Blackarachnia (BW)


 * Blackarachnia is a Predacon, Maximal, and a Decepticon from the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 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.

Blackarachnia'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


 * Japanese name: Blackwidow
 * French-Canadian name: Mygale (original toy), La Veuve Noire (cartoon)
 * Chinese name (Taiwan): Hēi Jr-jū (黑蜘蛛, "Black Spider") / Jr-jū (蜘蛛, "Spider", used in Beast Machines sometimes)
 * Cantonese name: Arachnia
 * Polish name: Arachna
 * Spanish name: Araña Negra

Beast Wars cartoon

 * Voice Actress: Venus Terzo (English), Ryōka Yuzuki (Japanese), Fátima Noya (Portuguese)



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. She also, much to her disgust, ended up with a telepathic link to Tarantulas which allowed him control of her body.

Forced by Tarantulas to hack into Megatron's private files and Golden Disk back-ups for him, she discovered that it contained the access codes for the Ark. Taking advantage of his temporary deactivation, she downloaded a copy, destroyed the files and told Megatron Dinobot destroyed them, while telling Tarantulas a different story, that Megatron had booby-trapped them. Neither of them (apparently) believed her, but neither showed this openly yet... Meanwhile, Blackarachnia forced Tarantulas to end their psychic link by threatening to kill herself and take his mind with her. She also had Silverbolt refuse to fight her because she was female (to the annoyance of Rattrap).

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 followed him. 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 and Blackarachnia had a good cackle over the Ark's power being "all mine!"... just as Megatron arrived. Having always intended for her to reach the Ark as he knew she had the access codes, he threatened to vape Silverbolt unless she did what he said. 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 I'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 after an irate Megatron gave her the boot (in the form of nearly killing her). (Quite what she'd intended to do with the Ark since she couldn't have altered the timeline without risking erasing herself  was never explored.)



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 Wars Metals comic
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 Beast Wars 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".

Binaltech (unused)
As the victorious Maximals travelled forward in time from prehistoric Earth to far-future Cybertron, their shuttle was suddenly struck by a powerful force of darkness. Hurled into the early 21st century, Blackarachnia was forced by Unicron to aid him in his efforts to destroy the Matrix of Leadership. Her spark was placed inside the silver Beta Unit Honda S-2000 Aero Style body intended for the Autobot warrior Windcharger, and her mind was overwhelmed by an evil essence that forced her to do Unicron's bidding.

Still possessing her extrasensory Transmetal 2 powers including telekinesis, Blackarachnia gained several additional weapons courtesy of her new form: a long-range Venom Sniper Gun that fired system-disrupting energy bullets, a defensive riot shield that projected an electromagnetic field from its edge, and the ability to fire strong artificial webs from her grill, exhaust pipe and hands in robot mode.

Blackarachnia was partnered with the newly-created Decepticharge and dispatched to confront Shockwave's forces on Earth. Finding them in the middle of a Starscream-led uprising, the pair put down the rebellion and ordered the Decepticons to defeat Optimus Prime and destroy the Matrix.

While forced to act as a Decepticon, Blackarachnia's true self remained intact but submerged, struggling to overcome Unicron's control and desperate to correct the warped Binaltech timeline.

Maybe.

Beast Machines cartoon

 * Voice Actor: Venus Terzo (English), Ryōka Yuzuki (Japanese), Márcia Moreli (Brazil)

When the Autobot shuttle crashed on Cybertron and the Maximal team was gassed, Blackarachnia's Transmetal 2 powers were stripped away from her, as were her memories. As such, the amnesiac Maximal decided to head underground, distraught and confused. Locked out of her robot mode, she awaited her imminent deactivation- until the other three survivors: an equally disoriented Optimus Primal, Rattrap and Cheetor- plunged into her web. Primal made the decision to head underground, and Blackarachnia complied, using her webs to grant them safe passage. However, in her weakened state her webbing was limited, and so the foursome plummeted most of the way down into the chamber of the Oracle. She watched as Optimus emerged in his technorganic form, and was the fourth and last Maximal to be reformatted, emerging as a pink black widow spider with green markings. When attacked by a squadron of Cycle Drones, she put her technorganic mode to good use, trapping one of the Vehicons in a tangle of web.



