Beast Machines Blackarachnia

Blackarachnia was actually the last of the four I opened from my BBTS carepackage (read the Stampy review for more on that story), and the only one not Japanese or in a box. It was kind of odd to open something on a card, though strangely familiar.

Blackarachnia (and might I add this is the first BA I've owned) is of course a black widow spider, though there's little black about her save for a few joints. She's got a nifty booger green and purple color scheme and a lot of translucent plastics which look terrific under strong light (I opened her in my car, and it was sunny, and she looked quite awesome). In fact her entire spider head is translucent green (lighter than booger green though) and it even has a very cool light up eye gimmick in it, though you need a decent amount of light to see them. Very cool either way though.

Her real gimmick in this mode is her moving mandibles. By pushing in one of her shorter front legs (though how one could consider them legs is beyond me as they are too short to reach the ground in any pose that doesn't result in her looking 'splatted') her mandibles and fangs will move (as will the glowing eye I mentioned before). It's pretty cool looking, but the way it's set up is kinda tough to pull off, so you end up knocking her around a bit. Also it's nice to see the two sides are independent of each other, so you can alternate the movement for a nifty and even slightly creepy effect.

Ah yes, it's also worth mentioning that Arach can stand in bug mode. And quite high, too. In beast mode she's as tall as Stampy, though she can't quite walk over his robot mode. All in all it's a pretty big beast mode for a deluxe toy, but that was the trend for a lot of BM stuff like Nightscream and Cheetor, though exceptions were made for things like Megatron.

Transformation is pretty simple, and painfully easy after you've spent half an hour transforming Mach Kick and Bazooka. Also you should know that she's mistransformed in the packaging. The black thing on her back (that her arms are attached to) isn't in the right spot. It should be pulled out and flipped down, but instead it's in her back like it should be for robot mode. You can probably figure that out yourself though. Also, one other bad thing about beast mode while I'm here, her robot head and torso aren't concealed very well and tend to flop out of her abdomen.

Robot mode is ultra cool looking. Man, Blackarachnia is a hottie. And I don't usually say that about fictional characters. She's got large and long legs (her four largest spider legs snap together), a thin waste and a big butt. Yes folks, this is Jennifer Lopez reincarnated as a transformer. Okay, bad joke, and J. Lo isn't dead or anything, but you get my point, right? Well, I'm sure it's been driven into the ground by now. Ah well.

Because a swivel joint would have been impossible in the legs they aren't as poseable as one might hope. A thigh swivel would have been nice, but a different transformation would be needed, and I'm quite happy to have minimal bug leg kibble, so I guess I'll settle. Her arms, however, are very poseable with ball jointed elbows and shoulders and a swivel on the upper forearm. Very cool. Getting back to her legs, they aren't overly show accurate if you want her to have a stable stance as her feet remind me of short skis. You can fold them up to make a point like on the show, but then she needs outside support (no bra jokes please) like the stand they have for sale on Unicron.com, though that price is a bit steep for me. Still, that aside, robot mode is very cool and quite show accurate. Tankor and deluxe Optimus are jealous.

All in all, Blackarachnia has her share of flaws. She's not overly gimmicked (which may not be a bad thing if you ask some people) and she has some flaws in beast mode (loose abdomen, really short front legs) but the overall coolness of the toy and I guess just my happiness to finally have a Blackarachnia (funny thing, I may have the TM2 version soon as well) makes this a definite worthwhile buy. Along with Jetstorm (which is kind of ironic in a way, heh), Blackarachnia is the best BM toy you can get. I add another to the list of must have BM toys. Yes now.