The Energon Pub

News Credits: 56 · Tue May 07, 2019 9:58 pm

Wow, she looks beautiful in color. Now I need a good look at spider mode. Looks like that web piece comes with her ;)^

News Credits: 171 · Tue May 07, 2019 10:19 pm

Thanks to Seibertronian Sabrblade on the forums, we have a first look at images of colored samples of MP-46 Blackwidow, or known to the US, Beast Wars Blackarachnia. These photos were provided by Dengeki Hobby, at the 58th Shizuoka Hobby Show, in 2019. We get to see two close angles of her robot mode, as well as her web and her base. We also get one image of her base.

While the prototype at Wonder festival Winter was indicative of this, this upcoming toy is very accurate to the old model from the 90s. We can't imagine what the price could be! I mean, it must be magic keeping that robot kibbleless, eh?

So, what are your thoughts on this? You can see more images of the 58th Shizuoka Hobby Show at this previously mentioned article here, or by clicking one of the images below. But back to earlier, tell us if you're more excited (tee hee!) for this Masterpiece!

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News Credits: 3 · Tue May 07, 2019 10:28 pm

I eagerly look forward to seeing the plastic magic Takara must have pulled to make this work.

News Credits: 1 · Tue May 07, 2019 11:24 pm

Why no beast mode display? Is it as terrible as we are imagining?

News Credits: 6 · Wed May 08, 2019 12:09 am

Lucky Logician wrote:Why no beast mode display? Is it as terrible as we are imagining?

That was my concern too. Such a deliberate omission is ominous.

Wed May 08, 2019 2:33 am

I reckon that to preserve her slim figure, some extra accessories might be required for the beast mode (like MP Shockwave's backpack - albeit that was actually used to hide kibble).
Still the robot mode is ace, and since I'll probably be exposing it that way, I won't mind it being a Shellformer - although that would really be a shame, technically speaking.
I'm still hoping for MP-36 level magic.

News Credits: 101 · Wed May 08, 2019 3:32 am

That's quite the tease.
Now one to the spider mode and a transformation demo!

News Credits: 25 · Wed May 08, 2019 3:59 am

Meh. I'll happily pass, or wait for a KO.

Wed May 08, 2019 6:20 am

That Predacon logo around her neck is really strangely distorted. While I doubt it'll look that way in the final product, it nonetheless seems strange to have it *so* fat and wonky if the whole point of the current process is to feel out the overall look/colour/vibrancy of the final product.

Wed May 08, 2019 7:54 am

News Credits: 11 · Wed May 08, 2019 9:13 am

Looks amazing!!

News Credits: 6 · Wed May 08, 2019 9:47 am

Another concern is she is the first of the 'bug' bots IE the original figures that were NOT Shellformers, unlike most of the season one Maximals. Yet, if they have messed up her, Tarantulas is likewise botched. Considering her proportions in Beast Mode, some of her Abdomen should be visible here. As the legs seem far too thin and insubstantial to be all of it....

News Credits: 462 · Wed May 08, 2019 10:14 am

Maybe the abdomen simply inflates/deflates like a balloon.

News Credits: 6 · Wed May 08, 2019 10:21 am

Perhaps

This is why they should have started the MP Spider-Mold with Tarantulas. His proportions giving a more uniform mold to retool into Blackarachnia.

News Credits: 4885 · Wed May 08, 2019 11:17 am

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Perhaps

This is why they should have started the MP Spider-Mold with Tarantulas. His proportions giving a more uniform mold to retool into Blackarachnia.

Why cant they just all be unique molds released once or twice a year? That's the case so far with the show characters.

News Credits: 6 · Wed May 08, 2019 11:28 am

william-james88 wrote:Why cant they just all be unique molds released once or twice a year? That's the case so far with the show characters.

Because that isn't how Transformers works..

The Cat Bots and Spider Bots are Mold Variants. They are the only ones in the series, therefore for Show Accuracy they must continue to be. Every other character up until this point has been a unique Mold, which is why this issue only exists now.

News Credits: 241 · Wed May 08, 2019 11:40 am

william-james88 wrote:
AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Perhaps

This is why they should have started the MP Spider-Mold with Tarantulas. His proportions giving a more uniform mold to retool into Blackarachnia.

Why cant they just all be unique molds released once or twice a year? That's the case so far with the show characters.

This is so similar to the Cheetor into Tigatron debate it's not even funny. Fortunately those two will be the last of it.

