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: Megatron micro-figure, Razorbeast micro-figure, claw arm (standard), claw arm (w/ piston-like molding), hook, mini vehicle (spider), mini vehicle (fly)

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 with a gun emplacement on a posable arm and gripper claws. Its abdomen opens up to reveal a landing strip and volcano-like hangar for two insectoid mini-vehicles. It came with two micro-figures; Megatron in his gator body and Razorbeast.

There are two variants; 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

File:BW-Biocombat-Arachnid.jpg

• Predacon Arachnid Micro Playset (Playset, 1997)
  • Accessories: Megatron micro-figure, Razorbeast micro-figure, claw arm (standard), claw arm (w/ piston-like molding), hook, mini vehicle (spider), mini vehicle (fly)

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

• Oddly enough, the Megatron figure included with this set is unmistakably meant to represent the Predacon leader's gator body, while the Optimus Primal figure included in the Orcanoch playset, Arachnid's Maximal counterpart, represents the Maximal leader in his gorilla form. Guess Primal got around to upgrading his body before Megatron did in this micro-continuity...