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The thing that irritates me, it's not the price. It is the fact that I accept imperfect Beast Modes with the Maximals. They were mostly shellformers anyway. The Predacon bug modes, however were not. 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. All it would take is some little black panels, stored discreetly within the backpack. They couldn't even bother to do that...

Thing is, Blackarachnia didn't have any backpack in the show. Her back was lean and skinny.

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 how different the toy looks to the show model between then and now. This toy is inifitely better in that respect.

Sabrblade wrote:Thing is, Blackarachnia didn't have any backpack in the show. Her back was lean and skinny.

So was Dinobot's. I was specifically talking about the mini backpack on the MP figure. The numerous mini panels that Megatron's backpack stores, show that they have the know-how to do it, but chose not to.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Thing is, Blackarachnia didn't have any backpack in the show. Her back was lean and skinny.

So was Dinobot's.

Dinobot wasn't a stick in the show. He had muscle and bulk. BA's back curved inward, even.

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.

Sabrblade wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Thing is, Blackarachnia didn't have any backpack in the show. Her back was lean and skinny.

So was Dinobot's.

Dinobot wasn't a stick in the show. He had muscle and bulk. BA's back curved inward, even.

True..



But it didn't look like that in the show either.

Maybe the toy should have just come with a black balloon to put her back in spider mode, as that's pretty much all it was--a big, black, circle with a red hour glass.

Don't get me wrong, I love the bot mode on Blackarachnia, and I'm sure that she will have great possibility. But this is supposed to be a Masterpiece figure. If they couldn't engineer her properly to look like how she looked on the show... then they probably should have just put out a robot mode action figure and done an MP figure of someone else.

As it stands, I think that the Takara recolor of Animated Blackarachnia works better

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...

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Waspinator, Scorponok, Tarantulas etc Typically their bot legs were only visible if you turned the toy upside down.

So what? Are you saying you would rather have that and compromise the robot mode? I dont understand what you are complaining about. Those original toys still exist if this one isn't doing it for you.

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.

william-james88 wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Waspinator, Scorponok, Tarantulas etc Typically their bot legs were only visible if you turned the toy upside down.

So what? Are you saying you would rather have that and compromise the robot mode? I dont understand what you are complaining about. Those original toys still exist if this one isn't doing it for you.

When sat on your desk, they were designed to form a seamless Beast Mode. Everything pegged in to form a uniform alt-mode.

Maybe a G1 example would make it a bit clearer the point (not "complaint") I am making. Imagine G1 Prime's cab. Looks like a truck, yes?. Now open the chest, flip his head over and pop his hands out, so they are visible in truck mode. Now, he doesn't look like a believable truck.
The initial mode was the Predacon Beast Modes. The latter example, both the Maximals (initial and MP versions) and now Blackarachnia.

Nor would it have been a "compromise" to make minor panels fold out from the small backpack the MP figure clearly has, to conceal the gold in her legs. Again, Megatron's flush, intergrated backpack says so.
I don't care about the character herself. I've never liked Blackarachnia. The whole sexualized design was quite repellent to me, even back in the day.
I am concerned what her lacklustre Beast Mode says about the future of this line. The figures to come should be the easiest to conceive in fully integrated Beast and Bot modes, this is supposed to be the MP line, after all.

If you wouldn't excuse MP Prowl's legs hanging out of his car mode, don't make excuses for them here.

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.

To give the visual discrepancy between a Cheetah and Panther's actual body shape, paralleled by the MP figures.

How much would you be willing to pay extra for those panels though? To play devil's advocate, they've made her price the way it is for best profit value for them, and share holders. If they thought the price was too high then they wouldn't have set it as that. We consumers want the most bang for our buck, but the businesses want the most profit for the least cost.

However much it took for a finished product. The beast mode says this isn't.

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.

To give the visual discrepancy between a Cheetah and Panther's actual body shape, paralleled by the MP figures.

A Panther is a black leopard. Not a cheetah.

I feel a lot of folks giving Takara a hard time on this aren’t properly realizing there is *nowhere* else for these bit mode parts to go. Yes the original toy might have “spidered” better.... but it also wasn’t a black widow. If Takara craps the bed with Tarantulas go and be angry. But this Black Archanina is the closest compromise we’re getting for a *transformable* figure.

The fact all these bot modes (and beast modes for the most part) stepped right out of the show should be appreciated. While a lot of the original toys were great toys..... they weren’t 100% show accurate either.

I dunno, that sounds like an apologistic excuse. They can do better. They have the capability, especially in this line. The abdomen should be all black, other than the widow mark. It's not rocket science or a feat beyond MP-36 level wizardry to achieve.

sol magnus 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...

A Panther is a black leopard. Not a cheetah.

That was the point I was making.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:I dunno, that sounds like an apologistic excuse. They can do better. They have the capability, especially in this line. The abdomen should be all black, other than the widow mark. It's not rocket science or a feat beyond MP-36 level wizardry to achieve.

Would anyone accept a big backpack in robot mode?

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

Honestly, now that I see it properly transforms, the only thing that irks me a bit is the discontinuity between the front of her thorax and her abdomen. The calves poking out isn't that bad to me, as they blend in between the spider legs.

Also, knowing how dificult it is to shuffle engineering, accuracy and budget when designing what is ultimately a luxury item for a huge company, I can't fault the designers at all here, they did a great job. If anything, the quality control flaws on MP BW Megatron is a hundred times more of an issue than this, as those could have been solved through design and, well, quality control. But this beast mode honestly looks like the best possible version for a price under 200 dollars.

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.

Blackarachnia is up on AmiAmi right now for $109 if people are interested. I preordered mine

Really hoping for a decent price from Amazon JP. The beast mode looks better, but I feel a lot less enthused for this one. Which is weird, cause I like Blackarachnia, and they killed her bot mode, and I love that spider stand.

Dunno, will need to look at her more

I think Masterpiece Blackarachnia is pretty much on par with the other Beast Wars Masterpiece releases so far. Her robot mode is nearly perfect. Her beast mode is still very recognizably the character model from the original show (as opposed to the original toy). It doesn't look any messier in beast mode than Cheetor or Dinobot, who still have a lot of techno kibble and off color parts peeking through from the robot mode into the animal form, not to mention all the blatant holes in the sculpting. Optimus Primal has some of the same issues, though to a lesser extent, which is helped by his overall very dark and consistent color scheme. I think Megatron just has us spoiled, honestly, as his beast mode, save for the unavoidable panel lines, is nearly flawless, hiding most of his robot form while in T-Rex mode. Blackarachnia is a regression to the mean, not a drop in effort or quality. Megatron is a clear outlier in our limited data set.