Originally written September 2019.
Reflector’s an odd Decepticon, both in design and history. The original Reflector toy was meant to come out in 1984 with the first series of Transformers, but for whatever reason, was initially cancelled, and would later come out in the line’s third year, 1986, as a mail-away item. Since he was supposed to be a year one character, though, he was on the original cartoon right from the very first episode.
The original Reflector toy consisted of three robots, Spectro, Spyglass and Viewfinder, all of whom had unique-looking designs. They didn’t have alternate modes of their own, but instead, all three combined into a realistic camera, named Reflector.
The TV show decided to radically redesign them, though and change how they worked as a character. Reflector was now three nearly-identical robots (the one in the middle had a lens on his stomache), who talked in unison, and seemed to share a group consciousness.
They still combined into a camera (shrinking to handheld size in the process), and additional Reflector robots would occasionally show up as background generics.
As a toy, being three robots who could only combine into a single alternate mode that was also a realistic life-sized object, he (they?) are an odd concept, a product of Early G1 Weirdness that we don’t really see nowadays. That’s probably why, despite being Season One characters, they haven’t really gotten a proper full-sized Generations update (just a single robot-to-camera Micromaster accessory in 2014, and three Collector’s Club exclusive minifigures that were Combiner Wars Shockwave retools in 2016), until Siege finally figured out a way to make a modern update that was faithful to the original idea.
The standard Deluxe-sized Siege Refraktor figure, pictured above, (apparently Hasbro ran into some rights problems with the name Reflector in the last three years) is a solo robot modeled after their G1 TV series design (with a removable stomach lens so he can act as the centre one or one of the side ones), which now changes into an odd little “spaceship” thing. However, if you manage to purchase three of the same figure, you can additionally combine them into the original camera mode. But just finding three of him at retail is a challenging task (when he’s been spotted in Canada, it’s always been in ones and twos), and the combined camera mode’s a bit ropey-looking (which happens when you have an animation model that doesn’t care about transforming realistically), so Hasbro offered an alternative with the Refraktor Reconaissance Trio, a three-pack in colors homaging the original Reflector toy, with extra accessories on top of it. It’s an online exclusive in the US, but in Canada, it unexpectedly popped up at Toys R Us as an exclusive for $99.99, aka the price of three Siege Deluxes (30 a pop), and $10 of extra accessories. Let’s see if he’s worth the price tag.
Camera Mode
Refraktor is packaged in combined camera mode, in a package that additionally looks like a real digital camera box. It’s a realistically-styled camera, and while I’m not enough of a photographer to know if this is a digital one or an old-school film one like the original, I do see knobs on it for changing the f-stop and ISO. It felt a bit small to me at first, but it’s about the size of a real modern DSLR.
It’s a very well-painted camera, and feels like it has more paint budget than mass-released Siege stuff. It’s mostly cast in silvery-grey and black, with bits of red detailing. While the knobs and buttons on the left side are just molded in, it does have a proper clear lens, and a flash that uses transparent plastic and silvery-white color beneath it to look real. I know they had to change the name, but I wish it still said “Reflector” up top instead of his new name. Most of the molded-in realistic details are from the new accessories in this set that attatch to the camera to make it look more real, namely the shell on the left, the flash on the right, and the….thingie uptop. Here’s what it looks like without the extra accessories, i.e if you buy three normal Refraktors at retail:
While the lens and tripod are present, it now looks far less like a real camera, though the retail one has a more unified, purple color scheme, at least. Anyway, let’s pop those bits back on.
Speaking of that tripod, you need to build it out of three legs and a circular black lens-piece out of the box, and I’ll save you some time and tell you that last part of the tripod is hiding beneath the camera’s main lens, which you’ll need to pop off to retrieve it. It’s a pretty stable stand, too.
Of course, the illusion of it being a real camera is totally ruined from the back, where you clearly see three robots balled up into cubes. On one hand, maybe another new shell piece could have hidden them from view. On the other hand, that would have added to the price, I’m sure.
