New York City

New York City, New York, is a major city in the United States of America on Earth. Loved by some, repulsively filthy to others, it has often served as the site of Transformer activity, battles, and even bases.

If you can have a giant space robot battle here, then you can have a giant space robot battle anywhere.

Real-life New York City landmarks featured in various incarnations of Transformers include:

• The Statue of Liberty—A huge statue on an island in New York Harbor. It's been spray-painted by the Battlechargers, Decepticon Graffiti! coated with corrostop, Cosmic Rust and ventilated by Omega Supreme. All Hail Megatron issue 12 It also sometimes holds a sword instead of a torch, and has been blown up by the USA's own defense satellite. Eye in the Sky
• The Brooklyn Bridge—A massive suspension bridge connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn. It was the scene of Starscream's Underbase-fuelled attack on a large team of Transformers. Dark Star It also got blown to bits by the Seekers. All Hail Megatron #2
• The Empire State Building—The city's tallest skyscraper, excepting the World Trade Center towers. It was converted into a Cybertronian structure by Megatron, then converted back to normal by the Autobots; City of Steel it was also climbed by Iguanus and the Sports Car Patrol. King Con!
• The Chrysler Building—A famous Art Deco skyscraper. It was set on fire by Megatron's car drones; Inferno put the fire out. Make Tracks It's also made an appearance on a comic book cover. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers II issue 2
• Battery Park—A park at the southern tip of Manhattan. Shockwave and Scorponok duked it out there. ...All This and Civil War 2
• Central Park—A park at the center of Manhattan. City of Steel All Hail Megatron
• The World Trade Center towers—C'mon, have you been living under a rock? The twin towers are commonly seen as identifying icons in skyline shots of the city in pre-9/11 Transformers stories. City of Steel Dark Star ...All This and Civil War 2 In a dystopian future, Rodimus Prime's corpse was strung up between their shattered stumps. Rhythms of Darkness! At another point, they were destroyed by Devastator. Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!
• The East River—separates Manhattan from Brooklyn. Seaspray found it full of garbage. Make Tracks The Seacons took on Starscream there, and lost. Dark Star The time travelling consciousnesses of Megatron and Prowl also fought there. Flashback!

Fiction

Marvel Generation 1 comics

New York City was home to Marvel Comics. Their recently fired employee, writer Donny Finkleberg, also lived there, in a run-down, six-story walk-up apartment on the upper west side of Manhattan.

New York was the final destination on the Acton family's vacation. As such, the Statue of Liberty became a target for the graffiti-spreading Battlechargers. R.A.A.T. prepared for the Decepticons' arrival by closing down the statue, Liberty Island, and the surrounding harbor, and loading down the statue with its troops. Runabout and Runamuck, meanwhile, snuck aboard the Staten Island Ferry, eventually commandeering the vessel and forcing it close to the statue. They then took to the air, Runamuck distracting the R.A.A.T. troops while Runabout spray-painted the statue with an inspirational message to their appreciative audience ("HUMANZ ARE WIMPZ"). Circuit Breaker finally defeated the pair using a jury-rigged collection of Autobot parts, sending them crashing into the waters of New York's harbor.

Donny Finkleberg contributed $50,000 to help pay for cleaning the graffiti off of the statue (and, presumably, repairing battle damage). Decepticon Graffiti!

When you get caught between the Underbase and New York City, the best that you can do is fall and die.

When Starscream absorbed a portion of the Underbase, New York was one of the three cities he chose to destroy. Naturally, he announced this out loud, so when he arrived, an army of Autobots and Decepticons led by Blaster and Ratbat were waiting for him. Most of the battle took place on and above the Brooklyn Bridge, as well as in the "foul depths" of the East River below.

The following Transformers were taken out by Starscream:

• The Aerialbots (Air Raid, Fireflight, Skydive, Silverbolt, Slingshot)
• Hound, Bluestreak, Mirage, Hoist, Brawn, Gears; Goldbug; Jazz
• The Seacons (Snaptrap, Overbite, Nautilator, Seawing, Skalor, Tentakil)
• Jetfire
• Blaster

Prowl survived Starscream's initial attack, but was deactivated following Starscream's attack on the Seacons. Flashback!

Ratbat escaped, leaving Blaster to his doom. Starscream left for his second targeted city, Tokyo. Dark Star

Some months later, Decepticon commander Scorponok moved his headquarters to the nearby swamps of northern New Jersey as part of a plan to harvest energy. The Decepticons erected the Stormmaker Station, creating a massive thunderstorm over the New York City area. An electrostator was to be placed atop the Empire State Building by Iguanus, collecting the storm's energy in one massive lightning bolt which would then be harvested by Scorponok's crew. However, the interference of the Autobot Micromasters under Roadhandler's command resulted in the lightning blasting the bolts out of Iguanus instead. King Con!

