Searchlight (G1)

Searchlight is an Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.

The sun! It burns our eyess!

Searchlight is a quiet and withdrawn member of the Throttlebots. A silent spy, he is most at home in the blackest night, not because of what the darkness covers, but for what it reveals. When he cruises through darkened cities or over deserted plains, he has no need to switch on his two 10,000 watt driving lamps: his front-mounted sensor array brings him a subtle panorama that the daylight only overwhelms in its fiery radiance. Searchlight sees all, be it in the dimmest spark of visible light, or in the infrared spectrum, or elsewhere in the realm of electromagnetic radiation. His X-ray capacity lets him look through objects, and his spectroscope allows him to analyze their composition. All of this he can record in stereoscopic, digital video. This amazing array even gives him some offensive capacity; he can blind foes with a dazzling, stroboscopic flash from his driving lamps, but this is painful and disorienting to his well-tuned optics.

So fascinating are the secrets which the nighttime world reveals to Searchlight that he often loses track of his assigned mission. A further drawback of working alone comes from his very best quality; his keen senses. A slight sound or movement, if made by something undetectable by his trained sensors, can make him anxious, and eventually send him into a panic. Therefore, though he is serious-minded and works best alone, his superiors must sometimes check on him.^[1]

Fiction

Marvel The Transformers comics

Thanks to a Decepticon Titanium-class Destruction Drone, Searchlight and his fellow Throttlebots were captured during an attack on a fuel storage depot, and brought to the Chief Decepticon Fuel Auditor Ratbat. An outbreak of Scraplets had begun on Earth, and Ratbat ordered them to travel there and destroy all of the infected—or he would destroy the planet itself to prevent spread of the deadly disease. Given new Earth-style vehicle forms and canisters of corrosive acid, Searchlight stayed at the primary site of the infection with Freeway and Chase, while Rollbar and Wideload went to track another Transformer who'd left the scene. Rollbar and Wideload eventually returned with Goldbug, his human friend Charley Fong, and a cure for Scraplets: the "rare chemical" water. With this knowledge, they managed to destroy all the Scraplets with help from another of the Earthbound Autobots' allies, G.B. Blackrock. The Cure!

Following that incident, Searchlight and the rest of the Throttlebots joined Goldbug and Blaster as they traveled about the country. While Goldbug was watching tv, he learned that two Cybertronians had been discovered trapped in the cooled lava flow of Mount Verona. He led the group in the hopes of freeing one of the pair, fellow Autobot Ultra Magnus. But upon arrival, the group found the Combaticons already on-site, preparing the obliterate the entire area to eliminate the other trapped Transformer, Galvatron. Though at first willing to let their enemies rid the world of the mad tyrant, even at the expense of one of their own, the Throttlebots were forced into action when a trio of human women took it upon themselves to prevent Magnus's destruction. The Combaticons were driven off, though they swore revenge against Searchlight's team for their interference. Ladies' Night

The Throttlebots' continued travels only made them targets for virtually everyone—the Decepticons, the Autobot faction Goldbug had gone AWOL from, and the humans who hated and feared all Cybertronians. After escaping one of the Combaticons, Goldbug suggested they hide in a used car lot (because that worked so well for him before). Astonishingly the owner, Big Steve Ludwig, noticed a giant earthmover dump truck magically appearing on his lot, and soon put two-and-two together after receiving a notice from the local RAAT boys. After pouring sugar into the Autobots' gas tanks, he summoned the proper authorities. Searchlight and the Throttlebots were carted off and taken prisoner by RAAT's parent organization, Triple-I. Used Autobots

...cackling, self-illuminated giants with god-like power, not so much.

Still not recognizing the difference between Autobots and Decepticons, III's bigwigs publicly threatened to execute their prisoners if any more robot attacks took place. Guess what—the Decepticons were willing to call their bluff. After the inevitable raid, Forrest Forsythe ordered the Autobots crushed into cubes. However, a sympathetic (and borderline competent) agent named Walter Barnett realized Searchlight and his friends were telling the truth about there being two factions of robots, and salvaged their cerebro-circuits before the execution, transferring their brain chips into electronic toy cars. Barnett then brought the Autobots in his care to meet with Buster Witiwicky, longtime friend of their Earthbound forces. The reunion was cut short by the Predacons, who had caught the Throttlebots' scent, and sought to crush them dead in their vulnerable state. The Throttlebots managed to outmaneuver their pursuers through a shopping center. Barnett and Buster were separated during the chase, with most of the Throttlebots winding up in Barnett's custody once more. Toy Soldiers!

