BEAST MACHINES: TOY REVIEW

Name: BLACKARACHNIA
Allegiance: Maximal
Function: Saboteur
Beast Mode: Technorganic Blackwidow Spider
Average Price: 26 AUD


 

BEAST MODE

Length: 10.5 cm
Height: approx. 11 cm
Points of articulation: 18
Blackarachnia is primarily a purple spider with olive green accents throughout. The head is covered with a transparent olive-green shell. There are green spots decorating the body and four of the legs. There are some black parts on the underside. There are also some transparent red parts on the body. The toy is sculpted with various mechanical and Giger-like organic features, weaving together rather nicely. Blackarachnia's legs are also fully capable of supporting the body. This is something previously unseen in other Transformers with insect/arachnid modes (with the exception of Scourge), thanks to the fact that the legs are articulated with hinges, not ball joints. One odd thing though is that despite being a spider, the toy only appears to have six legs. In actual fact, there are eight legs, but two of the legs are very small and rest on either side of the mandibles. They're practically vestigial, as they offer absolutely no support for the toy whatsoever. They're certainly not legs in terms of something that can be used for striding or standing. Although the robot parts are somewhat visible from underneath, they do blend in rather well to make them less conspicuous.

Gimmick: Squeeze the palps together and the mandibles move up and down. Munch munch.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

Grab the body and swing it up above the head, revealing the upper half the robot. Close the four larger beast legs together to form robot legs. Connect robot legs with hips. Swing robot legs down and rotate waist 180 degrees. Flip up robot feet.

ROBOT MODE


Height: 16.5cm
Points of Articulation: 18
The small shoulders, wide hips, sculpted breasts and curved form, really gives Blackarachnia a very feminine form (anthropomorphically speaking). The face is metallic purple with some very nice mechanical accents moulded on. The eyes are translucent green with a vermillion eyeshadow and lower lip. The temple is translucent green and covered with mobile olive-green plates, which allows Blackarachnia to open or shut her additional four robot eyes. The rest of the head is comprised of her neatly groomed black "hair," decorated by a vermillion hexagon. There are also two translucent green parts on either side of the hexagon, which is part of the robot head's light-piping gimmick. The shoulder pads and stomach/lower lumber are olive green and the upper bust is purple with green spots. The waist is also metallic purple with the spider head and body protruding from the back of her arse. The hips are black and the legs are purple with olive-green stripes and green spots accenting the thighs. The upper arms are black with purple forearms and grass-green tips. The major drawback of this mode is that feet are overtly large and somewhat ungainly looking.

SPARK CRYSTAL LOCATION

Left side of the beast body.

OVERALL

Unlike the original Blackarachnia toy, this Blackarachnia enjoys her own original mould. Unlike Transmetal 2 Blackarachnnia, she also enjoys a more well supported beast mode, as well as a more feminine looking robot mode. Despite having two legs being too short, it is still a very nice figure and the best Blackarachnia toy made so far.
Photographs courtesy of Benson Yee.
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