Spyglass
| This article is about the G1 camera component. For the Animated tank component, see Spyglass (Animated). |
- Spyglass is a Decepticon from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Spyglass is Gallant to Spectro's Goofus. He's an eager-beaver go-getter when it comes to espionage and surveillance. He's always on board with whatever sinister scheme Viewfinder cooks up for the Reflector trio, even to the point where he'll cajole the uncooperative Spectro into playing along—making sure, of course, that Spectro doesn't know too much.
Fiction
Marvel The Transformers comics
Spectro, Spyglass and Viewfinder worked with the Decepticon medic to repair their fellow Decepticons. Subsequently an oddly colored Viewfinder was seen decorating the cavern floor of Mount St. Hilary after all the Decepticons were rendered inoperable by Sparkplug Witwicky's poisoned fuel. They didn't even get to introduce themselves in painfully lengthy exposition. Alas, Reflector was taken away from us before his prime. The Last Stand
Generation 1 cartoon continuity
G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers
Dreamwave Generation One continuity
Spyglass was part of Megatron's crew, active on Earth in the 1980s before the Ark II incident. Although he had no great love for Megatron, Spyglass was not willing to mindlessly fall in line behind Starscream once their leader vanished in Tokyo, Japan. Making an alliance with Skywarp—who hated Starscream and wanted to hold leadership of the Decepticons for himself until Megatron inevitably returned—Spyglass arranged to get Starscream's attention. Knowing that Starscream had recruited Soundwave to his cause and set up base in Las Vegas, Spyglass and Skywarp made a stand at Hoover Dam, deliberately bringing themselves inside Soundwave's scanning range yet refusing to answer his hails. Spyglass agreed to let Skywarp run the show, but the "negotiations" for Starscream's abdication quickly degenerated, and the fight was on. Spyglass's Reflector partners came out of hiding to join the battle, but Starscream and Soundwave quickly demolished Skywarp and Spectro, leaving them in deep stasis lock. With his loyalties being questioned at gunpoint, Spyglass wisely said, "What did Megatron ever do for me?" and knelt before Starscream in defeat. Hardwired
Spyglass and Viewfinder did not remain loyal to Starscream for long. When Megatron returned from space with the threat of the all-powerful Keepers at his heels, he was too badly damaged to forcibly retake the Decepticons from Starscream as he had in the past. Megatron still refused to serve his former Air Commander, however, and when he abandoned Starscream and Las Vegas to deal with the problem posed by the Keepers, Spyglass and several other Decepticons did the same. They were wise to do so, because almost immediately thereafter the Keepers confronted Starscream, stole his body to use as a host for their minds, and imprisoned the remaining Decepticons loyal to him. Spyglass and the other Decepticons joined forces with the Autobots in driving the Keepers off planet Earth. Annihilation With Megatron back in command, Spectro was restored to full functionality and the Reflector trio were reunited. They lent their recording abilities to several efforts by Megatron to blackmail the President of the United States into keeping his nose out of Decepticon business. Fusion
Spyglass was NOT part of Megatron's crew, but worked for Shockwave on Cybertron with his two partners, monitoring the planet and its inhabitants for him from a central mainframe. Brothers' Burden They were seemingly destroyed by Starscream when he broke ranks with Shockwave's command structure. Countdown to Extinction
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Early in the war, the Reflector trio tried to stop an Autobot prison break in the Citadel only to be blown away by Springer. Rise
Spyglass and Spectro were later seen aboard a Decepticon orbital outpost, terrified of walking down the same hallway as Sixshot. Spotlight: Sixshot
The Reflector trio, speaking in chorus, celebrated after a successful Decepticon ambush on Earth. All Hail Megatron #7
In New York City, the trio observed as Rumble compulsively destroyed a Volkswagen Beetle, and observed in chorus that it was a pity it wasn't the real thing. All Hail Megatron #3 During the Decepticons' stay in New York, Spyglass and Spectro entertained themselves by chasing down humans and offering to play games with them—games that inevitably led to the two robots breaking their playmates. This didn't discourage them too much, as they just attempted to put the humans back together again. All Hail Megatron #8
Three years later, Spyglass was among the Decepticons left behind on Earth after Astrotrain took most of the others off world. After joining a few other abandoned 'cons, he helped retrieve and repair a heavily injured Thundercracker. Seasons in Flight Led by Swindle, the rag-tag group attacked several Autobot deserters, but laid down their arms when they realized they could work together to get off Earth. New Arrivals, Old Encounters
In the aftermath of the war with Galvatron and D-Void on Cybertron, Spectro, Spyglass and Viewfinder were instructed by Shockwave to undertake a special mission beginning with the theft of Turmoil's time-sliding space cruiser. Night and the City Using the ship, they were supposed to locate LV-117 and report its circumstances back to Shockwave, but were unprepared for the planet's erratic movement through time. Appearing out of nowhere right in front of them, LV-117 flung the Reflector trio over one hundred years into the past, depleting the ship's fuel supply and causing it to crash. Syndromica (2)
Viewfinder was killed in the crash when a large piece of the bridge's canopy shattered and impaled him through the chest. Spectro and Spyglass survived, and eventually they located Wheelie, who had previously crashed on the same planet and had been building an escape vessel with a friendly alien. They managed to hijack the vessel shortly before it launched by threatening to kill Wheelie's friend, but the tiny Autobot removed the safety catch from his energon converter before disembarking, causing it to violently explode shortly after take-off. Spotlight: Wheelie
Hearts of Steel
Spyglass was one of the many Decepticons under Starscream's command during Earth's industrial revolution. Along with Spectro and Viewfinder, he helped overlook the construction of the railway that would allow The Astrotrain to reach New York. Hearts of Steel #3
Transformers vs. G.I. Joe
Toys
Generation 1
- Reflector (Mail-away, 1986/1987; wide release in Japan, 1985)
- Japanese ID number: 21
- Accessories: Spectro's "Shutter Gun", Viewfinder's "Lens Laser", Spyglass' "Optic Blaster", flash cube/missile launcher, 3 missiles, telephoto lens.
- Reflector was first sold in Japan in 1985 as an ordinary retail item. However, Hasbro delayed selling him in the US until 1986, and only then via mail-order from a direct-mail flyer promoting The Transformers: The Movie. (Oddly, this came just as the character was being fully phased out of the fiction.) The toy would be a common offering in pack-in flyers from then on, at a cost of $10 and two Robot Points.
- Reflector is composed of three distinct robots that combine to form a camera: Viewfinder as the central component with the lens, Spectro as the right-side component with the shutter button, and Spyglass as the left-side component with the flash. It includes a telephoto lens and old-style flashcube that doubles as a missile launcher, but of course, the Hasbro version has the spring-loaded mechanism neutered for safety reasons.
Notes
Foreign names
- Japanese: Spyglass (スパイグラス Supaigurasu)
- Mandarin: Wàng-yuěn-chìn (Taiwan, 望遠鏡, "Spyglass"), Jùguāngjìng (China, 聚光镜, "Condenser")