Gimmick-wise, it doesn’t really DO anything, aside from looking really cool. There’s some ports on the left you can use to mount Kremzeek, or other blast effects, but more on that later. Bottom line: In hand, this is a really impressive fake camera.
Transformation to Robot Modes
Basically, you take all of the camera parts off of him, set them aside, split the body into three identical cubes, and unfold the cubes into three robot men. It feels a bit cheaty that most of the camera stuff is removable parts, but, again, partsforming like that is what happens when a cartoon’s character model isn’t designed with its alternate form in mind, and then you have to make it work as a non-Masterpiece toy like 30 years later. But, as I discuss later, at least all of the parts do something.
I will say that converting Refraktor back to camera form is really satisfying in a tactile way to me. You just make the cubes, click the cubes together, and click some stuff onto the cubes.
Robot Modes
I’ll review these as one unit, since it’s the same tooling repeated three times, just in different colors. For the record, Spectro’s the red one, Spyglass is metallic blue with the yellow chest, and Viewfinder’s metallic blue with the green chest, and is supposed to have the lens in his stomach. Viewfinder is also the one that’s closest to their combined cartoon color scheme, and can sub in for Cartoon Reflector in a pinch, though that version is more purple than blue.
Design-wise, they sure do resemble generic robot goons that tend to run around in the background, but I don’t mean this in a bad way. These definitely read as the mass-produced, generic soldiers of the Decepticons, more so than even the Seekers. The sculpt is very cartoon accurate, and very proportionate-looking. The face looks very Sunbow cartoonish too, and kind of sad, perfect for a group of hapless troops.
One thing I like about all three color schemes is not only are they different, but the paint on each of the figures is different. There’s no repeated color patterns, it’s all applied in different ways. I particularly like their transparent chests, which all do something completely different with the colors and how they’re laid out.
I do think they feel and look a bit hollow, sadly, especially from the back. This isn’t usually a problem with Siege, so it’s surprising to see here. That being said, they’re very poseable, at least. They have those ankle tilts Siege is known for, among other joints. Their shoulders are odd, though, and articulate strangely, folding slightly below the shoulder instead of directly on it. Still, they have a lot of personality, and as a team of three identical robots, I like putting them in group poses.
Speaking of “identical group,” one thing that some collectors weren’t happy with is that these are just three identical TV show-style Reflectors in color schemes that homage the toys. When rumors of this set first came out, collectors assumed they’d get additional retooling, like different heads, to make them more toy-accurate. So if you’re here for that, I get the disappointment. Personally, I’m here for this set as an easy method to get these three cartoon-accurate people, so I like what they did. And they’re not completely the same anymore, the difference is now in the accessories. But first, let’s just take a look at what the mass release comes with.
As mentioned, they all have a round lens you can place on their stomache. Spectro and Spyglass can stash theirs on their backside, though. The camera’s tripod, in a really clever bit of engineering, splits into three long laser guns that each of them can hold. They’re pretty impressive looking. Finally, the lens of the camera splits three ways into three curved shields. The handle and peg inside of it means they can hold these shield pieces in their hands, or mount them on two weapon ports on each of their arms. There’s also a port on their lower legs for any other Siege weaponry you’d like to include.
Now, to the set’s unique accessories. Viewfinder, shown above, gets a pair of clip-on shoulderpads, making him resemble the toy a lot more. Luckily, they mount just above his shoulders, so as not to block arm articulation.
The instructions and stock images also mount his shield on his right shoulder, where, honestly, it kind of gets in the way of his arms by inhibiting his shoulder movement, which is a recurring theme here, but you can always mount it somewhere else.
Spectro, meanwhile gets a sort of shield/half-cape that mounts onto his right shoulder and wraps around his back. While it looks neat, it also completely limits his arm articulation to just the elbow. Stock images show it being mounted slightly curved backwards, which frees his arm up a bit more, but still kind of limits it.
