Needler (G1)

This article is about the Generation 1 Action Master partner. For the 2015 Robots in Disguise Decepticon, see Needler (RID).

Needler is a Decepticon Action Master partner from the toyline portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Needler is the green one...

Needler is the mechanoid partner to Bombshell, who uses his pincers and flamethrowers to destroy anything Bombshell doesn't mind-warp first.

Fiction

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

He's just friendly.

Bombshell used a type of cerebro-shell patterned on Needler. Infestation

This shell probably does not represent Needler him/itself. Needler's connection to cerebro-shell technology (if any) is unknown but can likely be attributed to Dreamwave's rampant use of Easter eggs.

Toys

Generation 1

• Bombshell with Needler (Action Master, 1991)

Needler is a robotic scarab who was only sold with the Action Master version of Bombshell, available only in the European markets. He can plug into Bombshell's back, and pressing a trigger flips his head up and over Bombshell's, forming a battle mask of sorts.

• More information on Needler (with Bombshell) at TFU.info

Merchandise

Transformers Trading Card Game

• Raider Needler//Ground Force•Demolitions (2019)
  • Wave 4: War for Cybertron: Siege II
  • Rarity: UT
  • Card Number: T34/T52
  • Stars: 7

Notes

• In Dreamwave's More than Meets the Eye profile series, every Action Master partner robot profiled was retroactively given the "Targetmaster" classification, though the partners to characters who had previous, non-Action Master toys were omitted from the books' lineup. However, the across-the-board application of the Targetmaster term for those that did appear makes a pretty clear inference that all of the Action Master partner-bots are Targetmasters... at least, as far as the Dreamwave universe is concerned.