United Kingdom

And did those feet in ancient time...

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (also Region 2) is a strange, possibly allegorical, land where pants are called trousers, underwear are called pants, women run the government, Batman kidnaps children, state-sponsored media is popular instead of elitist, vinegar is a condiment, and they have good rock and roll.

Also, they spell things funny and their bizarro-DVDs won't play in real DVD players. Spooky.

Fiction

Marvel Comics

Generation 1

Events from the UK-only comic stories are in italics.

"Oh bollocks, an immigrant! Kick him out! British Jobs for British Workers!"..."Or we can Bomb his home land like the USA would."

Some time in the past, the Man of Iron and his Navigator came to Earth while searching for the Ark and left their ship beneath the area that would one day become Stansham. There they remained, though the Man of Iron would occasionally leave the ship to visit the surface - in 1017 he encountered humans, including Godwin the Strongarm and Aethelric, and a further two sightings were recorded.

In 1984 a beacon from the ship attracted the attention of the earthbound Autobots and they took a shuttle to the United Kingdom to investigate. Upon arrival, Jazz kidnapped a human named Sammy Harker to provide the Autobots with intelligence about the local area, but they were attacked by the Decepticons, who had also followed the beacon to its source.

As battle raged above Stansham Castle, the Man of Iron emerged from his ship once more, only to be blown up by Thundercracker. Jazz destroyed the ship (inadvertently killing the Navigator) and the Transformers left the United Kindgom. Man of Iron

About a year later they would return, seeking the source of an energy transmission that caused aspects of their personalities to reverse. Tracing the signal to a secret research facility Jazz and Starscream fought over Zeke Heilmann, a human who was stealing the core of PARD for his own nefarious purposes. In the ensuing battle both Zeke and the device were destroyed by Jazz. To a Power Unknown!

By 1987, the country was the home of the European branch of international anti-terrorism taskforce Action Force; their field leader Flint was an English soldier. They ended up battling alongside Grimlock, Blades and Centurion against a raging Megatron (or so they thought) in London's docklands. Centurion and Megatron fell into the River Thames. Ancient Relics!

Richard Branson attempted to fish out the remains, only for Shockwave and the Seacons to swipe his catch. Salvage!

In 1990, Shockwave emerged from the sea off the coast of Blackpool where he paused only to squash a tramp and his dog before leaving for New Jersey to spy on Scorponok. Dark Creation He later set up his Decepticon dissident base there. Surrender!

Fleetway Generation 2 comics

The Metropolitan Police handle a protest in their calm and reasoned manner.

In 1994, Bludgeon led his forces to attack London with the intention of attracting Optimus Prime. The damage to the city was severe; even the Houses of Parliament were bombed. Optimus defeated Bludgeon only to face a returned Megatron, who handed his skidplate to him. Before he could finish off his old adversary, Megatron was attacked by Bludgeon's troops and Optimus was rescued by the Dinobots. The arrival of Jazz's group forced Megatron to escape with Starscream and Prime declared victory, though he advocated that the Autobots vacate the area to escape any human retaliation. War Without End War Zone

Marvel Generation 2 comics

London was one of the cities hit in the Decepticons' global slaughter. The Gathering Darkness

Generation 1 cartoon

American continuity

"Just ignore the dragon and he'll go away."

A group of Decepticons, the Autobots Warpath and Hoist, and Spike Witwicky. ended up time-travelling to England in the 6th Century. Starscream got involved in a spat between local Sirs Wigend du Blackthorne and Aetheling the Red before seizing control from the former and attempting to conquer the latter's fiefdom, as well as messing about with history by creating gunpowder in Europe centuries early. Luckily, Spike and the Autobots stopped him.

We also learned England possesses the time-travelling site known as Dragon Mound, that plate armour existed far earlier than stuffy historians and their "facts" would tell us, and that dragons existed naturally in England. A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court

In the 20th Century the country had the dubious honour of big-game hunter and national stereotype Lord Chumley causing an international incident when he stole a top secret Soviet jet. The Autobots sorted it out and made a mess of his castle. Prime Target

Japanese continuity

A British sport star. Not pictured: the News Of The World tapping his phone.

Strangely, by this point in time, Britain was covered with the type of thick fog that hadn't been seen since the 1950s. It's almost like someone hadn't done any research.

