Airachnid (Prime)

2012-08-05T18:16:15Z

85.117.21.191: /* Notes */

{{featured}}
{{faction|decepticon}}
{{disambig2|the Decepticon spider-copter|the Decepticon Kreon|Airachnid (Kre-O)}}
{{disambig2|the Decepticon spider-copter|the Predacon spider-base|Arachnid}}
:''Airachnid is a Decepticon from the [[Transformers: Prime (franchise)| Prime]] portion of the [[Aligned continuity family]].''

[[Image:Airachnid-HowToDraw.jpg|right|thumb|300px|There once was a spider who knew how to fly / I don't know why the spider could fly / Perhaps you'll die]]

Long ago, '''Airachnid''' was with the [[Decepticon]]s, where her cruel, cold-sparked, murderous demeanor served her well. But after the [[Great Exodus]] of [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], she decided to go solo. Nevertheless, she still feels a sort of kinship with her former allies, so if a [[MECH|group of humans]] attempted to disassemble a [[Breakdown (Prime)|Decepticon]], she would take offense to it.

These days, Airachnid spends her time engaging in her new hobby: collecting [[Airachnid's specimens|endangered species]]. Well, parts of endangered species. Mostly the heads.

And if a species ''isn't'' endangered? Oh, they will be. She'll make ''sure'' of that. And she'll make sure it's a slow, painful process.

==Fiction==
===''Prime'' cartoon===
{{voiceactor|[[Gina Torres]] (English), [[Ryōka Yuzuki]] (Japanese), |[[Erica Edwards]] (Latin American-Spanish), [[Heide Domanowski]] (German), [[Julia Martínez]] (Spain-Spanish)}}

[[Image:Airachnid.jpg|left|300px|thumb|Shelob gave dieting a go after seeing how much weight her director lost.]]

During the war for Cybertron, Airachnid managed to capture [[Arcee (Prime)|Arcee]] and her partner [[Tailgate (Prime)|Tailgate]]. Quickly realizing that Arcee would resist the physical torture she used, Airachnid decided to employ a simpler threat: Tell her the attack coordinates of an impeding attack, or Tailgate dies. Arcee insisted she didn't know the coordinates, but Airachnid didn't believe her and killed Tailgate. Moments later, [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] and [[Cliffjumper (Prime)|Cliffjumper]] burst into the holding room, killing the two [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s and rescuing Arcee. Airachnid, however, escaped.

Following the [[Great Exodus]], Airachnid concluded that the war was over, meaning she needed a new way to spend her time. Abandoning the Decepticons, she decided to hunt sentient species, then wipe them out after getting a trophy. Eventually, Airachnid crash-landed [[Airachnid's ship|her ship]] on [[Earth]]. She initially laid her optics on a lone camper, but was ambushed by Arcee. While Arcee gained the upper hand, she was distracted by her human partner, [[Jack Darby]], and Airachnid webbed her to a rock. Having learned of Cliffjumper's recent demise, Airachnid decided that making Jack her next trophy would be a delicious way to hurt Arcee before finally snuffing out her [[spark]]. She chased Jack back to her ship, but discovered too late that the human had snuck out the underside. She spotted Jack ''just'' in time to see him hurl a flaming stick into a pool of [[energon]] that was leaking from her ship. Airachnid barely managed to escape the explosion, but she was wounded and ''really'' pissed. She managed to web the fleeing Jack to a tree, but before Airachnid could deliver the killing blow, Arcee came to the rescue and absolutely wiped the forest floor with the Decepticon. Deciding she had endured enough for one night, Airachnid drilled into the ground and fled. {{storylink|Predatory}}

