of Toys "R" Us [[exclusive]] "Fox Kids" toys, so called for the advertisements for the Fox channel on the packaging (as the [[Beast Wars (cartoon)|''Beast Wars'' cartoon]] has moved there from syndication). Internal Hasbro documents have listed this toy as "'''Steel Tech Tarantulas'''", a name that did not make it to final packaging. These colors were used to depict Tarantulas in the Primeval Dawn and Universe comics.

*'''Predacon Tarantulus''' (Tenth Anniversary, 2006)

:This toy is a slight [[redeco]] of the original Tarantulas toy, more closely resembling Tarantulas' appearance in the cartoon (save the big Predacon faction sigil tampograph). Part of the second wave of ''Beast Wars'' 10th Anniversary product, he came with a DVD of the episode "[[Spider's Game]]", plus the left leg to [[Trans-Mutate]].

===Merchandise===

==Trivia==
* Tarantulas' origins are a bit complicated. He declares in "[[Other Victories]]" that he and the [[Tripredacus Council]] have origins other than Autobot and Decepticon, such that they would not be affected by the destruction of the Ark. Megatron's line about "Unicron's spawn" was apparently not intended by [[Bob Forward]] to be taken literally -- it was to have been a generic insult rather than a statement of fact. [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys.transformers/msg/f06828ec523295c1?dmode=source&output=gplain] (Forward's own inkling, albeit never realized, was that they might be descended from [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]]'s Cybertronian Empire.) But, much like [[Terrorsaur]]'s line about "[[Darksyde|the darkside]]", this line developed a life of its own. Eventually this connection was reasserted in [[3H Productions]]' ''Primeval Dawn'' storyline.

* In the Japanese dub of Beast Wars, Tarantulas retained his trademark cackle, however, it was a little ''different''. His voice was very high-pitched and he shrieked almost constantly. His trademark laugh more closely resembled a wicked witch of sorts.

[[Image:TarantulasArm.jpg|right|thumb|150px|He tastes everything he holds.]]
* Early promotional pictures showed the original Tarantulas toy as being transparent orange, but the final toy was a clear deep purple instead. Presumably, this was for a little visual variety in the early line, which already had a largely-tan toy ([[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]) and a largely yellow toy ([[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]]) in the Deluxe range, plus another then-planned clear-orange Mega-sized Predacon arachnid ([[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]]) and [[Tigatron]] who was at one point slated to be a traditional orange tiger.

* The original Tarantulas toy has ''nine'' eyes in beast mode, as does the show model. This makes characters' references to him as "eight-eyes" rather... interesting.

* In the original control art for Tarantulas, the claws are shown in the same configuration as used in the show. In other words, the claws were somehow swapped during the assembly process and have remained as such on every version of the mold thereafter.

* Tarantulas' body in [[Theft of the Golden Disk]] seems to be a mold of Cybertron Ransack. (SOMEONE CHECK IT, IT DOES LOOK LIKE RANSACK!)

==External links==
*[http://www.tfu.info/1996/Predacon/Tarantulas/tarantulas.htm Tarantulas at TFU.info]

[[Category: Beast Wars characters]]
[[Category: Ninjas]]
[[Category: Predacons]]
[[Category: Scientists]]
[[Category: Security officers]]
[[Category: Timelines characters]]
[[Category: Toys "R" Us exclusives]]
[[Category: Transmetals]]
[[Category: Unicron-related characters]]
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Tarantulas (BW)