Tag Archives: blackarachnia (bw)

‘Beast Wars’ Review #26 – ‘Tangled Web’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

It’s the New Year and we’re continuing where we left off in Season 2 of ‘Beast Wars: Transformers’. Hopefully, I’ll have finished updating the rest of my ‘Beast Wars’ reviews by May. 🙂 Anyway, let’s check out, ‘Tangled Web’, the fourth episode in Season 2 of ‘Beast Wars’ and the third story in the season. In this episode, Tarantulas, Blackarachnia and Quickstrike are sent on a mission by their Predacon leader Megatron to build a refuelling station in a cavern full of Energon cubes. Rattrap and Silverbolt of the Maximals are sent to investigate a signal that leads them to Tarantulas, Blackarachnia and Quickstrike. I saw ‘Tangled Web’ after seeing ‘Part 2’ of ‘Coming of the Fuzors’ via GMTV on Early Bank Holiday Monday in May 1999. The episode was later released on VHS as well as on DVD and is currently available on YouTube for everyone to see it. Is ‘Tangled Web’ a worthwhile episode to check out in Season 2 of ‘Beast Wars’ or is it a fairly average filler episode? Continue reading →

‘Beast Wars’ Review #25 – ‘Coming of the Fuzors’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

After checking out ‘Aftermath’, it’s time to check out the first two-part story in Season 2 of the ‘Beast Wars: Transformers’ TV series. It’s time for ‘Coming of the Fuzors’, which introduces us to two new characters and a new breed of Transformers where a robot can transform into a mixture of an animal. The two new characters include Quickstrike, who can transform from a scorpion-cobra into a robot and vice versa, and there’s Silverbolt, who can transform from a wolf-eagle into a robot and vice versa. They’re recruited by Megatron for the Predacon cause. Very soon, the Predacons battle against the Maximals, who are defending their base of operations. I saw ‘Part 1’ of the two-part story on Easter Monday in April 1999 and I saw ‘Part 2’ on Early Bank Holiday Monday in May 1999. The story was later released on VHS as well as on DVD. Will the Maximals be able to cope in their fight against the Predacons without their fearless leader? Continue reading →

‘Beast Wars’ Review #24 – ‘Aftermath’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

It’s time to start checking out Season 2 of the ‘Beast Wars: Transformers’ TV series. In the first episode of Season 2 of ‘Beast Wars’ called ‘Aftermath’, we see numerous changes made to the TV show’s cast line-up, both on the Maximal and the Predacon sides. Following on from the end of ‘Other Voices’ in Season 1, the Maximals and the Predacons find themselves in trouble when a quantum surge hits the mysterious planet they’re on. This episode is where we’re introduced the new Transmetal forms of some of our characters. I recall purchasing the toy versions of the Transmetal ‘Beast Wars’ characters when I was getting into the TV show as a kid. Such happy, exciting times for me as a kid in the late 1990s. 🙂 The first time I saw this ‘Beast Wars’ episode was on Easter Monday in April 1999. I recorded it on VHS and saw it umpteen times. Is this episode a good follow-up to the end of ‘Other Voices’ as well as the beginning to Season 2 of ‘Beast Wars’? Continue reading →

‘Beast Wars’ Review #23 – ‘Other Voices’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Here we are! We’ve made it! This is the two-part finale of Season 1 of the ‘Beast Wars: Transformers’ TV series. This is ‘Other Voices’, a two-part story featuring the Maximals and the Predacons in a battle against time, as the mysterious aliens with their strange artefacts on this mysterious planet come with the intention of destroying their ‘experiment’, thanks to the Beast Wars taking place. Optimus Primal must find a way to stop the aliens from destroying the planet completely as well as the Maximals, Predacons and other living beings. Will it mean having to self-sacrifice himself in the process? I first saw this two-part story on Good Friday in April 1999 via GMTV. I rewatched it numerous times, especially as it’s a very dramatic close to Season 1 and it features a shocking cliffhanger. What is it about this two-part finale that traumatised me as a young kid when I saw it over the Easter holidays in 1999, especially since I recorded it on VHS tape? Continue reading →

‘Beast Wars’ Review #22 – ‘Before the Storm’

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Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

We come now to the penultimate story in Season 1 of the ‘Beast Wars: Transformers’ TV series called ‘Before the Storm’. This is a prelude to the two-part finale ‘Other Voices’. In this episode, an alien golden disc is discovered and Megatron establishes a truce between the Maximals and the Predacons. Optimus Primal and the Maximals work on finding out what Megatron has discovered, but they need to do it via peaceful means. I never saw this episode on TV back in the 1990s via GMTV, which is a shame. But I’m pleased to have seen it in the ‘Beast Wars’ 15th anniversary DVD box set for Christmas in December 2011. Things that were established in episodes like ‘Chain of Command’ and ‘The Trigger’ are built upon and come to together in the concluding story of Season 1 of ‘Beast Wars’. Is ‘Before the Storm’ a worthy prelude to what’s to come in the two-part finale of Season 1 of the ‘Beast Wars’ TV series? Continue reading →