Roadhandler's crew made themselves at home in the city, going so far as to apprehend human thieves and make an appearance on a talk show based in New York. Roadhandler became a celebrity as a wrestler and gave self-defense lessons to local kids until a Decepticon run-in convinced him that anyone associated with him was in danger. The Interplanetary Wrestling Championship!

The Decepticons kept their base in New Jersey. This would have nearly disastrous consequences for New York when the so-called Decepticon Civil War erupted and a battle between Scorponok and Shockwave spilled over into the area of Battery Park. ...All This and Civil War 2

Optimus Prime and Nightbeat managed to contain the battle briefly, as did the Neo-Knights. After the hostilities ended, the assembled Transformers were suddenly teleported away, leaving only a very puzzled NYPD officer wondering how to write up the incident. Out of Time!

Alternate future

Hell, I still love you though, New York.

In an offshoot version of the year 2009, Galvatron and his forces had conquered much of Earth. New York was a deserted wasteland where the remains of Autobot leader Rodimus Prime were strung up between the remaining stumps of the destroyed World Trade Center towers. Rhythms of Darkness!

WTC towers were each about 200' on a side. So according to the art on the right, Rodimus's body would fill a football field.

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

Humans visiting the Statue of Liberty were among those terrified world-wide as the sun started to go berserk as a result of Megatron's Solar Needle. Changing Gears

The magic rat drove his sleek machine over the Jersey state line.

Megatron began efforts to convert New York City into his new base of "New Cybertron" by tunneling under the city and sinking the Empire State Building into the ground. The refashioned building was soon raised back into place, but with an all-new appearance. When the Autobots arrived to stop him, the Constructicons managed to capture Prime, and Megatron took his severed—but still functioning—head. The Autobots were forced to retreat temporarily or risk Prime's life. For a while, things went well for the Decepticons. (Even Starscream thought that Megatron was doing a good job, which is a sign of the apocalypse.) However, the Autobots went through the sewers (noting that they were more akin to "some messy swamp" than a substructure for North America's largest city) and managed to collect and reassemble Prime's body, save his right arm and ion blaster. Megatron had mounted it on his new citadel, the rebuilt Empire State Building, to serve as a defense mechanism. (Why Prime didn't just have Ratchet build him a new arm is unspecified.) Eventually, Prime was able to recover his arm, and the Decepticons were driven away. Bumblebee gained an "I heart New York" bumper sticker from the ordeal. City of Steel

The Autobots later used a New York garage owned by Sparkplug as a temporary base in the city. While on patrol, Seaspray discovered that the humans tended to dump a lot of garbage in the East River, and Cosmos observed that a "little fender-bender" on the lower West Side could tie up traffic for blocks around. Meanwhile, the Decepticons had allied themselves with the Geddis brothers, a pair of New York-based human gangsters, to collect stolen cars and convert them into drones at a secret base in the New Jersey pine barrens. The drones were then sent back into New York to attack the city, but the Autobots thwarted this plan with the help of Tracks's new friend, Raoul. The landmark Chrysler Building was damaged in the battle, requiring Inferno to climb its side and put out fires in the building and invoking Tracks' ire. Make Tracks

We got people dressed in plastic bags, directing traffic.

The Decepticons used a hip New York nightclub called Dancitron to brainwash humans into constructing a building for them, but the dynamic duo of Raoul and Tracks once again saved the day. Dancitron attracted an extremely trendy crowd of New Yorkers—so trendy they were out of style about five minutes later. The club's owners were also quite stringent about preventing the locals from breakdancing on the sidewalks in front of their establishment. Auto-Bop

Under Perceptor's guidance, the Autobots spray-coated the Statue of Liberty with corrostop to help preserve it. While this activity was underway, the Stunticons commandeered a harbor ferry boat and used it to capture Perceptor. Later, the Autobots returned to the statue when they needed to recover a sample of the chemical. They defended it from a Decepticon attack, preventing Menasor from destroying the statue with a giant lightning bug. The statue proved its ability to withstand a direct hit from Megatron's fusion cannon, which means it's a lot stronger than Ironhide's head. Cosmic Rust

To that tall skyline I come.

