Blackarachnia (BW)


 * Blackarachnia is a Predacon, Maximal, and a Decepticon in the Beast Era continuity family. She's a busy girl, huh?



A sultry femme fatale, Blackarachnia is smart, sexy, and dangerous. She's got eight legs, and she knows how to use them. Of the several rebellious Predacons under Megatron's command, she's one of the very few who can, on occasion, outguile him. Always looking out for Number One, Blackarachnia values her independence and freedom above all else. She would rather be deactivated than be a slave.

Blackarchnia's greatest weakness, other than her overconfidence, is her feelings for the Maximal Silverbolt. Something about his heroic demeanor and the kindness he shows her makes her uneasy. She hasn't experienced unconditional love before, and it scares her, though she'll never admit it. "Even when I'm good, I'm still bad."

- Blackarachnia


 * French-Canadian name: La Veuve Noire
 * Japanese name: Blackwidow
 * Spanish name: Mygale (TM2 form), Araña Negra (Beast Machines)

Beast Wars
Voice Actress: Venus Terzo (English), Ryōka Yuzuki (Japanese), Fátima Noya (Brazil)



Blackarachnia was born from one of the Maximal fallen Stasis pods. Tarantulas, watching a black widow fight and devour another spider, was inspired. Megatron, observing the slim and attractive Blackarachnia transform and strike a few poses, suggested that he had "ulterior motives behind her beast form selection." But, she was a Predacon, and that was what was important.

Blackarachnia made herself renowned among the ranks of both the Maximals and Predacons as a severe headache to Megatron. When Tarantulas found out about the Vok, he tried to craft a stasis pod escape ship for himself, and she was there to forge a partnership. When Scorponok and Blackarachnia journeyed to a mysterious, floating island containing immense power, she was there to shove him out of the way and take control of the island herself, only to be defeated by Tigatron. When Starscream took control of Waspinator's body, she was right next to him when he betrayed Megatron, betraying Starscream back. When she aided Tarantulas in breaking into the Axalon to acquire a stasis pod for conversion into an escape ship, she took over after a following Inferno incapacitated Tarantulas, intending to take the ship for herself. Unfortunately for her, this deception backfired on her in the form of a forced mind link between her and Tarantulas, which remained until she forced the spider into breaking it. When Tarantulas forced her to investigate Megatron's Golden Disk backups, she waited until Tarantulas was occupied to download and encrypt the recoverable information.



When the Vok were moments away from returning, Tarantulas and Blackarachnia both again teamed up in an attempt to flee the dying planet. Megatron, already aware of their next move, used their deceptive tendencies against them and acted unaware of their treachery. As they built their escape ship, he installed his own variant on the design, making it inescapable once sealed and in space. Though it did not destroy either of them, the result was even better: Optimus Primal wound up in the pod and was destroyed instead. Blackarachnia's wits saved her, as she convinced Megatron that he would need soldiers, which gave him reason to spare her life.

When an energon blast sent her and Silverbolt into the middle of the dense jungles, they were forced to work together. Though attracted to the Fuzor, Blackarachnia was endlessly frustrated by his seemingly idiotic chivalry and need to treat her specially. Megatron, listening in to their commlink chatter, was disgusted by the obvious romance going on. Blackarachnia rather liked the treatment and affection, though she held it under a firm charade of bitter irritation.



When the Predacons attacked the valley of proto-humans, Blackarachnia was teamed with Inferno. She did considerable damage to Dinobot before being blasted herself.

After confirming the location of the Ark, Megatron sent Waspinator to its location. Realizing what this meant, Blackarachnia abandoned her post and went instead. Silverbolt followed her and stubbornly refused to leave her alone. Exhausted and in a hurry, she conceded and told him to dig. The two broke through the mountainside just as Megatron arrived, having escaped from Ravage. Megatron knew Blackarachnia had the codes to the Golden Disk that would allow them to get by the Ark's security systems, and he threatened to vape Silverbolt. Bitterly, she agreed to his demands.

Blackarachnia used the Ark's security system to cover Megatron's back, not sure of what he was planning. Once he fired upon Optimus Prime, history began to change, wiping out all Maximals...which included herself. Not willing to die for Megatron, she activated Teletraan-1's security nets to force Megatron off the ship. With Silverbolt's help, she got the dying Autobot leader under life support and began the repairs. The Maximals, recognizing what she had done, reluctantly allowed her to join their ranks.