News Credits: 6 · Wed May 08, 2019 11:43 am

Exactly. It is funny though, that budget willing, we would have likely had Wolfang/Polar Claw and Insecticon instead of Tigatron and Blackarachnia. Which would have meant the entire first MP BW wave would have been unique molds.

News Credits: 4885 · Wed May 08, 2019 12:45 pm

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:The Cat Bots and Spider Bots are Mold Variants.

So what, isn't this line about the show models? And Blackarachnia and tarantulus do not share show models.

All I mean is none of us should be arriving to conclusions so early when nobody knows anything.

Wed May 08, 2019 12:49 pm

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:
william-james88 wrote:Why cant they just all be unique molds released once or twice a year? That's the case so far with the show characters.

Because that isn't how Transformers works.

The Cat Bots and Spider Bots are Mold Variants. They are the only ones in the series, therefore for Show Accuracy they must continue to be. Every other character up until this point has been a unique Mold, which is why this issue only exists now.

But it is how the MP line works. I would honestly be more surprised if Tarantulus actually is a retool of Blackarachnia, given the differences in proportion between the two.

Tigatron and Cheetos are a different story because there wasn’t much difference between their character models besides size and face.

Wed May 08, 2019 12:50 pm

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:
william-james88 wrote:Why cant they just all be unique molds released once or twice a year? That's the case so far with the show characters.

Because that isn't how Transformers works.

The Cat Bots and Spider Bots are Mold Variants. They are the only ones in the series, therefore for Show Accuracy they must continue to be. Every other character up until this point has been a unique Mold, which is why this issue only exists now.

But it is how the MP line works. I would honestly be more surprised if Tarantulus actually is a retool of Blackarachnia, given the differences in proportion between the two.

Tigatron and Cheetos are a different story because there wasn’t much difference between their character models besides size and face.

News Credits: 6 · Wed May 08, 2019 12:53 pm

william-james88 wrote:
AllNewSuperRobot wrote:The Cat Bots and Spider Bots are Mold Variants.

So what, isn't this line about the show models? And Blackarachnia and tarantulus do not share show models

They do, though. BA's torso is more tapered, but otherwise the same. The Spider Bot and Cat Bot show models specifically demonstrate identical engineering. The same limbs, kibble, transformations etc

Mold variants aren't a new concept to the Masterpiece line either... >:oP

News Credits: 4885 · Wed May 08, 2019 12:57 pm

There was this nice air of innocence in the air yesterday when colour images of Masterpiece Blackarachnia started appearing online. Fans speculated her small stature would mean a return to price points below $100 USD. Of course, there's the fact that she comes with both a base like Dinobot AND a web accessory bigger than her, which people may have forgotten will figure into said price point. So all in all, it comes at very little surprise that the first notion we have on its price is closer to the $130 USD mark. As can be seen below from a listing description posted by a user from TFW2005 called TTemploy, the MSRP will be 15000 yen (around $136 USD at the moment). The listing descritpion also lists different faces, a weapon and missile, visor accessories and the aforementioned bases.

Regarding the price, this is the MSRP, meaning that the prices from some Japanese vendors like Amazon Japan will be lower. However, this will be the price western sellers will probably sell this toy for and after the qc problems with previous MPs, many fans have preferred buying from local importers due to the ease of exchanging defective products.

Here is the listing description:

preorder starts on 15th
retail price : Yen 15000
release : November
package size : 165×85x240
1x Black Widow Body
1x Smile Parts
1x Screaming face parts
1x Poison Anchor
1x Anchor Missile
1x Visor
1x Visor cable
1x Cord
4x Spider Web Parts
1x TF power Base
1x ARM
1x Adapter A
1x Adapter B
1x Character card
1x User manual

News Credits: 6 · Wed May 08, 2019 1:01 pm

So, basically translating as the same price as MP Cheetor + fixed amount for the [pointless] stand. I did assume as much, some time ago now.

News Credits: 241 · Wed May 08, 2019 1:06 pm

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:
william-james88 wrote:
AllNewSuperRobot wrote:The Cat Bots and Spider Bots are Mold Variants.

So what, isn't this line about the show models? And Blackarachnia and tarantulus do not share show models

They do, though. BA's torso is more tapered, but otherwise the same. The Spider Bot and Cat Bot show models specifically demonstrate identical engineering. The same limbs, kibble, transformations etc

Mold variants aren't a new concept to the Masterpiece line either...

Blackarachnia's model has more differences with Tarantulas', chief in the shoulders, torso and legs.

Where are some good images when you need them?