Arachnid

This article is about the Predacon spider-base. For Decepticons named Airachnid, see Airachnid (disambiguation).

Arachnid is a Predacon mobile fortress from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Step into my parlor...

The titanic Arachnid was designed by Tarantulas to function as a gigantic mobile fortress for the Predacon forces on Earth. Powerful, well-armed, and able to shoot webs to capture Maximals who attempt to flee before him. Tarantulas based its artificial intelligence on his own personality program. Not surprisingly then, Arachnid's rudimentary mind quite enjoys the cruelty of playing with his Maximal prey.

Toys

MicroVerse

And the Spiders from Mars.

• Predacon Arachnid Micro Playset (Playset, 1997)

• Series: Beast Wars: Transformers
• Accessories: Spider and fly mini vehicles, claw attachment, claw-with-pistons attachment, hook, Megatron and Razorbeast micro-figures
• Known designers: Takio Ejima (TakaraTomy), Masakatsu Saito (concept artist)

The "Predacon Arachnid Micro Playset" was released as part of the MicroVerse toyline; Hasbro’s miniatures line meant to compete with Galoob's Micro Machines (before Hasbro's purchase of Galoob). It transforms from a spider into a treaded base unit. Its abdomen opens up to reveal a landing strip and volcano-like hangar for two insectoid mini-vehicles, with an add-on mini-hook for play-maintenance. The middle portion of the base has a fold-out gun emplacement that can be "piloted" by a micro-figure. The front features a control tower with a pilot seat, and adjustable (non-firing) guns on the sides. The two actually-posable spider-legs are augmented with a pair of gripper-claw add-ons.

It also came with two micro-figures; Megatron in his gator body, and Razorbeast.

There are two variants of this set; some use yellow plastic for the mini-vehicles and other accessories, while later releases use bright green plastic.

• More information on the "Predacon Arachnid Micro Playset" at TFU.info

Beast Wars

• Predacon Arachnid Micro Playset (Playset, 1997)

• Accessories: Spider and fly mini vehicles, claw attachment, claw-with-pistons attachment, hook, Megatron and Razorbeast micro-figures

In Europe, the Beast Wars-branded MicroVerse playsets were released solely as Beast Wars/Biocombat (English/Spanish/Italian packaging) or Beast Wars/Ani Mutants (French/Dutch/German packaging) products.

This release is entirely identical to the US MicroVerse release of the toy, aside from the packaging and the branding. It also appears that this release featured both the yellow and green variants for the web parts and accessories.

Notes

• The Megatron figure included with this set is meant to represent the Predacon leader's gator body. A T. rex Megatron was designed for this set, but went unused.