Later, Blackarachnia took the Transmetal driver and attempted to use it on herself. Silverbolt, not realizing what she was planning, bailed her out of the contraption. Like every good girlfriend, she began to chew him out, but was cut off as an energy surge made her lose control of her circuits. A security system Tarantulas installed had been triggered by her tampering with her core, and the only way to fix it was to cut the Predacon shell program loose. Reluctantly, she agreed. An attack on the Maximal base disrupted the attempt, and she was deactivated.

Distraught, Silverbolt took off to avenge her death. He easily subdued Tarantulas and was moments away from executing him when Rampage attacked him. Blackarachnia appeared in the nick of time with her new and improved Transmetal 2 body, easily fought off Rampage and rescued Silverbolt.

Later, during Megatron's final assault on the Ark, Blackarachnia "emasculated" Rattrap's tail in an effort to reactivate the Ark. Seriously.

Beast Machines
Voice Actress: Venus Terzo (English), Ryōka Yuzuki (Japanese)

In Beast Machines, Blackarachnia was distraught and confused. She was locked out of her robot mode, back in her original body, all of her allies were gone, Silverbolt had vanished, and she was being attacked by what looked like Cybertronian guards. Unable to count on her Maximal allies, Blackarachnia fell back upon her Predacon principles of survival of the fittest and was notably more withdrawn and skeptical than at the end of the Beast Wars.

She had a relatively easy time adapting to her new technorganic form, but she was still frustrated by the loss of Silverbolt. When Thrust saved her life, having strange recollections of doing so before, her mind was set: He was Silverbolt, mutated and made evil by Megatron.

Using some of the organic fluid from the Cybertronian core, she trapped Thrust in some of her webs and forced his inner personality out, begging for Silverbolt to answer. The reply was not quite what she was looking for.

"Doggie-bot not home!"

When Jetstorm attacked, he also was caught up in some of her organic goo, and his true personality emerged, sweeping Blackarachnia in his arms. Silverbolt returned, but just for a moment. The goo vanished, and the Vehicons' minds returned.

Later, Blackarachnia managed to force Jetstorm into a large pool of the organic goo, and his body began to change. Scanning a nearby vulture skeleton, he awoke in a new body.

Blackarachnia was startled by the change in him. Instead of the lovable, chivalrous knight in shining armor, he was a brittle, haunted bot, tormented by the images of the evil deeds he had done...done by choice. Though he gave up on himself, she never did, urging Silverbolt to forgive his past.

Beast Wars Metals Manga


(Note: Although it picks up after the first season, the Beast Wars Metals manga is not in continuity with the TV series.)

Blackarachnia appeared throughout the Beast Wars Metals manga as a Predacon warrior, much as she did in the TV series. Unlike most characters, however, her design underwent the smallest change. While most characters got re-designs for laughs, the only change in Blackarachnia would appear to be that she's a bit smaller and "cuter".

IDW Comics
While the Maximals attempted to remove her Predacon shell program, an alternate Transmetal "Vok" body was somehow automatically created (by someone, somehow) in subspace just in case it was needed. It wasn't, and so it was "sidelined". (This is IDW's way of "sorta" working her McDonald's Happy Meal premium toy into continuity.)

Beast Wars

 * Blackarachnia (Deluxe, 1995)
 * Japanese ID number: D-8


 * Blackarachnia's original toy is a redeco of the Tarantulas mold, transforming into a rather generic-looking organic spider. It features a removable spring-loaded launcher hidden in its beast-mode abdomen. It nominally fires the "grappling hook" attached to its abdomen, but its front four beast-mode legs can also be removed and used as missiles.


 * This was later reissued in Japan in more show-accurate colors for the 10th Anniversary of Beast Wars. The head didn't get a remold, though. How odd.


 * Blackarachnia (Happy Meal Transmetal, 1997)


 * Part of the second McDonald's Beast Wars Happy Meal pack-in, Blackarachnia's "Transmetal" form rather resembles some sort of dust mite more than a spider, and the robot mode appears to have fallen out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. It has a very similar transformation to the earlier promotional figure Beetle.


 * Blackarachnia (Transmetal 2, 1999)
 * Japanese ID number: C-48


 * The Transmetal 2 version of Blackarachnia transforms into a large, organic/mechanical, monstrous spider, featuring a grappling hook, switching faction symbols, and a spin-kick action feature. This toy was initially hard to find at retail, as one of the toy's features, a piece of removable chest armor (no, really), was altered slightly, delaying later shipments.


 * This mold was used to make the BotCon 2000 exclusive Arcee.

