Review 10-013 - Tarantulas
Series - Beast Wars
Sub-line -
Size - Deluxe
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - 1
Released here - 1996
Approximate Retail Price - $20
Approximate Size - 15cm
Allegiance - Predacon
Alt-mode - Spider (doesn't look bulky enough to be a tarantula)
Main Features/Gimmicks - Launching grappling hook and missiles.
Main Colours - Dull purple, black, yellow, grey, green.
Main Accessories - Grappling-hook launcher, 4 missiles.
My Difficulty rating (out of 5) - 1
Stability - Good in robot mode, and really good in spider mode, in terms of holding together and standing.
Poseability/articulation - Very good. For its time it was excellent, as this sort of articulation design was only previously tried out on a select few Generation 2 toys. But even today, it's articulation stands up against any other toy today, now over 14 years later.
Playability - Very playable, with simplistic but fun transformation, and a gimmick that can fire missiles or a grappling-hook.
My Thoughts - The first year of Beast Wars toys had many great, fun toys, which was a refreshing change to the franchise, despite the purists opposing the alt-modes. True to their original purpose as robots in disguise, these toys were engineered well enough to reflect or resemble a recognisable, real alt-mode, without excessively compromising the look of either mode. And Tarantulas is the best in the first year to have the least amount of kibble in robot mode. The colours on Tarantulas are a bit odd, but was probably the exception to the first year of BW toys. I recommend this and all of the first year of Beast Wars toys, in much the same way I recommend having the first year of Generation 1 toys. Not just because they are good toys, but are classic and symbolic of that era.
My Overall Recommendation Rating (out of 10) - 8