Home Special Features Evolution Revolution: A Beast Era Retrospective
Transmetal Tarantulas
Height: 13cm (head height); 16.5cm (overall spider length)
Articulation: 11 total points - Ball joint neck; 2 points each arm: ball joint shoulder, hinge elbow; 3 points each leg: ball joint hip, ball joint knee, hinge ankle.
Colors: Molded black, purple; Painted green, black, purple, silver, yellow; Vac-metal copper, red.
Accessories: Circular saw
Author: ExVee
If Tarantulas is not the most evil Predacon around, he's not far from the top. Vile, treacherous, and cruel; Tarantulas holds no regard for any life but his own. All else exists to him as either a tool for his own advancement, or an interesting curiosity to be dissected - and eaten. Tarantulas is highly intelligent, and has a talent for long term planning. Clever though he may be, he can at times be slightly careless. On the rare occasion Megatron is not already aware of the spider's scheming, Tarantulas may inadvertently tip his hand, drawing the Predacon leader's wrath.
Tarantulas seems to possess knowledge about the strange alien presence on prehistoric Earth that even Megatron does not know. The extent of his awareness of their situation is unknown, as are how he intends to make use of what he knows. The only thing that is clear is that as long as this Unicron's spawn is allowed to carry out his plans, no life - Cybertronian or otherwise - is safe.
"Shouldn't take your eyes off a spider. They tend to be venomous."
Beast Mode
Bug Transformers have always had some issues, which makes it a wonder that there were so many of them in earlier Beast Wars. But by the time of Transmetal, some things were starting to be learned. One of the biggest problems was with the beast modes being able to stand and hold their own weight. The very wide-ranged ball joints that connect the spider legs to the body would just about doom this Tarantulas to eternal belly-flops. However, whether by design or a really happy accident, the front and rear most pairs of legs can be positioned in a particular way that they can catch and be prevented from giving out under the strain. In this case it's only these four legs that are bearing any weight, but as long as you pose the rest of the legs right you'll never tell the difference. This method also results in the abdomen of the spider mode being held a bit up in the air, but what would you rather have, spider-butt sticking up, or the whole thing flat on the ground?
There is basically no useful articulation in this mode since the legs have to stay in one particular place to keep the beast mode standing, and while the middle pairs of legs can move freely, it's not getting you a whole lot. The extremely oversized pedipalps can move, but only up from their resting position.
Much of the mechanical detailing in beast mode helps betray the transport mode. Bits resembling engine components behind the legs on either side as well as something looking quite a bit like an engine block in the middle of the abdomen give the idea that there's a good bit of horsepower waiting to be let loose here, plus that curious round piece in the very back.
Okay, so the transport mode is a spider-cycle. A tiny front wheel flips forward from under the body and the giant rear wheel can be wrestled into place with some difficulty. The spider legs can be dealt with however you prefer, but typically they'll be gathered together at the sides like strange outriggers. Too bad none of the pairs of legs have wheels on them, cause only thing I can think would be funnier than a spider motorcycle is a spider motorcycle with training wheels. While the front wheel turns quite easily, the rear wheel has a pretty stiff axle, and combined with the irregular surface will only actually roll on rough surfaces like carpet or soft fabric where it can grip a bit. Otherwise all it'll do is drag, and since there are painted surfaces on the rear wheel it's possible dragging could lead to wear.
Transformation
It's actually slightly easier to do from the transportation mode, since you'll have done the difficult part with the rear wheel already. Besides puzzling the shoulders together it all runs pretty smooth, and the only thing you'll have to ponder on is how you want to arrange the spider legs. Do it wrong and you'll have backheavyness.
Robot Mode
If you've seen the show, you'll of course notice significant difference with the head. The animators chose to blend the style of the toy head with features from the pre-Transmetal Tarantulas model, thus retaining the visor of the original form but now having two optic sensor lights visible based on the toy's separate eyes. Takara's Beast Wars Metals version tried to make the toy match the animation more by applying a bit of yellow paint between the eyes. But since the eyes are fully separate bits from the face, there's a noticeable gap where the edges of the eyes meet the yellow paint on the face.
Despite being awkward to assemble during transformation, the shoulders hold together well. The engine-detailed coverings over the upper arms will restrict articulation at the shoulder somewhat, but the arms really have worse problems going on. For reasons I've still never figured out, Tarantulas is given three-clawed hands, not dissimilar to the one hand Sky Shadow has. The difference is that these are both permanently palms-up. They're spaced adequately so Tarantulas can hold his weapon, but it looks incredibly awkward. Or like he should be juggling, one or the other. A forearm or wrist swivel would have been so nice to have right there.
Not much to the torso. The way the robot mode comes together prevents the possibility of a waist joint. Perhaps to compensate, Tarantulas has a totally chiseled fluorescent green eight-pack instead. The biggest deal to be had is the spider legs, which really do nothing but hang off the upper back in whatever arrangement you choose. Check the gallery to see my preferred array of legs.
Nothing special going on the with robot legs. The heels on the frighteningly metalized feet are pretty long, so it helps offset the weight of the spider legs on the back. As I warned in the transformation notes, though, it is possible to set them such a way that the thing still topples backwards, heels or not. While the ankles are hinged mostly as a requirement for transformation, the hinges are good and sturdy, and even many years later have shown no signs of weakening.
Accessories
It's a pizza cutter. I mean, let's not kid ourselves here. Handle plus round, free-spinning blade? That's a pizza cutter in anyone's book. Part of the blade is metalized, and it seems like just the occasional bump against the rest of the weapon is enough to gradually wear the chrome from the outer edges. The blade can be rotated so it's oriented either vertically or horizontally, but it's really just because it has to turn to the side to store in beast mode.
Things To Look For When Buying Loose
Those spider legs are good candidates to go missing, but thankfully their absence tends to be obvious in either mode. Be mindful, if the accessory is missing you can't form the transport mode, and it may not be represented clearly in an auction or other sale. Tarantulas is usually pretty good when it comes to the chrome, so cracking, flaking or other forms of chrome wear shouldn't be a concern, besides the pizza cutter wheel.
Closing Remarks
Tarantulas is one of the generally better aging Transmetal figures. Not in the way that he could be mistaken for a modern toy, but in that nothing on him tends to expire after a while. The age of the design may show through a little more than the other Transmetals, but the same general solidaritdy of design is still there. You'll have a much easier time getting a Hasbro Tarantulas than the Takara Metals version, and I tend to think the extra splotch of yellow paint between the eyes hurts the appearance instead of "fixing" it as intended.
Anyway, outside of one or two quirks of the design, the toy was really Very Good when it was first released, and I think is still at least Good today.
Y'know, I bet Scalpel and Tarantulas would have gotten along really well. They could have sat around for hours trading stories of things they've taken apart.
--ExVee
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