Beast Machines

 * Blackarachnia (Deluxe, 2000)


 * An early toy in the Beast Machines line, Blackarachnia transforms into a technorganic spider. In spider mode, squeezing its pedipalps together raises its central fangs; they were spring-loaded to release and lower, respectively.


 * This mold was used to make Crystal Widow.


 * Blackarchnia (Happy Meal, 2000)
 * Happy Meal Blackarachnia is a super-simplified version of her retail toy, with a coloration much closer to the Mainframe CG model.


 * Blackwidow (Deluxe, 2005)
 * Japanese ID number: BR-04


 * Part of the Japanese Toys 'R' Us-exclusive Beast Wars Returns series, this toy is a redeco of the original Beast Machines Blackarachnia in a more show-like maroon coloration.

Universe

 * Blackarachnia (Deluxe, 2003)


 * For Universe, Blackarachnia returned as a Decepticon and as a redeco of the original Beast Machines figure. However, her forearms were mistakenly swapped, leaving her forearm "spikes" pointing up towards her biceps rather than down near her elbows.


 * This mold (with the same swapped-forearms error) was used to make Crystal Widow.

Unreleased



 * In 2004, a group of test-shots made their way onto eBay, among them a redeco of the original Beast Wars Tarantulas/Blackarachnia mold in black with silver spider-legs and salmon-colored robot parts. Later, Hasbro's official website checklist featured listings for two "Halloween Horrorcon Value Packs" that were to be Wal*Mart exclusives... which also likely explains why they were canceled. (Wal*Mart had taken a good half-dozen exclusives and released them more-or-less simultaneously, leading to a huge glut. A lot of other Transformers exclusives were canceled during the Universe era.) One of the sets was "Leatherhide Vs. Blackarachnia"... and thus, the mystery spider was confirmed, as the other test-shots in that group lined up with the name listings given in the sets.


 * In 2005, the mold used for Alternators Decepticharge was presented as an upcoming release for the Japanese Binaltech line. Originally, Takara intended to name their version of the toy "Wildrider", but they ultimately had to abandon that idea because they couldn't get the trademark. Instead, they decided to give the toy an entirely new deco, as the Hasbro toy's deco didn't appear to their ideal of "real-life accuracy". In robot mode, the toy was given a color scheme based on Transmetal 2 Blackarachnia, with the toy's name being changed to "Black Widow", Takara's name for the character. Though a bio and story chapter were written to accommodate it into the Binaltech fiction and photoshopped images released through an online retailer revealed the intended color scheme, Takara ultimately decided to cancel the toy altogether, as they were fearing that another redeco (in addition to the upcoming Binaltech Asterisk toys) would be too repetitive. How the story would have dealt with this time-displaced character addition has not been revealed, and it is doubtful it ever will be. Binaltech author Hirofumi Ichikawa is unlikely to reveal confidential work-for-hire pieces, since he still works for Takara. Furthermore, plans to release the toy as part of a different line were never picked up again.

Trivia



 * Reportedly, Blackarachnia's show model was inspired by an Asian stripper at a club to which some Mainframe folks had taken the modeler only a few days prior as, um... inspiration.


 * Blackarachnia's original Beast Wars card art has her wearing a spike-studded collar. Dirty girl. Dirty, dirty girl.


 * Even though Transmetal 2 Blackarachnia's toy has a unique faction-switching spark crystal, the feature doesn't make sense in a fictional context.  By that point in the Beast Wars television series, the Transmetal Driver had destroyed her Predacon shell program, making her fully Maximal.  (Though, to be fair, it had happened mere moments previously.)


 * Blackarachnia exhibited what appears to be telekinesis not long after gaining her Transmetal 2 form, levitating a steel girder to stop Rampage. The ability only appeared once and was never explained.  Fans speculate it may be a result of the TM2 Driver, an outgrowth of her psychic link with Tarantulas, or both (or a wizard did it). Following her reformatting in Beast Machines, Blackarachnia no longer possessed this ability.


 * In the jovial Japanese dub of Beast Wars, Blackarachnia's character underwent a few small (depending on your point of view) changes. Firstly, she had a voice that can only be described as "bipolar".  She would switch between her usual sultry, flirtatious voice to a screaming blood-thirsty maniac at the drop of a hat.  Another notable change is that, while still a strong female character, she was made less independent and was occasionally prone to begging for mercy from her enemies, something she never did in the English version.  However, this isn't the first time the Japanese have done their best to improve upon a female character.