New Galleries: Takara Beast Wars D-4 Tarantulas and D-8 Blackarachnia

william-james88 wrote:Here is something special regarding variants in the Beast Era.

For Takara's version of Tarantulus and Blackarachnia, there were variants that are noticeably different from the Hasbro versions. The key to knowing if the boxed toy is the variant or not is the green sticker on the front of the package. If it has the white and red sticker, it's the same as the Hasbro version. The green sticker versions are intended to be the more screen accurate versions, though that will be for you to judge when you will see the galleries.

Here is a breakdown of the differences between these variants and the regular Takara/Hasbro release:

Takara Blackarachnia's spider mode is very similar to her Hasbro version. The paint on her claws and chest is gold colored instead of a brownish/bronze color. The trigger button that was green on the Hasbro version is green on the Takara version. In robot mode, the differences stand out more. Takara's eyes and face plate uses the same gold color as her claws and chest, whereas the Hasbro version oddly uses white which isn't used anywhere else on that version. In addition, the green plastic is replaced with a grey plastic.

Takara's Tarantulas has less noticeable changes from the Hasbro version. It uses a grey plastic with a hint of brown or beige instead of the regular grey plastic on the Hasbro version. The green plastic is an almost olive green on the Hasbro version and the Takara version uses a more traditional brighter green. The eye visor on the Takara version uses a goldish colored paint instead of the black paint on the Hasbro version.


Beast Wars Blackarachnia










Beast Wars Tarans

Seibertron wrote:

Powered Convoy wrote:Blackarchnia was one of the few original Japanese Beast Wars that only had one version.

She, Tigatron, Buzzsaw, Shadowpanther, Rhinox, and Wolfang didn't have a USA version and a Japanese version from Takara. Just the normal Takara ones. So the USA color Blackarachnia (along with the others I listed) didn't get a release from Takara like with the 2 versions of Tarantulas, Waspinator, Dinobot, Scorponok, Optimus Primal, and Cheetor.

Rhinox did have two versions though, one tan and one brown (both different than the USA version).

It's funny that even with these deluxes Hasbro and Takara were still gang molding parts as the parts that changed color on Tarantulas carried over to Waspinator and the same was true with Blackarachnia and Buzzsaw.

Randy

What's different on Scorponok and Optimus Primal? I was under the understanding that they were the same even with the green stickers, aside from the various special editions of Optimus Primal such as the gray version.

Seibertron wrote:Green sticker variants only apply to single packs, not to the versus packs, which unfortunately adds to the confusion about these.

Seibertron wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:The only place I've seen in hand pics of the Takara second run Scorpos figure is on TFU.info, but the differences with the Hasbro-colored version seem to be so subtle that I can barely tell the difference from those pics.

That or the pics aren't in a good enough quality/lighting to really bring out the differences.

Where do you see the pics of the Takara variant on tfu.info? Nevermind ... saw them on the page, just overlooked them because they look the same.

Powered Convoy wrote:I have both Scorponoks. The 2nd version is a grayish purple color instead of black. I don't recall there being any difference in the reds though.

Scorponok is near impossible to tell which is which in the packaging as the colors are pretty similar.

I still have my Scorponok, but the Japanese one's tail broke.

Randy

william-james88 wrote:Is your new scorponok also with the green sticker? Because if so, that grey colour continues the tradition of green stickers being a "better" attempt at screen accuracy.