Tarantulas (Transformers)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tarantulas (pronounced TER-ANT-CHEW-LASS and often misspelt Tarantulus) is a Predacon in the Beast Wars series. He scanned a tarantula as his beast mode.
Contents |
[edit] Beast Wars
| Transformers character | |
 |
|
| Tarantulas | |
|---|---|
| Allegiance | Predacon (Destron) |
| Sub-Group | Deluxe Beasts |
| Function | Ninja Warrior (although he seemed more the mad scientist and double agent in the series.) |
| Motto | None officially, but he has said "You shouldn't take your eyes off a spider. They tend to be venomous." |
| Alternate mode | Giant Tarantula Transmetal Tarantula |
| Fiction Appearances | Transformers: Beast Wars cartoon |
| Voiced by | Alec Willows (English) Yūichi Nagashima (Japanese) |
The character of Tarantulas as seen on the television series was very different from how Hasbro originally depicted him on his tech specs. On the specs he was a stealthy ninja of average intelligence who liked to feed on humans, not a double agent or scientist. When Tarantulas was re-released in 2006 they changed his tech specs to more reflect the television series character. Ironically, while he seemed to be more of a scientist (and double agent, serving his own agenda as much as Megatron's), Blackarachnia was much more adept in the martial arts than he was.
[edit] Season One
Tarantulas was one of the original members of Megatron's Darkside crew who stole the Golden Disk from the Cybertron archives. He has been known to attack enemies physically and pyschologically. He is often considered one of the most sadistic and treacherous of his peers, a "mad scientist" in his own right. He was the one who infected Blackarachnia and Inferno with Predacon shell programs. In the case of Blackarachnia, he reprogrammed her from a Maximal Protoform with the full intention of her being his mate and partner. He later developed an obsession (lust?) with the "She-spider" (as he often called her), because of how she rivaled him in skills. However, when he was consistently rejected by Blackarachnia, he then took to calling her "Witch". Another attempt to create a spider Predacon failed, due to glitches in the programming of the shell program (not to mention the pod had already scanned a fire ant), and resulted in Inferno.
Megatron often relied on Tarantulas because of his technological and strategic brilliance, but was always suspicious of his intentions and aspirations as well as his somewhat psychotic nature. He was well known for his frequent maniacal laughter.
At points in the first Season, Tarantulas would show to have abnormal levels of knowledge about the Vok and even knew in advance they planned to destroy the planet, attempting to capture & modify a Stasis Pod so he could escape.
[edit] Season Two
Tarantulas's mind was temporarily in Blackarachnia's body when she tried to access his mind until she transferred him back into his transmetalized body, but kept a psychic link to use her as his puppet until Blackarachnia forced him to break it.
After that (and the resurrection of Optimus Primal as a Transmetal) , Tarantulas left Megatron and became a free agent to follow his own agenda, though he was often seen helping Megatron if he had something to gain from it. The two never truly trusted each other, resorting to spying on each other and bugging the others' communications. Tarantulas also attempted several schemes of his own, attempting to take Protoform X's pod for himself, only to get blown apart by the psychotic Maximal. Tarantulas turned out to be an agent of the Tripredacus Council, a lieutenant of their Secret Police force. He aided Ravage in capturing Megatron but was seemingly destroyed by a Rattrap delivered bomb in Ravage's ship after the former Decepticon switched sides.
[edit] Season Three
Shown to be rebuilt by Spider-like repair bots in Optimal Situation Tarantulas only appeared sparingly, working on his own agenda off-screen, though he returned at times, such as to try and ensure Blackarachnia would die from her Shell Program being tampered with (for which he was almost murdered by Maximal fuzor Silverbolt), or to kill her and Cheetor with the aid of cloned Transmetal enhanced Velociraptors. It was also revealed he was a direct Tripredacus agent, and they had some history & grudge against the Vok.
He finally cut all ties with the Predacons when he had Megatron thrown into a lava pit and attempted to destroy the Ark. Forced into hiding when his plan failed (and nearly killed by Megatron's massive new dragon mode), Tarantulas attempted to take over control of Tigerhawk from the Vok. Here he revealed that this was the plan of the Tripredacus Council, who were not descended from Autobot & Decepticon like the rest of Cybertron, and wanted the planet's current existence erased from the timeline. However, in doing so, he inadvertently extracted the Vok influence and, as it tried to enter his own body, he accidentally vaporized himself with his own laser cannon. Later, Megatron refers to Tarantulas as a "treacherous Unicron spawn". According to the Beast Wars writers, what many fans have taken as a generic insult, is in fact proof that Tarantulas is not an ordinary Predacon. He is in some way connected to Unicron, as is the Tripredacus Council. This explains his assertion that destroying the Ark wouldn't affect him, because the council and himself have different origins, although it is never in fact stated in the show that Tarantulas is descended from Unicron. It is revealed in the 2-part series finale "Nemesis", that Tarantulas had been repairing and restoring the Decepticon warship, the Nemesis, for his own use.
[edit] Primeval Dawn
In the Beast Wars: Primeval Dawn comic, it is revealed that Tarantulas' destruction was an elaborate ruse engineered by himself, in order to absorb the Vok who possessed Tigerhawk into himself. Reviving Ravage and adding Razorclaw, Spittor and Iguanus to his ranks, he sought to complete the task he had begun. However, he met opposition in the Vok's new avatar, Primal Prime, as well as with the returned Tigatron and Airazor.
[edit] Transformers: Universe
Although no Tarantulas toy was for the Universe line, Tarantulas (in his Transmetal Fox Kids incarnation) appeared in the Transformers: Universe comic book series. Presumably after his defeat in the Primeval Dawn storyline, he joined forces with Unicron's Decepticons. He welcomed Blackarachnia back to the side of evil (Transformers Universe #2) and sent her on a mission against the Autobots (Transformers: Universe #3).
[edit] Tarantulas toys
Tarantulas was a deluxe-sized toy released in the first wave of Beast Wars figures in 1996 by Hasbro. He shared a common mold with Blackarachnia, but in the television series they proportioned Tarantulas like the toy and used the mutant head from the toy, whereas Blackarachnia was given more female proportions and they used the robot head from the toy.
He was later reformatted as Transmetal spider with attributes of a motorcross bike. This toy was recolored for his Fox Kids release. These colors were used to depict Tarantulas in the Primeval Dawn and Universe comics.
In 2006 the original Tarantulas toy was one of the toys selected for the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary toyline. He was repainted in more show-accurate colors. His name is indicated on packaging as Predacon Tarantulus, the spelling of his proper name changed for trademark reasons. He came packaged with one of the six pieces used to make the Transmutate toy.