Searchlight and the Throttlebots remained in Barnett's possession for some time. The human brought the five of them to consult on a hostage situation, after Buster wound up on the Decepticons' island-base. Before they had the chance to dispense any advice, however, the island transformed into a spacecraft and launched, with Buster still on board. The Desert Island of Space! The Throttlebots were apparently returned to the Autobots at some point, and reconstructed into new bodies replicating their old ones. When an Underbase-powered Starscream announced that he would "destroy the cities of New York, Tokyo, and Buenos Aires," Searchlight was among the allied Autobot/Decepticon teams sent ahead to Japan to try and stop him. He and the rest of the Throttlebots didn't get to put up much of a fight, as they were all destroyed by Starscream before even getting a chance to transform. Dark Star

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

Voice actor: Steve Bulen (English), Masashi Hirose (Japanese)

Searchlight and the Throttlebots were assembled by Rodimus Prime for the botched rescue attempt of Optimus Prime's body from Doctor Mark Morgan. Along with Ultra Magnus and the Aerialbots, they were the first Transformers to be infected by the Hate Plague. The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1 While infected; he chased Rodimus Prime in a junkyard. The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2 Searchlight was eventually cured and together with his fellow Throttlebots defended Autobot City against a Decepticon raid in the year 2007. The Rebirth, Part 1

I want to tell you about the Transformers! This character article is a stub and is missing information on their fictional appearances. You can help Transformers Wiki by expanding it. The Rebirth, Part 3

Japanese cartoon continuity

The Headmasters cartoon

Voice actor: Masaharu Satō (Japanese)

I said TALK to the hand! TALK to it!

When the Decepticons attacked Cybertron in 2011, Searchlight and the Throttlebots teamed up with three other Autobots to defend Vector Sigma. They crossed paths with the new Decepticon Headmasters, and ended up being put to sleep by Mindwipe. Four Warriors Come out of the Sky The Headmasters were later driven away, but soon returned alongside the Madmachine, a new Decepticon weapon. Searchlight and Throttlebots were dispatched to fight this new threat, but were unable to pierce its armor and had to settle for scrapping with the Headmasters instead. The Great Cassette Operation

The Throttlebots' next battle was set on Earth, but they broke orders and snuck away from the fight to stop the Decepticon meteorite known as Metamorphose. Searchlight and the others were extremely confident in their mission, but failed to notice the meteorite's ability to warp and bend any metal in its vicinity. The Autobot frigate Searchlight helped pilot was twisted out of shape, and the Throttlebots were out of commission for quite some time after that. Approach of the Demon Meteorite They eventually reappeared on Earth, where they were tasked with destroying one of Scorponok's Death Towers. Unfortunately, the tower was guarded by Predaking, who easily knocked out Searchlight and his friends. The Final Showdown on Earth (Part 1)

Legends comic

In 2021, Universal Peace Alliance chairman Spike Witwicky deemed Goldbug a traitor and ordered the other Throttlebots to destroy him. Unaware that "Spike" was actually an evil impostor, the team accompanied him to the Legends World and confronted Goldbug-turned-Bumblebee, but they were ultimately too unruly to follow orders and stayed out of the fight. Bonus Edition Vol. 54

The Transformers 3-D

Bat riders of the Styx.

Searchlight was enjoying a nice shadowy corner when he was called in by Ultra Magnus to collect specimens of a newly discovered alien that converted whatever it ate to pure energon. Scouring the dark asteroid on which Fortress Maximus had landed, Searchlight pondered his existence until he suddenly stumbled upon a Decepticon base. He snuck inside and spied on Cyclonus explaining to Galvatron how they could take advantage of the energon-producing creatures, but was soon discovered and chased across the asteroid by Cyclonus and Scourge. While cursing all the things that could have gone so much better, Searchlight stumbled upon Ultra Magnus and his troops, who protected him from the Decepticons. Searchlight spent the ensuing battle riding Ratbat. The Test

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance: Transformers: Stormbringer #1

I was distracted by your badly-Photoshopped Autobot insignia

Searchlight served as Optimus Prime's aide aboard the main Autobot Orbital Command Hub. He reported Ironhide's (unauthorized) pulsewave alerting them of how Starscream's infiltration team had assumed Siege Mode ahead of schedule. Stormbringer #1 Later, he notified Optimus on the distress buoy launched from the Calabi-Yau and her subsequent silence. Searchlight was shocked when Prime ordered him to contact the Wreckers. Stormbringer #2

He remained on the Hub under Silverbolt's command after Prime left to take an active role on Earth. Spotlight: Blaster During the fight against the Expansion, he was apparently summoned to Garrus-9 to help bolster the Autobots' defenses after the Monstructor-Six were kidnapped. Spotlight: Hardhead

Some time later, Searchlight was stationed as a courier at the Orvus Base orbiting Salvvatan VI. He and the other Throttlebots barely escaped the station when Sixshot attacked, destroying it to retrieve its classified information. Crash landing on Salvvatan VIII, Searchlight warned the rest of his group that he had seen Sixshot take on a whole army before and that hiding would be their best option. Sixshot found them, however, and quickly incapacitated Chase, Freeway and Wideload. Searchlight, Goldbug and Rollbar confronted the Decepticon, crashing him through Metroplex.

