An Ode to the Worst Transformer

Don't worry, it's none of these guys.

As any long time fan of the Transformers will tell you, not all Transformers are created equal. And while there are a lot of questionable ones, they usually all have diehard fans who can defend them to their dying day.

I say this as someone who's top three Transformers are Perceptor, Cosmos, and Skylynx. And before you ask, yes, Perceptor is the one that transformed into a microscope. But you know what? He's perfection. No notes. He's the team's best scientist and he had to master mass-shifting to be able to go from a tiny microscope to a full size ass kicking robot.

And I'd also like to remind you that the inventor of the Transformers toys has a statue of Perceptor with a thank you message only visible through the microscope. That's dope.

But for every person that can sit there and justify the cassettes and boomboxes, the dinosaurs, whatever the hell Silverbolt was, and even Revenge of the Fallen's awful "Dickbot" (real name), there's one that I can't figure out any good way to justify.

And like most victories, this one is a team effort as the winner of the worst Transformer is actually three Transformers. We're looking at Spectro, Spyglass, and Viewfinder, known together as Reflector. For those who don't know this guy, Spectro, Spyglass, and Viewfinder are three full sized Decepticons, roughly around the same size (in robot form) as Megatron.

They look like they're here to tell you the good word of our lord Megachrist.

These three absolute dorks, when working together, combine into a singular form. But unlike Devastator or any of the other ones like that, they instead shrink REALLY little and form...a camera.

Not a futuristic camera mind you. A fucking camera with a big ass flash and film. And this was the era when people were stunned that you could get photos developed within an hour and you PRAYED that the pictures weren't trash.

At least with the toy the three looked different and, while they were absolute ass to transform, the camera form looked kinda cool. But even the toy was a massive pain in the ass to get because you had to mail in for it. That shit wth the stamps? Yeah. You had to send $10 and two thinks you cut off Transformer toy packages. And you ended up with this—

If you couldn't figure it out, all three just transformer into cubes that VERY POORLY snap together and then a massive lense and flash get snapped on seperately.

And even, EVEN, if you could convince me that Reflector is cool in even an oddity stand point, it doesn't change the fact that these three are the absolute worse on an individual level. Like, Spectro, just to pick one at random, is one third of a camera. And even if they're together, someone else has to operate the camera. Shit, even Megatron, in classic gun mode, could fire on his own. Goddamn Reflector.

Even Rung, the Autobot psychologist that transformered into a piece of a machine later found out that he could create Matrix of Leaderships.

Here's hoping Reflector has spent some time reflecting on their lives.