Legacy Tarantulas

Series: Legacy
Year: 2022
Allegiance: Predacon
Class: Deluxe

Those who wander into the lair of Tarantulas find themselves facing his fangs. Or worse, they become the subject of his mad science experiments.
Signature weapon: Energon Buzzsaw. Can slice through any material with Energon-infused blades.

Prelude: In present day we have a distinct lack of villains who are just in it for the laughs. You know what I mean? Cackling insane scientists who break all the laws of men and gods just for kicks and giggles, having a great laugh while doing it. Where are all these pioneers of mad science? Well, one of them is back, ready to bend time and space while munching on animal carcasses and building hidden spider lairs. Enter Tarantulas, reincarnated in the Legacy toy line. Let’s say Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Robot Mode: Now let us begin by saying that I fully expected the new Tarantulas to be a retool of Kingdom Blackarachnia, seeing as the original Beast Wars Blackarachnia was a retool of Beast Wars Tarantulas. To my pleasant surprise, though, we got an entirely new mold for Tarantulas, so instead of a very stocky Blackarachnia or a very slim Tarantulas, we now have two figures that strongly resemble the characters from the show. Very nice.

Which is also my first positive point: Tarantulas is a very faithful adaption of the TV character, from the head down to his feet. Very nice. Unlike the original figure, he only sports his “mutant” head, aka the one he actually used in the TV series. His articulation adheres to the current standard, meaning very good, and all of the spider legs on his arm are ball-jointed, so you can point them in whatever direction you like. In the TV series Tarantulas could fire bullets from the ends of his spider legs. In order to simulate that, the ends of the legs are (kind of) compatible with blast effects. It works, but getting all eight “muzzles” without some of the effect parts falling off again or dragging down the legs is pretty difficult.

In terms of hand weapons, Tarantulas carries the same crossbow the original figure had, just without the launching gimmick and the string/web strand attached to it. He also carries a second weapon, a buzzsaw, which pays homage to Tarantulas’ Transmetal incarnation from seasons 2 and 3 of the TV series.

Bottom line for the robot mode: very nice. Tarantulas stepped right out of the TV screen here. Just about the only thing one could complain about is the absence of the gimmicks from the original figure (firing crossbow and mutant head). Otherwise? Just about perfect.

Alternate Mode: Tarantulas’ transformation into his familiar spider mode is almost identical to that of the original figure. He folds up his robot legs in the spider’s butt, folds his robot arms underneath, and his arm claws became the spider’s fangs. Arrange the eight ball-jointed legs as you see fit and you have a very cool looking spider. Tarantulas’ crossbow attaches to the spider’s rear, the buzzsaw goes underneath its head.

There is no grapple launcher gimmick here, either, of course, so apart from looking really nice, there isn’t much the spider can do, to be honest. The ball joints in the legs aren’t quite tight enough to carry the full weight of the body (it works when you use the rear end as a ninth leg, so to speak) and there is some limited articulation in the fangs out front. The spider does have a great sculpted face, though, and overall looks really great and a close match to both a real spider (in shape, if not in color) and its TV counterpart. So bottom line: a great spider mode for looking at, but with limited play value.

Remarks: The Beast Wars resurgence began in War for Cybertron: Kingdom, but it wasn’t until the first year of the Legacy series that the last remaining Predacons from the TV show’s season 1 cast finally came out. Tarantulas, along with Inferno, came late to the party, but still ends up being one of the best Predacons of the lot.

By the way, the official tech spec Hasbro created for this figure (see last picture in gallery) says that Tarantulas has only 4/10 in the intelligence category? Really? I mean, sure, those are the stats of the original Beast Wars toy, but that was when he was still just a “Ninja Warrior” and the Beast Wars were still supposed to be set on present day Earth. Since then Tarantulas has proven himself one of the smartest (and most deranged) minds in the entire Transformers franchise, so why does he still get a 4?

So bottom line: by far the best (non-Transmetal) Tarantulas figure we’ve ever had. Sure, that’s a rather small field, but still. The robot mode is top notch and even though you can’t really do much with the spider mode, it still looks like it’s supposed to. So if you’re a Beast Wars fan and enjoy the occasional insane bellow, this figure is definitely for you.

Rating: A-