However, her loss of Silverbolt had hardened her, and she was now unable to count on her Maximal allies. Blackarachnia fell back upon her Predacon principles of 'survival of the fittest' and became more withdrawn and skeptical than at the end of the Beast Wars. Blackarachnia had a relatively easy time adapting to her new technorganic form, and was the third Maximal to master transformation, though it took her longer to apply her new robot mode in combat. In robot mode, she was able to fire electrical "stings" through the ground and hurl technorganic webs like discs. However, all of her new abilities and powers were useless as she tried to unravel the mysteries of where and why the population of Cybertron had gone, and why the Cybertron InfoCore was wiped. Sometime after that, she received a vision of prehistoric Earth and her lover. She and Rattrap were then sent to extract data on the Shuttle that ferried them home to Cybertron, before having a run-in with Megatron's new, sentient Vehicon generals. As she desperately tried to access her missing memories, Megatron manipulated the data link, attempting to probe her mind, and by doing so, finding the Maximal's base. Whens she realized what was going on, she severed the link at the cost of the Shuttle and their memories.

Blackarachnia and crew later discovered the bat-creature Nightscream, who led them to a strange organic fruit tree. Upon eating the fruit, Blackarachnia began to revert to her instinctual "animal" mind, and it was only thanks to Cheetor that her feral mind returned to normal, and thanks to Primal that the bat's life was saved and reformatted into a technorganic body. With the debut of the newest Maximal, Blackarachnia took on a "big sister" role to the inexperienced youth, and as a result mellowed somewhat. Later, the group stumbled across one of Megatron's many Transformer junkyards, where the lifeless, Sparkless bodies of the cities were disposed of. When Thrust and Blackarachnia were split up from the battle, a unofficial truce was made between the two uneasy sides, but when, Thrust saved her life and her Spark, having strange recollections of doing so before, her mind was set: He was Silverbolt, mutated and made evil by Megatron.

Blackarachnia made numerous peals for Thrust to realize his "true" Maximal nature, though Thrust seemed hesitant. This culminated in Thrust removing her Spark, as Jetstorm egged him on. As the Spark rocketed into the darkness, Nightscream fought Jetstorm for it. At the same time, on another plane of existence, Blackarachnia encountered Primal, who calmed her astral spirit down, at the same time allowing Nightscream to restore it and bring her back.

When Tankor gained control of the Key to Vector Sigma and "infected" Nightscream and the new orchard with the Key, Blackarachnia eventually became infected, and temporarily lost her sanity as she was overwhelmed by the "technomatter". When the rest of the gang managed to reverse the process, Blackarachnia was saved, though her obsession with Thrust. However, not even Thrust's recent behaviour would put off the persistent Maximal. Using some of the organic fluid from the Cybertronian core, and after a brief chase. 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 here!"

When Jetstorm attacked, another mishap with the organic goop occured, and for a moment ... Silverbolt's true personality emerged, sweeping Blackarachnia in his arms. He returned, but just for a moment. Fighting a passionate Waspinator, the goo vanished from the both of them, and the Vehicon's minds both returned.

Blackarachnia took place in the battle in Megatron's Citadel, holding off the Vehicons as Primal confronted Megatron within, though she, along with the others, were all overwhelmed by the Key to Vector Sigma and became comatose. Upon awakening, the four headed to confront Primal in the Oracle, where they convinced him to return into real-space and continue his leadership.

After a brief run-in with the organic Transformer Savage/Noble his betrayal, and the introduction of the Grand Mal, Blackarachnia managed to force Jetstorm into a large pool of the organic goo, and his body began to change. Scanning a nearby condor skeleton, he awoke in a new form, a purple technorganic bird of prey. 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, prompting him to head to the Grand Mal to confront his old master and rescue Primal and Cheetor. Even after Silverbolt spread a new, Megatron-enhanced version of the old Hate Plague causing dissention in the ranks, her love remained, unbroken and undying, though Silverbolt only felt more guilt on his part. However, Blackarachnia softened once more, and displayed traits similar to her pre-technoganic persona with the reintroduction of her lover. Together, the two battled an alien plant monster only to have it join the Maximals, fought two new Vehicons, and went up against strange zombies created by Megatron's depolarized Spark.

By the time the final conflict rolled around, Blackarachnia, like the others, was empowered by the Sparks of Cybertron, depleting the Vehicon ranks. However, like the others, she finally fell and her Spark was extracted once again, as Primal and Megatron fought their final battle, resulting in the sacrifice of the both and the reformatting of Cybertron into a technorganic paradise. Swatting away an angry bug, looking out over their new home, Silverbolt ruined the emotion with the corniest line possible-

"The menace has passed! At last, we can truly be together, dark venom of my heart!"

