Spectro

Smile! You're on carnage camera.

Spectro is a Decepticon from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Spectro is not much of an independent thinker. He's effective when he's taking orders or working alongside Spyglass and Viewfinder, the other two members of the Reflector trio — but on his own, his limited intellect proves to be a liability. When something goes wrong, he's always the first to pass the buck and blame someone else, which has not earned him much regard in the optics of his comrades.

Fiction

Dreamwave comics continuity

Events from The Transformers Trilogy novels are in italics.

Spectro was part of Megatron's crew, active on Earth in the 1980's before the Ark II incident. When Megatron was snatched into space by the Keepers, Spectro refused to fall into line behind Starscream as the new Decepticon commander. Spectro joined Skywarp and his fellow Reflector thirds in confronting Starscream at Hoover Dam, hoping to force Starscream into abdicating his throne. When Skywarp and Starscream drew on each other, Spectro flew into the battle, zapping at Starscream with a pair of null rifles. His assault was interrupted by a counter-attack from Starscream's second-in-command, Soundwave...a very severe counter-attack. Laser-like sound beams battered Spectro's circuitry, destroying his fine motor control and sending him flying over the side of the dam, where he finally exploded into fiery debris. Hardwired Spectro was recovered and eventually reconstructed after Megatron returned to Earth, and joined his fellow Reflector-bots on several photo-blackmail missions to keep the American government out of the Decepticons' way. Fusion

Spectro was NOT part of Megatron's crew, but worked for Shockwave on Cybertron along 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

The above contradiction was briefly alluded to in the Fusion novel, as the Terran version of Reflector identified himself as the "true" Reflector, with the Cybertronian version being an "inferior copy." This echoes the body-duplication theme seen elsewhere in the multiverse. Still, what happened to the so-called true Reflector after the Keepers Trilogy remains a mystery.

IDW comics 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, no worse for wear, aboard a Decepticon orbital outpost, terrified of walking down the same hallway as Sixshot. Spotlight: Sixshot

In Spotlight: Sixshot, Spyglass and Spectro appear in their toy based character models.

The Reflector trio, speaking in chorus, celebrated after a successful Decepticon ambush on Earth. All Hail Megatron #7

Spectro's probably the one with red stripes on his legs.

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 invasion, Spectro and Spyglass entertained themselves by "playing" with humans trapped in the city, which sadly led to the little creatures coming apart. The two Decepticons weren't too discouraged, however—they could always try to put their toys back together again. All Hail Megatron #8 Following the Decepticons' defeat, Spectro was among the Decepticons who fled Earth aboard Astrotrain. Uneasy Lies the Head

At some point, the Reflector trio found themselves on a ship which crashed on LV-117. 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

Toys

Generation 1

File:G1 Reflector toy.jpg

We three kings of orient are...Left to right: Spectro, Viewfinder, Spyglass

• 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.

• More information on Spectro at TFU.info

Notes

Foreign names

• Japanese: Spectro (スペクトロ Supekutoro)