Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

Wolfman Jake wrote:Blackarachnia is a regression to the mean, not a drop in effort or quality. Megatron is a clear outlier in our limited data set.

Dinobot and Megatron are the only 2 I got, so this makes some sense to me

The beast mode, eh, I can take it. It's not great but her onscreen transformation is essentially impossible, and it still at least is immediately recognizable as a spider. And the robot mode is so gorgeous that I can live with it.

I just hope for the pricetag we don't get breakages/QC errors out the wazoo.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:I think, as it stands, her Beast Mode makes her potentially the weakest of the MP Beast Wars designs so far. Including Shadow Panther, that isn't even a Panther...

But there is no such thing as a panther species, it's just a toy deco homage.

I dont get it, that's just a picture had a black leopard, you can even see its spots.the original shadow panther wasnt based on a leopard and doesnt have spots as part of its deco.

Hence its a toy only redeco of cheetor.

Also, yes, i am 100% being facetious.

sol magnus wrote:
A Panther is a black leopard. Not a cheetah.

A black leopard is a black leopard. Diffrent species can have a black coat, like the Jaguar, which we should know since thats the animal G1 Ravage is based on.
So "black panthers" dont exist as a species with a truly specific body type and there is non such thing as an actual black panther with a plain black coat, like these toys, since all those real big cats still have visible spots.

The deco, as seen on shadow panther, is not found in nature, it only refetences the original toy. So i dont get why anyone would take issue with this toy not representing a species that doesnt even exist.

Ironhidensh wrote:16200 yen = $147.79. They can get the **** out of here with that price.

That's not the price any of us should be paying. Amazon Japan knocks off as much 29% of the MSRP or MP preorders (as they currently are on MP-45 Bumblebee), and then knocks off an additional 8% included sales tax that isn't charged on exports bringing the total down to 10,582 JPY or about $96.50. Factor in around $10 for 3 day shipping and the price is a lot more manageable.

Personally I like the figure and while the beast mode isn't perfect I never expected perfection on a figure this small to begin with. I'm just glad the gun does indeed fill in the massive gaps in her spider mode as expected.

Emerje

Sabrblade wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:AllNews argument is that there would be panel folding shenanigans ala beast meg's backpack.

The difference is that Megatron at least had a backpack of beast mode kibble in the show. Blackarachnia did not.

Also the fact that Megatron is three times larger than Blackarachnia.

ZeroWolf wrote:AllNews argument is that there would be panel folding shenanigans ala beast meg's backpack.

Fold it where?! And Megs back pack isn’t all that ting, compact.... not thin

All zoological tidbits aside, AllNewSuperRobot, I agree with you. Blackarachnia's alt mode looks bad (I dont think anyone disagrees strongly with that) and I would have loved some extra panels to make it look better, especially the gap between the two segments. And MP Shadow panther doesn't look like our collective image of a black panther (which would look like Bagheera from the Jungle Book).

I just found the arguments a bit odd. Like comparing to an old toy that doesnt look like the show model, or comparing to a real animal when the original toy wasn't any more zooligically accurate.

In the end, we get a Blackarachnia which is closer to the show model than anything we ever got and we have another deco for cheetor referencing a deco we got for the original cheetor mold.

Personally, I dont know if I will get this blackarachnia. I like the character and the bot mode, but not a fan of the price or alt mode. Will you be getting it?

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote: If they could achieve that way back in 1996/7/8, it is unacceptable to leave most of her gold legs visible on what should be a solid black abdomen.

I am with you on the dissapointment and I know where you are coming from but I do take issue with the text I bolded. It's apple and oranges because the toys came first back then. So of course it was fine. But then the character designer based her model on a stripper and made the character look nothing like the toy.

Now, we are basing the toy on the show model, which we can all agree is a rather peculiar one.

The better comparison, if you want to make one would be hod different the toy looks to the show model between then and now. This toy is inifitely better in that respect.