[[Image:Crisscross-helicopter.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Finally a use for those helicopter cockpit halves on her shoulders!]]
Learning of [[MECH]]'s treatment of [[Breakdown (Prime)|Breakdown]], Airachnid engineered a distress call which lured [[Silas]] to the forest. She made a deal with the MECH agent to give him Arcee – at least, what would be ''left'' of her – if he could deliver Jack to her. Silas used the [[Internet]] to track down information on Jack and have [[June Darby]] kidnapped so Airachnid cocooned her and dangled her from a building in the disused [[Jasper]] factory MECH was occupying. When Jack arrived, Airacnid gave him six minutes to rescue his mother. She followed Jack around the factory and, when he eventually found June and claimed victory, she pointed out the task was to ''rescue'' mom, not just find her. Before Airachnid could start with the dismemberment, Arcee arrived to attack her and the two enemies fought at length around the building's structure. During the fight, Airachnid was thrown into a container and coated with concrete, but managed to get free and web Arcee to the ground. She was about to finish off Arcee when she was attacked by [[William Fowler|Agent Fowler]]'s helicopters, and was forced to [[scanning|scan]] one so she could escape. {{storylink|Crisscross}}

[[Image:MetalAttraction-Airachnidcaptured.jpg|thumb|left|250px|"Breakdown, you have a bug on your... um... windshield?"]]
Airachnid followed a magnetic signal and found [[Breakdown (Prime)|Breakdown]] with a [[polarity gauntlet]]. Seeking to obtain the weapon, she buried him underground, but he escaped and she was forced to fight him. Then Arcee turned up with a [[Bulkhead (Prime)|new partner for her to snuff]] and she had to fight them as well. When Breakdown activated the gauntlet, she fled in alarm. She later ambushed the 'Con on his way back to the ''[[Trypticon (Prime)|Nemesis]]'', taking the gauntlet from him and reacting with disdain to his suggestion they could take it back to [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]] together. The Autobots caught up with them, and Airachnid used the gauntlet to draw Arcee to her for a little one-on-one fighting. When the battle started to turn sour, however, she grabbed the gauntlet and attempted to flee in her helicopter form. Unfortunately, Bulkhead grabbed her and threw her into Breakdown. Fused magnetically to the 'Con, she was carried back to the ''Nemesis'', where she had no choice but to rejoin the Decepticons. {{storylink|Metal Attraction}}

[[Image:Partners-Immobilizer.jpg|thumb|250px|"Even shinier than the [[Polarity gauntlet]]!"]]
Immediately ingratiating herself with Megatron, Airachnid told the Decepticon leader that [[Starscream (Prime)|Starscream]] had been keeping information to himself, such as the location of the crashed Decepticon ship, the ''[[Harbinger]]''. Megatron ordered Starscream to take Airachnid to the ship's crash site and secure the experimental weapon it contained. Once there, Airachnid discovered that the half of the ship containing the [[Immobilizer]] had broken off before impact. She webbed up Starscream and forced him to tell her the location of the aft section, but was attacked by the Autobots while leaving. After a brief fight with Arcee, Airachnid was chased off by [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus Prime]], and instead went to find the ''Harbinger''<nowiki>'s</nowiki> aft. She quickly located it and retrieved the Immobilizer, then lay in wait as Optimus's team approached the ship. She was able to freeze Bulkhead and Optimus, but some deft trickery by Bumblebee allowed him to sneak up on her and destroy the Immobilizer. She retreated back to the ''Nemesis'' where she tried to blame the loss of the Immobilizer on Starscream as well as explain why she left him behind. Unluckily for her, an enraged Megatron roared that by allowing the Decepticon second-in-command to be taken prisoner, she'd just put all Decepticon intelligence at the fingertips of the Autobots. {{storylink|Partners}}

Despite this, she was promoted to Second in Command during Starscream's absence. {{storylink|One Shall Fall}} Breakdown seemed to have developed a crush on Airachnid. {{storylink|Stronger, Faster}}

