Needler (G1)
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| 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 mechanoid partner to Bombshell, who uses his pincers and flamethrowers to destroy anything Bombshell doesn't mind-warp first.
Contents |
Fiction
Dreamwave Generation One continuity
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.
Games
Transformers Roleplaying Game
Needler was Bombshell's Targetmaster partner. The Enigma of Combination
Toys
The Transformers
- Bombshell with Needler (Action Master, 1991)
- Known designers: Andy Couzens (Hasbro), Takio Ejima (TakaraTomy), Masakatsu Saito (concept artist)
- Released in the seventh year of the European-market Transformers toyline (the first year following the end of the US line), Needler is a robotic scarab. When plugged onto the back of any standard Action Master figure, the beast-head flips over their head to act as a battle helmet.
- he was only available with his larger partner Bombshell.
- As part of the European-only portion of Transformers, Bombshell and Needler can go for some pretty hefty prices on the secondary market.
Merchandise
Transformers Trading Card Game
- Raider Needler, Ground Force-Demolitions/Steelbite Incisor Mask (2019)
- Wave 4: War for Cybertron: Siege II
- Rarity: UT
- Card Number: T34/T52
- Stars: 7
- Raider Needler, Ground Force-Demolitions is one of fifty-two double-sided character cards available in Wave 4 of the Transformers Trading Card Game, War for Cybertron: Siege II. As a Battle Master, Raider Needler, Ground Force-Demolitions begins the game in Bot Mode. Instead of being sent to the KO Area once his Health drops to zero, the card is flipped to the Upgrade side, becoming the Steelbite Incisor Mask, and equipped in the Weapons slot of another character on the player's side of the battlefield . In order to represent Needler's size as a Battle Master, the card is the size of a battle card, about half the size of a normal character card.
- The card received original artwork, with line-art for both modes by Andrew Griffith.
ULTIMATES!
- Bombshell (ULTIMATES!, 2021)
- Part of the first wave of Transformers ULTIMATES! from Super7, packed in with traditional partner Bombshell, Needler is an upscaled version of his original toy. He can be plugged into a socket on Bombshell's back, though while his head is on a ball-joint, it cannot flip over Bombshell's head anymore.
- Preorders for Bombshell (and the rest of Wave 1) opened on January 29 2021, and closed on February 28, with the toys purportedly shipping in winter of that year but actually arriving in May 2022.
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. Decades later, this interpretation would again surface in the Transformers Roleplaying Game rulebook and its expansions.
Foreign names
- Italian: Gort