Sixshot blackmailed the UK to hand over its energy or he would devastate London. It didn't, so he did. Terror! The Six Shadows

The Godmaster Lightfoot, heir to British Motors, was born in Britain. His father was unable to start a car company in England and so moved to that land of enterprise, Canada. Lightfoot: A Dramatic Encounter Champion racer and fellow Godmaster Road King also originated from the UK, having the nickname "the British Wolf".

Flight 308 from Mont Porte was captured by Blood off the coast of England, in the Strait of Dover. Kidnapping!? The Targeted Jumbo Jet Violating UK airspace was apparently a laugh, as the Decepticon Godmaster jets Hydra and Buster had fun zooming over London at high speeds before heading on to Japan. Super Warriors - The Godmaster Brothers

Young Corgi

The United Kingdom would presumably be part of the Federation of Western Europe, something the EEC will turn into in the near future of 2000. Battle Beneath the Ice

Unicron Trilogy

Energon

In the peaceful inter-war period, the Autobots built Plains City in England. It wasn't actually on a plain. Unicron Trilogy guidebooks

Cybertron

While looking for the Omega Lock, the Autobots dug up around an ancient druid site. The area briefly became a battleground when Thundercracker and Starscream attacked. Space

Later, Starscream's Ancient Decepticon army swarmed in the skies of the nation, spreading panic. Invasion

Live-action Transformers movie continuity

IDW Transformers movie comics

Diego Garcia, a British overseas territory and home to a joint UK-US military base, was used as a training facility for NEST and base for Autobots. Alliance #3 British armed forces eventually became part of NEST and helped destroy the Decepticon Overcast. Alliance #4

Titan Magazines

The Orkney Islands are home to a NEST base, and noted as a forward operating location. The base contains a training facility for Autobots. New Tricks

Revenge of the Fallen film

An unknown number of British Army soldiers served in NEST, at least one who would get killed in battle. SASF Agent Graham, a special forces operative, was part of Major Lennox's NEST command structure; like most of NEST, he trusted the Autobots. Revenge of the Fallen

Dark of the Moon film

Carly Spencer was British, and worked for the UK embassy when she first met Sam Witwicky. Dark of the Moon

Merchandise

Bendy-Bus Prime landed in London and took the form of a bendy bus.

Shattered Glass

The British want to invade the United States. Boo, hiss! Don't be too concerned, though. The queen knows that bombing land she wants to conquer is VERY counter-productive. Wonder why no one else thought of that. Eye in the Sky

Animated

By the 22nd century, Wales was no longer a part of the UK and had become a US State. At some prior point, diplomatic relations between the US and UK were broken. President Benito Caruso is responsible for restoring those ties.Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac II

Notes

• By strange coincidence, a number of Transformers (including the entire planet of Gigantion) have accents identical to some of those in the United Kingdom!
• In 2009 Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, made a public appeal for Optimus Prime to come and solve the country's problems, to which the Conservative Party responded Brown had "more in common with the Decepticons". (This probably makes the Liberal Democrats the Mini-Cons and the BNP The Fallen...)
• The UK has produced several Transformers comics, including the long running Marvel UK Transformers title, which reprinted (sometimes with edits) American Marvel comics and created new stories around them. It's never had the same success yet, though it has made comics based on Generation 2, Armada, the live-action films, and Animated. If that wasn't enough transforming robots, it also published a strip based on the GoBots under their Robo Machine branding!
• The UK also produced "strategically shaved ape" Simon Furman, who's been known to write the odd Transformers-related thing.
• The word "slag" is considered offensive in the UK (you wouldn't want your sister to be described as one). This has caused some TV shows to be (very badly) edited to avoid use of the term (although strangely not all), and at least one character name change on both sides of the Atlantic. Thanks a lot.
• We have DVD boxsets of Robots in Disguise, Masterforce, Victory and Zone, and you Yanks still don't. Ahhh ha ha ha HA.
• The UK is still waiting for more than two super-cheap DVDs for Beast Wars, though. :(
• At least our DVDs are better than the ones the Jerries have, take that Fritz!

Foreign names

• Japanese: Great Britain oyobi Hokubu Ireland Rengo Ōkoku (グレートブリテン及び北部アイルランド連合王国), Eikoku (英国), Igirisu (イギリス)