[[Image:Tfprime Airachnid thoughts of betrayal.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Who needs Starscream?]]
When the Decepticons located the last part they needed for their space bridge in a human installation, Airachnid suggested she could burrow up under it, but Megatron announced that the time for stealth was past, so she didn't. Once they secured the power source they needed, Airachnid and Knock Out observed Megatron acting strangely and wondered if their leader was losing it. {{storylink|One Shall Fall}} While the [[Decepticon Miner|miners]] gathered up [[Dark Energon]], Airachnid hung out on the bridge and watched as [[Soundwave (Prime)|Soundwave]] played back [[Unicron]]'s pulse. She reported to Megatron that the hold was full, and they should think about retreating. He responded by leaving her in charge while he went to go and talk to Unicron. {{storylink|One Shall Rise, Part 1}} Airachnid returned the ''Nemesis'' to orbit to wait. When no further word came from Megatron, she told Soundwave that Megatron might not be coming back. {{storylink|One Shall Rise, Part 2}}

[[Image:OneShallRise3-SoundwaveAirachnid.jpg|right|thumb|250px|''Round One. FIGHT!!!'']]
When she called the ''Nemesis''<nowiki>'</nowiki> crew to the bridge, she had deduced that Megatron, either deceased or deep within Unicron, had abandoned them, and with Earth falling into chaos, decided that they should relocate to [[Regulon Four]]. As none of the other Decepticons spoke out against her, Airachnid ordered Soundwave to set the ''Nemesis'' on course, however the silent Decepticon refused to comply. She attempted to assert her leadership by attacking him, only to discover that she was no match for Soundwave and his Minicon [[Laserbeak (Prime)|Laserbeak]]. The pair double-teamed her, and she was forced to yield when held underfoot. She subsequently decided to be elsewhere when Megatron did return. {{storylink|One Shall Rise, Part 3}}

Airachnid was soon back as Megatron's subordinate, though she expressed her concern about the amnesiac Optimus Prime being allowed full run of the ship. When Arcee sneaked on board The Nemesis to find Optimus, Airachnid readily volunteered to go and deal with her, even offering to offline The Autobot. However, Megatron felt that the situation needed to be dealt with more subtly, so he sent Soundwave instead. {{storylink|Orion Pax, Part 1}}

[[Image:Crossfire Airachnid captures Arcee.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Let the shipping commence!]]
Though Airachnid offered to employ her tracking skills in finding more artifacts, Megatron instead had [[Dreadwing (Prime)|Dreadwing]] and Breakdown try to offline her. She webbed the former to a tree and dismantled the latter. Not long after, she encountered an [[Insecticon (Prime)|Insecticon]] which she was able to control. After an encounter with Starscream, she lured Megatron to an abandoned energon mine and set the Insecticon on him, watching the fight until she was attacked by Arcee. The Autobot pursued her as she burrowed away, but Airachnid managed to ambush her foe. She was prevented from terminating the helpless Arcee by Starscream, and instead had to flee, but this fortuitously led her to stumble on a whole Insecticon hive. {{Storylink|Crossfire}}

Detecting a beacon transmitting from the ''Nemesis'', Airachnid woke the Insecticon army to go eliminate Megatron. Their activity drew the attention of the Autobots, and though Airachnid sent Insecticons after them, Arcee relentlessly pursued her into the Insecticon hive. As they fought, Arcee managed to maneuver Airachnid onto one of the pods, which closed and put her into stasis. The stasis-locked Airachnid was taken back to [[Autobot Outpost Omega One|the Autobot base]]. {{storylink|Armada (episode)|Armada}}
{{--}}

==Toys==
===Prime===
[[Image:Primetoy-AirachnidRID.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Quite possibly does the meanest [[wikipedia:Robot (dance)|robot]] this side of the Milky Way.]]
[[Image:Primetoy-TakaraTomyDeluxeAirachnid.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Seems like quite a bit of effort and money just for a single, primitively-engineered chunk of plastic. And the Micron.]]
*'''Airachnid''' (Deluxe, 2012)
**''Series / number:'' '''1 / 012'''
**''Japanese release date'': '''[[August 25|8-25]]-2012'''
**''Japanese ID number'': '''AM-18'''
**''Accessories'': Rotor/Triple-bladed sword, two "electro-stingers" (Hasbro only), "Ida" Arms Micron (TakaraTomy only)