By 2006, New York had grown quite a bit, with lots of futuristic and utterly gigantic skyscrapers dominating its skyline. The city served as one of Victor Drath's crime syndicate territories, and was subject to a series of terrorist bombings that served as cover for Drath's attempted theft of a newtronium shipment. The Autobots worked with the local chief of police to track down Drath. Only Human

The Headmasters cartoon

In 2011, New York was one of the cities targeted by Sixshot for an energy-blackmailing, which involved him posing as six different villains using each of his six modes. The Autobot Headmasters staked out New York from a vantage point atop the Statue of Liberty (whose looks they compared to Arcee's while they were at it), but when they were drawn away to investigate an attack on London, Sixshot attacked the city in his gun mode. Terror! The Six Shadows

Super-God Masterforce cartoon

In his human guise, the Autobot Pretender Lander lived in New York, where he helped local police fend off an attack by Destroids early on in the Decepticons' campaign against Earth. Terror! The Decepticons' Manhunt Much later, the city was the victim of a savage, sudden attack by BlackZarak, and suffered massive damage before any of the Autobots could mobilize to stop him. BlackZarak - Destroyer from Space

Robots in Disguise cartoon

The first International Scientific Symposium was being held in New York when Megatron turned up in order to kidnap leading scientist Doctor Onishi. Optimus Prime and the Autobot Brothers rushed to the doctor's aid, turning downtown New York into a war zone. The Autobots fought the Predacons at length, but were unable to prevent Megatron from escaping with his prisoner. Battle Protocol!

IDW Generation 1 comics

New York? That's where my accent used to live!

It was a bright and sunny day in New York, when these six green guys turned up to announce a desire for peace... then started shooting everyone. This was followed by an all-out Decepticon attack, levelling much of the city and drawing the attention of the US Air Force. The Air Force did... badly. All Hail Megatron issue 1 Soon the city was full of looting, carnage and panicked evacuations while the United States Armed Forces deployed in force to defeat the Decepticons. Before the military could do anything, the Decepticons took out the city's bridges and then began targeting the tunnels, all while broadcasting their effortless devastation to the world. All Hail Megatron issue 2

Crispy Fried Traffic

Within a few days, the city had been turned into a secure base for the Decepticons; the civilians were kept as hostages to prevent the military from carpet-bombing. Megatron stated he chose the city as it was an icon for humanity; Hook thinks it sucks. All Hail Megatron issue 3 The military attempted to sneak a strike force into the city to assassinate Megatron, but only one soldier made it across Hudson River alive. All Hail Megatron issue 5 Meanwhile, world leaders in Europe opted for another solution: wiping New York City off the map with nukes, despite the hostages. All Hail Megatron issue 6

While Spike Witwicky located the experimental weapon required to kill Megatron, the human resistance managed to stir up Soundwave's emotions, which ended the radio blackout the Decepticon had caused the city. All Hail Megatron issue 9 During their stay in New York, the Decepticons had constructed their first space bridge there, but never got to use it as European jets attacked them in an attempt to gather all the Decepticons in one place for the impending nuclear strike. All Hail Megatron issue 10

The poor city was further damaged in the battle between Devastator and the human jets, and it didn't get any better when the Autobots joined the fray and Omega Supreme slammed Devastator through a skyscraper. At least Optimus Prime was nice enough to ask Omega to take the giants' duel elsewhere. All Hail Megatron issue 11 So he took it to the Statue of Liberty, which was promptly wrecked. Eventually, the Decepticons retreated from New York and the nuke was averted, but the city was still left in ruins. All Hail Megatron issue 12

New York was subsequently evacuated and its population was placed in refugee camps, except for the occasional straggler who didn't want to leave. The US military also patrolled the city to find and exterminate any Transformers left behind. All Hail Megatron issue 16 After just a few years, humanity had restored large parts of New York City to a habitable condition, though many buildings remained damaged. Ride-Along

Hearts of Steel

New York City was the location of a "great eklectrical power generator,"[sic] Hearts of Steel #2 which became the target of Decepticon attention. They built the Astrotrain to get to it, Hearts of Steel #3 but were stopped by Bumblebee and John Henry. Hearts of Steel #4

Live-action Transformers movie continuity

Revenge of the Fallen film

New York, you make it happen.

After being attacked by the Autobots for murdering Optimus Prime, Megatron and Starscream flew to New York, where Megatron lectured Starscream for not being capable of tracking down one human. When Starscream countered that there were seven billion humans on Earth, Megatron decided to reveal the Transformers presence on Earth as a show of force to compel the humans to turn Sam Witwicky over to them. Starscream and Mixmaster made open shows of defiance around New York City, while Megatron hijacked the Empire State Building's antenna to broadcast The Fallen's message across the world.

A day later, Sam, Mikaela Banes, and Leo Spitz traveled with Bumblebee and the Twins to New York to meet Leo's rival Robo-Warrior. Revenge of the Fallen

Dark of the Moon Annual

NEST Satellite Orion detected Decepticons deploying Pillars in New York. NEST wasn't quite sure why, as the city was rated of low resource importance. Diss! Transformers Dark of the Moon Annual 2012

Prime cartoon

One of the artifacts from the Iacon archives ended up under Manhattan. Flying Mind

Both the Autobots and Decepticons sent teams to recover the relic. While Knock Out, an Insecticon and some Decepticon Miners found it first, Arcee and Bumblebee managed to recover it with the help of Jack, Miko and a subway worker named Vogel. Tunnel Vision

External links

• New York City on Wikipedia