‘Beast Wars’ Review #20 – ‘The Low Road’

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Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Here we are again with another ‘Beast Wars: Transformers’ episode from Season 1 of the TV series in October 2025! 🙂 This is a rather unusual ‘Beast Wars’ episode, as it features Rhinox being infected with a deadly virus by Tarantulas. Dinobot and Rhinox must work together to locate the counter-virus and save Rhinox. Sounds like a typical filler episode in the ‘Beast Wars’ series, right? Well, what I found unusual about this episode is the tone that it goes for, especially when it becomes more humourous and it’s not so dramatic. Does that make the viewing experience worthwhile? I saw this episode for the first time in the ‘Beast Wars’ 15th anniversary DVD box set for Christmas in December 2011. It’s been great to revisit some ‘Beast Wars’ episodes I didn’t see from the 1990s via the 15th anniversary DVD box set in 2011. Does ‘The Low Road’ bring back happy memories for me when I first saw it on DVD back in 2011? Continue reading →

‘Beast Wars’ Review #19 – ‘Possession’

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Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

It’s time again for another ‘Beast Wars: Transformers’ episode in Season 1 of the TV series. Today, we’re checking out a rather unique and special ‘Beast Wars’ episode. In this episode, the Maximals and the Predacons meet Starscream, a Decepticon from the ‘Transformers’ Generation 1 TV series. Starscream’s spark comes to Earth and takes possession of Waspinator, one of the Predacons. I never saw this ‘Beast Wars’ episode as a kid in the 1990s. I saw it when I purchased the ‘Beast Wars’ 15th anniversary DVD box set for Christmas in December 2011. In-between the 1990s and 2011, I did see episodes of the ‘Transformers’ G1 TV series as well as the 1986 ‘Transformers’ movie to know who Starscream was as a character in this ‘Beast Wars’ episode. Was it a satisfying episode to sit through? Did it meet my expectations in being the first ‘Transformers’ G1/‘Beast Wars’ crossover in the ‘Beast Wars’ TV series? Continue reading →

‘Beast Wars’ Review #17 – ‘Call of the Wild’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Today, it’s Bank Holiday Monday in August 2025 in the UK (England, Wales and Northern Ireland to be precise). And it’s time to check out another exciting episode in Season 1 of ‘Beast Wars: Transformers’. Today, we’re checking out ‘Call of the Wild’, an episode that I saw on ‘The Beginning’ Volume 3 VHS release, not on GMTV. 😀 This episode has the Maximals, including Optimus Primal, Cheetor, Rhinox, Dinobot and Rattrap struggling to overcome their beast personas when they’re forced to stay in beast mode after the Predacons attacked their base and stole their rectifier coil, which is meant to shield our heroes from Energon inside the Maximals’ base. Once the Maximals have succumbed to their animal personas, Megatron leads a hunt. Tigatron and Airazor must do all they can to help their Maximal comrades. I’m very pleased I saw this episode on ‘The Beginning’ Volume 3 VHS as well as in the ‘Beast Wars’ 15th anniversary DVD box set, which I purchased for Christmas in December 2011. Continue reading →

‘Beast Wars’ Review #16 – ‘Spider’s Game’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

We’re back to single episodes for a while in Season 1 of ‘Beast Wars: Transformers’. It’s time to check out the second of two episodes that I saw on New Year’s Day in January 1999 in the morning via GMTV. The first episode was ‘The Spark’, which introduced Airazor as a new Maximal character. Today’s episode is ‘Spider’s Game’, which introduces a new Predacon character in the form of Inferno. I didn’t get to record the full episode of ‘Spider’s Game’ on VHS back on New Year’s Day in January 1999, as I recorded only the first half of the episode, having run out of tape. I did get to see the full episode on ‘The Beginning’ Volume 3 VHS and later owned the episode in the ‘Beast Wars’ 15th anniversary DVD box set. This episode showcases Tarantulas and Blackarchnia as the two spider Predacons when they get to team up. Continue reading →

‘Beast Wars’ Review #15 – ‘The Trigger’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

It’s time for a two-part story in Season 1 of ‘Beast Wars: Transformers’. It’s the first one in a long while since the two-part series opener in ‘Beast Wars’ at the beginning of Season 1. Let’s check out ‘The Trigger’, a ‘Beast Wars’ story that I didn’t see on GMTV in the morning in 1998, 1999 nor 2000. I saw this two-parter on ‘The Beginning’ Volume 3 VHS before eventually owning the story in the ‘Beast Wars’ 15th anniversary DVD box set. ‘The Trigger’ focuses on Tigatron, who ends up falling into a cloud that contains a mysterious flying island after being attacked by Terrorsaur and Waspinator. Very soon, the Predacons race to claim the island for themselves, including Blackarachnia and Scorponok. Can Optimus Primal, Rattrap, Tigatron and Airazor stop the Predacons in time from claiming the island? Continue reading →