Orcanoch

Somewhere... beyond the sea...

Orcanoch is a Maximal from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Orcanoch's orca mode is perfect for seeking out underwater energon sources, if he can keep Arachnid from stealing his internal secrets. Crafted from a combination of the shell of a crashed alien starship and a modified version of the standard Maximal Sentinel program, its sophisticated neural net developed a personality of its own, a merging of the aforementioned defense program and the alien ship's artificial intelligence. Orcanoch is capable of establishing itself on land via built-in thrusters or to scour the ocean depths at speeds up to 150 knots, and houses CR chambers and built-in energon dampeners to prevent its passengers from suffering from potential overload.

Fiction

2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity

Orcanoch was sabotaged by the Predacons and sunk, never to be recovered. Beast Wars Sourcebook #3

Commercial appearances

The Orcanoch could be briefly be seen breaching the ocean's surface before transforming to base mode in mid-air. Orcanoch and Arachnid commercial

Toys

MicroVerse

Call it "Willy" at your own risk.

• Maximal Orcanoch Micro Playset (Playset, 1997)
  • Series: Beast Wars: Transformers
  • Accessories: Optimus Primal micro-figure, Tarantulas micro-figure, double-barrelled cannon, orca head/missile, mini vehicle, 4 missiles, monitor, claw, turret

• Known designers: Takio Ejima (TakaraTomy)

The "Maximal Orcanoch 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 an orca into a multi-level tower base. Its pectoral fins pull out to reveal a separate one-robot mini-sub. The orca head is removed (and presumably set aside) to reveal a control tower with spring-loaded missile launcher.

It comes with two micro-figures, Optimus Primal and Tarantulas.

• More information on the "Maximal Orcanoch Micro Playset" at TFU.info

Beast Wars

• Maximal Orcanoch Micro Playset (Playset, 1997)
  • Accessories: Optimus Primal micro-figure, Tarantulas micro-figure, double-barrelled cannon, orca head/missile, mini vehicle, 4 missiles, monitor, claw, turret

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.

Notes

• Oddly enough, the Optimus Primal figure included with this set is unmistakably colored to represent the Maximal leader's gorilla body, while the Megatron figure included the Arachnid playset, Orcanoch's Predacon counterpart, represents the Predacon leader in his alligator form. Guess Primal got around to upgrading his body before Megatron did in this micro-continuity...
• Orcanoch's box-art shows a presumed Maximal set behind Cybershark that cannot be identified as an existing toy or character. It kind of sort of looks like a cross between Armordillo and Snapper, but isn't either of them.