While the instructions don’t tell you to mount his shield anywhere, stock images and art show it on his right shoulder, which is again limiting.
Spyglass’s accessories are the most straightforward: You mound the camera flash on his left shoulder, and his own shield on his right, oddly, facing lens-forward (but stock images rotate it in a different direction).
Once again, this has the issue of making his arms kind of hard to move
In fact, it’s kind of a problem with all three figures: The extra bits of armor all hinder their articulation to different degrees. On the other hand, you can always leave those bits off, and leave them unencumbered, but then you just have a pile of camera parts that don’t do anything. So, pick your poison, I guess.
Transformation to Spaceship Modes
While these altmodes visually look like something the designers made up through fiddling with the toys, there’s a surprising amount of transformation engineering behind them. There’s a lot of tabs that come together with satisfying snaps, meaning that at the very least, the end product is a solid, stable mass.
Spaceship Modes
A shame that surprising amount of transformation engineering’s in the service of something so lacklustre. To be fair, the designers did put some work into making this into a convincing spaceship. He’s got windows on top, and a flat deck that suggests “space aircraft carrier,” plus the half-shields suggest a giant, fiery engine. But it can’t escape the fact that it’s blatantly made of a folded-up robot with a character model that wasn’t designed to change into anything, and basically only exists so they can sell him as a standalone figure.
On one hand, I wish there was something more substantial here, on the other hand, making that character model into anything was a challenge, and they did the best they could. Plus, if you have three of them, it’s an optional bonus you can basically skip. But it’s definitely not good value if you only have one Deluxe.
Also, you can kind of pretend it’s a giant gun, if you can get someone to hold it up.
Kremzeek
This set comes with one more accessory, a minifigure of Kremzeek. He’s a one-off character from a self-titled episode of the second season of the original cartoon, a mischievous electrical creature that overloaded anything it touched, and multiplied as it did so. It’s one of those minor characters that shows up as an easter egg in latter-day Transformers stuff, and there’s been a few pack-in minifigures over the years, usually with Masterpieces. This is the first mainline Kremzeek ever, though.
He’s one solid piece, cast in transparent yellow, with painted eyes and a mouth. He’s a little bit soft, but not entirely flexible. His biggest feature is pegs on the bottom that are compatible with the energy-blast effect parts that come with Siege’s Battle Masters, so you can attach him to most Siege figures, though the placement of these pegs usually makes it look like he’s kicking people or something.
I’m not sure why they packed him in with Reflector of all things, since they’d phased Reflector out of the show long before Kremzeek showed up, but he’s a nifty inclusion, and as you saw at the start of the review, the camera mode’s specifically got some tabs for him to hang out on.
Overall
I really dig this set. As I said in the intro, the double-whammy of “transforms into a life-sized object” and “is made of three robots” is some early G1 weirdness we don’t see anymore, and it’s great to see it so slavishly homaged.
As a set, these three robots are nifty and poseable, and though they share a mold, there’s plenty of variation in look and accessories, and they walk the line between “having a neat identical team dynamic” and “being distinct characters” really well for me. There’s a lot of play value in the three of them as a trio, and I do recommend getting the trio, one Refraktor won’t do. The question is whether or not this set’s worth it.
While it needs a bunch of removable parts to make a convincing camera, and said parts inhibit robot articulation when you try and use them, you can always leave them off, and that’s the only real flaw in what’s otherwise a very fun, well-made and well-designed set. Once the sticker shock wears off, you’ll see it’s worth what’s in the box, since it’s three Deluxes with a ten-dollar expansion pack of accessories. I prefer this set to trying to hunt three of the mass-release one down, but regardless, I recommend getting some version of these guys, and this way’s both easier and cooler.
(2021 notes: Maybe he’s not as easy or cheap to obtain these days, but he’s still a really fun set of three figures.)