I was generalising the difference in aesthetic in Beast Modes, back then. Less so for individual characters. There was always some "cheetor" visible in his Beast Mode, as with the rest of the Maximals. Waspinator, Scorponok, Tarantulas etc Typically their bot legs were only visible if you turned the toy upside down.

hate to point this out, but blackarachnia did have bot parts showing, part of her calves, and all of her huge purple feel were showing, as well as her "anchor" which stuck out of her butt. the calves are much more noticeable on her 10th anniversary show colored version, being bright gold and all


Transformers Beast Wars Blackarachnia (Black Widow) Gallery

while I do agree that some kind of covering panel would have been preferable, given her size (she should be shorter then cheetor based off the show models) said panels would tiny be fragile as all hell. unless they just detached and became something.

Her robot mode is gorgeous though. I think they captured that spot on. With curvy Arcee they had the option of her back pack but....gah dang the robot mode just looks rad. Just tie a black sock on her a$$ and call it a day.

william-james88 wrote:

sol magnus wrote:
A Panther is a black leopard. Not a cheetah.

A black leopard is a black leopard. Diffrent species can have a black coat, like the Jaguar, which we should know since thats the animal G1 Ravage is based on.
So "black panthers" dont exist as a species with a truly specific body type and there is non such thing as an actual black panther with a plain black coat, like these toys, since all those real big cats still have visible spots.

The deco, as seen on shadow panther, is not found in nature, it only refetences the original toy. So i dont get why anyone would take issue with this toy not representing a species that doesnt even exist.

You guys are killin' me here...hilarious...

Since I only ever had the repaint I never realised the toy colors were scorponocish. If this mp gets toy color I'll likely end up getting that too (way down the line when I can afford it). Not sure what repaint tarantulas could have, and whilst I never imagined him to be a tarantula, something like a joro spider might fit it better made up spider wise alt.

blackeyedprime wrote:Since I only ever had the repaint I never realised the toy colors were scorponocish. If this mp gets toy color I'll likely end up getting that too (way down the line when I can afford it). Not sure what repaint tarantulas could have, and whilst I never imagined him to be a tarantula, something like a joro spider might fit it better made up spider wise alt.

technically Black Widow was the repaint of trantulus… but that obviously wouldn't work for the MP. They could pull a curve ball and do an "arcee" version that's white and pink.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrodectus_hesperus

Oddly enough... that works with her beast mode... though I do think her "show" version was quite different.

I hate the BW line.

This said, I think this figure is awful in beast mode: TRex Megatron and Cheetor are the only two figures worthy in this MP group, I think.

SpikeyTigertron wrote:

blackeyedprime wrote:Since I only ever had the repaint I never realised the toy colors were scorponocish. If this mp gets toy color I'll likely end up getting that too (way down the line when I can afford it). Not sure what repaint tarantulas could have, and whilst I never imagined him to be a tarantula, something like a joro spider might fit it better made up spider wise alt.

technically Black Widow was the repaint of trantulus… but that obviously wouldn't work for the MP. They could pull a curve ball and do an "arcee" version that's white and pink.

Maybe an arcee version that or the one in animated that got turned into a spider, can't remember who it was now (I'm thinking she was blue and white) but tha might be a bit too obscure.

blackeyedprime wrote:

SpikeyTigertron wrote:

blackeyedprime wrote:Since I only ever had the repaint I never realised the toy colors were scorponocish. If this mp gets toy color I'll likely end up getting that too (way down the line when I can afford it). Not sure what repaint tarantulas could have, and whilst I never imagined him to be a tarantula, something like a joro spider might fit it better made up spider wise alt.

technically Black Widow was the repaint of trantulus… but that obviously wouldn't work for the MP. They could pull a curve ball and do an "arcee" version that's white and pink.

Maybe an arcee version that or the one in animated that got turned into a spider, can't remember who it was now (I'm thinking she was blue and white) but tha might be a bit too obscure.

Re animated black arachnia- I swore it was arcee… but I recall her showing up with the whole subplot with bulkhead/siri/omega.... unless i'm confusing it with prime.... maybe it was elite one?