- Silverbolt to Blackarachnia

Beast Wars: Transmetals



 * Voice Actor: ??? (US), ??? (Japan)

In an alternate timeline, Blackarachnia (possibly now Transmetal) joins her fellow Predacons in distributing various one-on-one beat downs to the Maximals. Eventually, Silverbolt convinces her to defect to the Maximals but she never truly reforms - once back on Cybertron, she works as a double-agent between the Maximal and Tripredacus Council with no loyalty to either side.

Universe CD-ROM
Blackarachnia followed Reptillion [sic] in battle against Optimus Primal and his Autobot forces. She teamed up with Razorclaw to fight Striker before being abducted by Unicron.

Beast Wars

 * Blackarachnia (Deluxe, 1996/1997)
 * Japanese ID number: D-8
 * Acessories: Launcher, 4 leg-missiles


 * 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 by a string, but its front four beast-mode legs can also be removed and used as ammunition.


 * The Takara release of the toy has some notable color differences from the Hasbro version.


 * This mold was later used to make the "Beast Wars 10th Anniversary" version of Tarantulas, and the Beast Wars Telemocha version of Blackarachnia. It was intended to be used to make a second Universe version of Blackarachnia, but that toy set was canceled.


 * Tigatron vs Blackwidow (Vs set, 1997)
 * Japanese ID number: VS-8
 * Acessories: Launcher, 4 leg-missiles


 * In Japan, "Blackwidow" was available both as an individual and in a "Vs" pack with Tigatron. Both toys were identical to their individual releases.


 * Blackarachnia (Happy Meal, 1997)
 * McNumber:


 * 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
 * Accessories: Mandible grapnel-line


 * The Transmetal 2 version of Blackarachnia transforms into a large, organic/mechanical, monstrous spider, featuring a grappling hook, switching faction symbols activated by rotating her spark crystal around, and a spring-loaded 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. In keeping with the early Beast Machines "articulated features" motif, her robot mode head has a multi-piece articulated brow, which can slide up to reveal two extra sets of eyes, as she does on the cartoon.


 * This mold was later redecoed to make the Universe version of Blackarachnia.


 * This mold was also used to make Crystal Widow.


 * Blackarachnia (Happy Meal, 2000)
 * McNumber:


 * As one of ten toys in the third Transformers McDonald's Happy Meal promotion, Blackarachnia is a super-simplified version of her retail toy, with a coloration closer to the Mainframe CG model, though more shockingly pink rather than maroon. This toy is designed for the younger set, with softer plastic and no removable parts.


 * 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. Reportedly, this toy was limited to 3000 pieces, a full thousand less than the others in the original assortment. Since she was also the most changed from the US release in the initial batch of toys, this made her considerably harder to get.

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. She received a Decepticon faction symbol over her spark crystal as well.


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

Beast Wars Telemocha Series

 * Blackwidow (Deluxe, 2007)
 * Japanese ID number: TM-06
 * Acessories: Launcher, 4 leg-missiles


 * As part of the Beast Wars Telemocha line, the original Blackarachnia toy was extensively redecoed with a ridiculous number of gold paint applications, making her closer to show-accurate in coloration than the other versions of the mold, but still not quite there. (Her biceps are silver in the show, plus there's dark purple on her feet and in a few other areas.) All of the gimmicks of the original toy were retained. She came with a DVD containing the Japanese dubbing of Beast Wars episode 10, "Gorilla Warfare".

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. They decided to give the toy an entirely new deco, as the Hasbro toy's deco didn't appeal 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 "Blackwidow", 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. Plans to release this toy as part of a different line were never picked up again, however the mold has been announced for release as part of an unexpected Binaltech continuation, this time as Arcee, decoed in pearl white and pink.

Robot Heroes

 * Cheetor vs. Blackarachnia (2-pack, 2008)



Trivia



 * Blackarachnia's original Beast Wars card art has her wearing a spike-studded collar... while her chest seems to be leopard-spotted. Kinky.


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


 * 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.


 * Character and fiction information for the cancelled BT-16 "Blackwidow" toy finally emerged in late 2007 with the release of The Transformers Binaltech Stories: Profiles and Technical Specifications, an unofficial publication by BT story writer Hirofumi Ichikawa that compiled all then-current BT information as well as that of the unreleased Blackarachnia and Ginrai toys. As it was never officially released, this information can be considered semi-canonical at best.