:Part of the fourth wave of ''[[Transformers: Prime (toyline)#Robots in Disguise (2012)|Prime: Robots in Disguise]]'' toys, Airachnid transforms into a stealth helicopter with an opening canopy. She comes with two "electro-stingers" which can [[5mm post|mount]] onto her open palms or onto the helicopter sides/her upper arms. These weapons each feature two pegs in two different locations and a peg-hole in-between, allowing the weapons to be mounted/held in different ways, while her rotors can also detach from her base and be used as a sword via a [[5mm post]], meaning all of her weapons can combine with each other to form a larger weapon.

:In robot mode, Airachnid has a ''severely'' limited range of [[articulation]]. Her head is unable to turn or tilt in any significant way due to her [[light-piping]] plastic being molded as the helicopter seat and being blocked by the surrounding cockpit, her hands cannot be swung down parallel to her panel arms due to a bit of the panel getting in the way, and while her legs ''were'' designed to have thigh [[Swivel joint|swivel]]s, her thigh panels and the helicopter kibble behind it block ''much'' of her leg articulation.

:Her [[stock photography]] depicts paint details on her legs and toes that were omitted on the final product.

:The [[TakaraTomy]] release omits some of of her detail-based [[paint operation]]s, replacing them with customer-applied foil [[sticker]]s. She has also been retooled to have additional 5mm ports. Instead of her electro-stingers, she comes with an [[Arms Micron]], [[Ida]].
{{-}}
*'''Airachnid''' (Cyberverse Legion, 2013)
{{comingsoontoy}}

==Notes==
* Airachnid's head design and largely black color scheme have heavy similarities to the Disney villain [[wikipedia:Maleficent|Maleficent]].
* Airachnid went her entire introductory episode without transforming into a true [[alternate mode]], only from biped-mode to spider-legs mode and back. This is due to her not scanning an alternate mode until "[[Crisscross]]".
* Said alternate mode doesn't really make sense: Airachnid scanned Agent Fowler's Bell 212 Huey helicopter, but she somehow ended up with a stylized RAH-66 stealth helicopter alt mode.
* The existence of the name "Airachnid" was first revealed when Hasbro filed an intent-to-use [http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=77892423 trademark application] for the term with the US Trademark and Patent Office. However, the application was eventually denied for registration.<ref>[http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/beast-wars-2/case-closed---goodbye-airachnid-170451/ "Case Closed – Goodbye Airachnid"]</ref>.
* Deluxe Airachnid's electro-stingers are modeled after the [[Null-ray#Prime_cartoon|null-ray]] Knock Out offered Starscream in "[[Shadowzone (episode)|Shadowzone]]".
* In the Japanese dub of ''Prime'', Airachnid's personality is completely different from her US interpretation. In the dub, she is a bubbly, giggling, high-strung chatterbox that is obsessed with collecting handsome boys as trophies. Played up as something of a female Pepe Le Pew, she constantly swoons over Jack, calling him her "hunk", her "darling", her "cutie Jack-chan" and various other lovey-dovey remarks as she amorously pursues him (even going so far as to sing love songs to him, mid-chase). While her sadistic qualities remain, she's played more like a creepy stalker girl than a vicious psychopath. Airachnid is dubbed by [[Ryōka Yuzuki]], the actress who dubbed ''Beast Wars'' [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Black Widow]] and ''Animated'' [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Blackarachnia]], and so many of the quirks she conceived for those characters (such as a habit of making a hissing ''tshaaaaa--'' noise) are present. Likewise, the constant, incessant talking seems to be a throwback to the "adlibbing" prevalent in the Japanese dub of ''Beast Wars''.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Prime Decepticons]]
[[Category:Female Transformers]]
[[Category:Transformers with three modes]]

MediaWiki - User contributions [en]

Airachnid (Prime)