Barricade.it wrote:I hate the BW line.

This said, I think this figure is awful in beast mode: TRex Megatron and Cheetor are the only two figures worthy in this MP group, I think.

Hate the line as Masterpieces or as an IP in general? Kenner basically saved the Transformers franchise with it... so even if it's not your cup of tea... it's worth giving credit where it's due.

I think Black Arachnia will be a lot better "in hand" once people start reviewing her. The beast modes were always secondary anyway for the most part... they're still extremely difficult to pose organically, but they're not *quite* the bricks the original toys were.

SpikeyTigertron wrote:

Barricade.it wrote:I hate the BW line.

This said, I think this figure is awful in beast mode: TRex Megatron and Cheetor are the only two figures worthy in this MP group, I think.

Hate the line as Masterpieces or as an IP in general? Kenner basically saved the Transformers franchise with it... so even if it's not your cup of tea... it's worth giving credit where it's due.

I think Black Arachnia will be a lot better "in hand" once people start reviewing her. The beast modes were always secondary anyway for the most part... they're still extremely difficult to pose organically, but they're not *quite* the bricks the original toys were.

As long as the reviews don't reveal the plastic to be in the same state as MP Beast Megs.

Also in Animated it was Elita One who was turned into Blackarachnia, she blamed Optimus and Sentinel.

@Will do you still think that about the price after Emerje's calculations?

I can understand everyone's complaints regarding the beast mode but that robot mode is so on point, it's worth the sacrifice IMO. Also, she was quite skinny and sleek on the show. It'd be VERY hard to replicate in figure form in this scale.

blackeyedprime wrote:Not sure what repaint tarantulas could have,

Early commercial/cross-sell toy colors!

Sabrblade wrote:

blackeyedprime wrote:Not sure what repaint tarantulas could have,

Early commercial/cross-sell toy colors!

Oh man, that pic just has so many memories for me. It was on the back of my first BW TF, Terrorsaur and I would just stare at it in disbelief that such toys actually existed.

Here are my thoughts on MP Blackarachnia. She is like a reverse MP-45 Bee situation where instead of the alt mode being nice and the robot mode is awful, it's the opposite.

Spider mode isn't bad, but compared to the other BW MPs, it is pretty lacking and underwhelming. I mean, even MP Dinobot's beast mode is great, but this is just good enough.

Bot mode is simply fantastic and I love it. Thankfully, unlike MP-45, bot mode is amazing to look at, and is hopefully fun to pose.

Price wise, I don't see too much of an issue. Pricing for these things, which comes with alot more accessories and articulation, is to be expected, and honestly, 100$ isn't bad at all.

Overall, I think this figure is still worthy of the Masterpiece title, and people should probably give it a chance, or at least wait till reviews arrive

SpikeyTigertron wrote:

Barricade.it wrote:I hate the BW line.

This said, I think this figure is awful in beast mode: TRex Megatron and Cheetor are the only two figures worthy in this MP group, I think.

Hate the line as Masterpieces or as an IP in general? Kenner basically saved the Transformers franchise with it... so even if it's not your cup of tea... it's worth giving credit where it's due.

I think Black Arachnia will be a lot better "in hand" once people start reviewing her. The beast modes were always secondary anyway for the most part... they're still extremely difficult to pose organically, but they're not *quite* the bricks the original toys were.

Well... I hate the BW TFormers for the concept itself (mechanical/organic beings... I rather like 100%mechanical guys).

About the MP line: I think some of them are worthy, some not but in the end I think the whole line is too expensive for what it gives. Ig You consider some figures from the ROTF line You have the same complexity and poseability You have in the MPLine, for half the price.

ZeroWolf wrote:
@Will do you still think that about the price after Emerje's calculations?

I estimated about $110 USD when I was writing my comments so they always took that into account. I am not a fan of the price. I get it, they give you both a base and a web display so it adds up. I just would have preferred it to be like cheetor where you get the main figure and not a bunch of extra stuff to boost the price.