Blackarachnia (BW)

This article is about the Beast Era character. For the Transformers Animated character, see Blackarachnia (Animated).

Blackarachnia is a Predacon, Maximal, and a Decepticon in the Beast Era continuity family. She's a busy girl, huh?

File:Blackarachniabw.jpg

Hot, poisonous, and deadly. Rawr!

A sultry femme fatale, Blackarachnia is smart, sexy, and dangerous. She's got eight legs, and she knows how to use them. Of the several rebellious Predacons under Megatron's command, she's one of the very few who can, on occasion, outguile him. Always looking out for Number One, Blackarachnia values her independence and freedom above all else. She would rather be deactivated than be a slave.

Blackarchnia's greatest weakness, other than her overconfidence, is her feelings for the Maximal Silverbolt. Something about his heroic demeanor and the kindness he shows her makes her uneasy. She hasn't experienced unconditional love before, and it scares her, though she'll never admit it.

Even when I'm good, I'm still bad.Blackarachnia, "Crossing the Rubicon"

Spanish Beast Machines name: Araña Negra

Japanese name: Blackwidow

French-Canadian name: La Veuve Noire

Spanish Transmetal 2 name: Mygale

Toys

Beast Wars

• Blackarachnia (Deluxe, 1995)

Japanese ID number: D-8

Blackarachnia's original toy is a redeco of the Tarantulas mold, transforming into a rather generic-looking organic spider. It features a removable spring-loaded launcher hidden in its beast-mode abdomen. It nominally fires the "grappling hook" attached to its abdomen, but its front four beast-mode legs can also be removed and used as missiles.

This was later reissued in Japan in more show-accurate colors for the 10th Anniversary of Beast Wars. The head didn't get a remold, though. How odd.

• Blackarachnia (Happy Meal Transmetal, 1997)

Part of the second McDonald's Beast Wars Happy Meal pack-in, Blackarachnia's "Transmetal" form rather resembles some sort of dust mite more than a spider, and the robot mode appears to have fallen out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. It has a very similar transformation to the earlier promotional figure Beetle.

• Blackarachnia (Transmetal 2, 1999)

Japanese ID number: C-48

The Transmetal 2 version of Blackarachnia transforms into a large, organic/mechanical, monstrous spider, featuring a grappling hook, switching faction symbols, and a spin-kick action feature. This toy was initially hard to find at retail, as one of the toy's features, a piece of removable chest armor (no, really), was altered slightly, delaying later shipments.

This mold was used to make the BotCon 2000 exclusive Arcee.

Beast Machines

• Blackarachnia (Deluxe, 2000)

An early toy in the Beast Machines line, Blackarachnia transforms into a technorganic spider. In spider mode, squeezing its pedipalps together raises its central fangs; they were spring-loaded to release and lower, respectively.

This mold was used to make Crystal Widow.

• Blackarchnia (Happy Meal, 2000)

Happy Meal Blackarachnia is a super-simplified version of her retail toy, with a coloration much closer to the Mainframe CG model.

• Blackwidow (Deluxe, 2005)

Japanese ID number: BR-04

Part of the Japanese Toys 'R' Us-exclusive Beast Wars Returns series, this toy is a redeco of the original Beast Machines Blackarachnia in a more show-like maroon coloration.

Universe

• Blackarachnia (Deluxe, 2003)

For Universe, Blackarachnia returned as a Decepticon and as a redeco of the original Beast Machines figure. However, her forearms were mistakenly swapped, leaving her forearm "spikes" pointing up towards her biceps rather than down near her elbows.

This mold (with the same swapped-forearms error) was used to make Crystal Widow.

Unreleased

Honda wouldn't appreciate their car being hot, poisonous, and deadly.

In 2004, a group of test-shots made their way onto eBay, among them a redeco of the original Beast Wars Tarantulas/Blackarachnia mold in black with silver spider-legs and salmon-colored robot parts. Later, Hasbro's official website checklist featured listings for two "Halloween Horrorcon Value Packs" that were to be Wal*Mart exclusives... which also likely explains why they were canceled. (Wal*Mart had taken a good half-dozen exclusives and released them more-or-less simultaneously, leading to a huge glut. A lot of other Transformers exclusives were canceled during the Universe era.) One of the sets was "Leatherhide Vs. Blackarachnia"... and thus, the mystery spider was confirmed, as the other test-shots in that group lined up with the name listings given in the sets.

In 2005, the mold used for Alternators Decepticharge was presented as an upcoming release for the Japanese Binaltech line. Originally, Takara intended to name their version of the toy "Wildrider", but they ultimately had to abandon that idea because they couldn't get the trademark. Instead, they decided to give the toy an entirely new deco, as the Hasbro toy's deco didn't appeal to their ideal of "real-life accuracy". In robot mode, the toy was given a color scheme based on Transmetal 2 Blackarachnia, with the toy's name being changed to "Black Widow", Takara's name for the character. Though a bio and story chapter were written to accommodate it into the Binaltech fiction and Photoshopped images released through an online retailer revealed the intended color scheme, Takara ultimately decided to cancel the toy altogether, as they were fearing that another redeco (in addition to the upcoming Binaltech Asterisk toys) would be too repetitive. How the story would have dealt with this time-displaced character addition has not been revealed, and it is doubtful it ever will be. Binaltech author Hirofumi Ichikawa is unlikely to reveal confidential work-for-hire pieces, since he still works for Takara. Furthermore, plans to release the toy as part of a different line were never picked up again.

Trivia

File:BL2.jpg

She looks like Bludgeon in drag.

• Reportedly, Blackarachnia's show model was inspired by an Asian stripper at a club to which some Mainframe folks had taken the design modeler only a few days prior for, um... inspiration.

• Blackarachnia's original Beast Wars card art has her wearing a spike-studded collar. Dirty girl. Dirty, dirty girl.

• Even though Transmetal 2 Blackarachnia's toy has a unique faction-switching spark crystal, the feature doesn't make sense in a fictional context. By that point in the Beast Wars television series, the Transmetal Driver had destroyed her Predacon shell program, making her fully Maximal. (Though, to be fair, it had happened mere moments previously.)

• Blackarachnia exhibited what appears to be telekinesis not long after gaining her Transmetal 2 form, levitating a steel girder to stop Rampage. Master Blaster The ability only appeared once and was never explained. Fans speculate it may be a result of the TM2 Driver, an outgrowth of her psychic link with Tarantulas, or both (or a wizard did it). Following her reformatting in Beast Machines, Blackarachnia no longer possessed this ability.

• In the "jovial" Japanese dub of Beast Wars, Blackarachnia's character underwent a few small (depending on your point of view) changes. Firstly, she had a voice that can only be described as "bipolar". She would switch between her usual sultry, flirtatious voice to a screaming blood-thirsty maniac at the drop of a hat. Another notable change is that, while still a strong female character, she was made less independent and was occasionally prone to begging for mercy from her enemies, something she never did in the English version. However, this isn't the first time the Japanese have done their best to improve upon a female character.

External links

• Blackarachnia at TFU.info
  
  
  From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki, a Wikia wiki.