Blackarachnia is a great example of making a femme fatale in fiction. She's hot, deadly, poisonous, but she's a very cunning Predacon that could turn against you if you're not careful. I mean just take a look at how that turned out for Starscream when he possessed Waspinator. Despite that, she was a Maximal protoform that became a Predacon because she was reprogrammed. This also alludes to her feelings towards Silverbolt, a Maximal with the heroic tendencies that make him stand out compared to the rest of the good guys. She'd eventually join the team and remain devoted to the Maximal goals, especially during the Beast Machine days. So a fan-favorite for sure, and while we got a Legends version retooled from the Animated line as well as a Masterpiece, it was now time to see what the Kingdom version would offer (while hoping the writers of the Netflix show don't fuck up her character).
Here is Blackarachnia in her spider mode. It's one hell of a creepy-crawly in terms of design, and I think Hasbro captured the look wonderfully! As far as details go, it's got some nice bumpy textures to give it more of an organic feel, especially fitting for how uncomfortable a black widow spider is. Some robot parts are revealing but it weirdly fits how the design looks. Maybe the legs could be gold instead of black, but it makes sense for a realistic spider mode (which isn't a bad thing since the spider-mode isn't going to look exactly as cartoony as the BW one). The weapon can be stored underneath the rest of the spider mode. In terms of articulation, the base if the legs each have a hinge and 8 ball-joints for the pieces...though I posed it looking like just got crushed.
Transformation is quite intricate for this figure, which is not a bad thing for me. I was expecting a figure that would be kibbly and have pieces left from the beast mode, but I think the toy cleaned up quite well. There are things of the toy that make it a little more involved, like the spider-legs and the boobs tabbing in, and the way the arms transform. The robot mode is quite spot-on to the CG model once again, albeit with some honey tellow plastic rather than using gold paint. I like the proportions she has, and while her spider-legs are left like that, they are correct in terms of accuracy. I also love her claws for how deadly they look, and her beast mode abdomen makes for a nice and clean backpack that even if not 100% screen accurate looks good nonetheless.
Head sculpt does look like Blackarachnia as it should, though the eyes and maybe the mouth make it look slightly off. I think the Masterpiece and Legends versions tackle it better, but what I find weird is that the lips are painted in a different color than the rest of her face. As for the ariculation, it's the same as with every WFC figure, but while she lacks a waist swivel, she makes up for it with her double-jointed knees.
Her only weapon is the same crossbow gun used in the show, which doesn't fire any missiles but looks nice nonetheless. If you thought that wasn't enough, you can spin the spider-legs around and have them become her guns. May not seem like enough but with a few effect pieces you can make her come to life with the blasts.
Let's go over the only reuse of the mold so far: the Buzzworthy Bumblebee line featured a surprise multipack of the Worlds Collide figures, which broke up all the yellow of the subline with Fangry, Nemesis Primal, and a toy-accurate Blackarachnia! This figure is given a crazy deco that reflects the show-inaccurate appearance she was given in the line. While many would likely focus on the cheetah pattern on the boobs, her head is retooled to reflect the toy head she had instead of the mutant head Tarantulas was known for. Some would want to switch the spider-legs of this release with the regular one to make her show accurate, but I don't think the orange would match up with the yellow of the Kingdom release.
And for a Takara repaint that makes the figure even more screen-accurate, this is the Beast Wars Again version of the character, being more metallic and even featuring the bronze spider legs. Stuff that I like to see on a figure if it weren't for the price tag. She is part of the Tenacious Showdown set featuring Tigatron.
Here is a comparison between Kingdom's Blackarachnia and her past versions, like the old toy, the Legends version, and the Masterpiece. The old toy, even with the accurate colors, can't even match how Blackarachnia looked in the show. Those proportions are made for Tarantulas. Now I just hope we get a new mold that has the shell designed to look like him while keeping a similar transformation. The Legends version, being a retool of the Animated figure, does manage to look a lot more unique than the figure it's reused from; it looks more like a stylized take on the figure that has some liberties to it like with Rattrap, Rhinox, Waspinator, Dinobot, and the shitty Cheetor figure from the Universe line. The Masterpiece figure already looked perfect, but that's from the cost of a Transformer that you'd pay at a price higher than the norm. While the Kingdom figure is priced around $20, the Masterpiece is nearly $140!!!!! So you can tell which is superior, but keep in mind that you'd pay nearly 2 Leaders and a Voyager for what you'd pay for that. It's a quality vs quantity thing.
Let's compare Blackarachnia next to her other figures in the line. She seems to scale nicely with Cheetor and Blackarachnia, which is good if you ask me. And of the three other characters we have so-far, I think she is my favorite figure as of now. If the way the figure turned out and her transformation being fairly unique won't convince you, then perhaps the fact that this figure being better as a fembot toy than either Chromia or Arcee should. Seriously, while Chromia had an assload of kibble and loose leg joints, as well as Arcee feeling cheap feel and her gimmick being stupid, Blackarachnia has no real bullshit to compromise her. Definitely get her if you can.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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