Goldbug was shot pointblank by Sixshot and then Searchlight was blown away from the building. Sixshot had him down holding a blaster to his head, but Searchlight refused to say he was afraid. He was saved by Metroplex, who crushed Sixshot in his massive hand and then stepped on him. Searchlight pleaded for the huge Autobot to join them in the war, but to no avail. He realized that whatever secret Metroplex was guarding had to be important, since no one would stay that alone if they don't have to. Spotlight: Metroplex

The remaining Throttlebots left Salvvatan VI shortly afterwards aboard a shuttle that Metroplex had provided. They didn't get far before Sixshot—who had survived his run in with Metroplex—caught up with them and crippled their shuttle. Though the Throttlebots were able to critically wound their Decepticon pursuer, the damage inflicted on their ship forced them to crash-land on a nearby planet, a bizarre world of gigantic plants that Searchlight sardonically named "Botanica." With no way to get offworld, the Throttlebots were stranded on the planet for a decade, boiling the local plants as an energon substitute. Even after the war's end, the Autobots never showed up and the Throttlebots gloomily concluded that the Decepticons must have won.

On another dreary evening of swapping stories and bickering with one another, the Throttlebots were attacked by a group of Maximals, who attacked the Throttlebot's campsite from below and managed to blow Searchlight in half. The Dead Come Home, Part 1

Toys

The Transformers

Let's just hop along, shall we? Hop. Hop. Hoppity-hop-hop.

• Searchlight (Throttlebot, 1987)

• Takara name: Looklight
• Takara ID number: C-93
• Known designers: Takayuki Ishizawa (TakaraTomy), Takashi Matsuda (initial concept)

Released in the fourth year of Hasbro's US The Transformers toyline (third year in Europe and in Takara's Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers line), Throttlebot Searchlight transforms into a Ford RS200 rally car with multiple molded headlamps. Like all Throttlebots, he features a pull-back motor that zips him forward in both vehicle and robot modes when placed on a smooth surface.

The Throttlebots were part of the Decoy promotion in 1987, where the carded toys came with a soft-rubber figurine. The Throttlebots were the only team to come with either Autobot or Decepticon Decoys; the other toys in the promotion only came with Decoys of the same faction they belonged to.

In Japan, they were also the focus of the "Throttlebot Promotional Sales Campaign", where buying a Throttlebot at select Japanese retailers (sadly, we do not know which retailers these were) got the buyer one of six random all-white Autobot Master Warriors free. These promotional toys are now among the most expensive Transformers toys ever "mass"-released, if not the most expensive (especially when size is taken into account).

• More information on Searchlight at TFU.info

• Searchlight (Throttlebot, 1991)

In 1991, Searchlight was re-released in European markets as part of the Classics sub-line.

Searchlight was retooled to remove the rubsign indent on his back-end/backpack, and the rubsign decal itself was replaced with a glossy-paper Autobot sigil.

Notes

• According to Marvel Comics documentation, "Highbeams" was a preliminary name for Searchlight. Bob Budiansky had previously been proposed this name for an Autobot Car in the 1984 toyline, but it would not see use until a 1995 Autobot Go-Bot, presumably because in the 1980s Hasbro did not want to use a slang term for erect nipples. A similar fate befell "Rough Rider", who became Chase.
• Searchlight's character model uses Chase's head, and vice versa. This mis-matched design was used for all his major appearances in classic media, including the Marvel comic, the animated series, and even Japan's The Headmasters anime. The Marvel comic gets an extra-special mention, though, for swapping his color scheme with Chase's, too, so he frequently appears red instead of white. Thus the robot with Chase's head and color scheme is Searchlight! The confusion did not extend to car mode, where Searchlight is white (and has his distinctive row of headlights), and Chase is red.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Looklight (ルックライト Rukkuraito)
• French: Projecteur (Canada)
• Italian: Strobobot
• Mandarin: Tànzhàodēng（China, 探照灯, "Searchlight"）

References