Detroit

I'm gonna take the HIGHWAY to... the DANGER ZONE!!!

Detroit, Michigan is a city in the United States of America. It is located near Lake Erie.

Fiction

Animated continuity

Animated cartoon

Detroit was once the "Motor City", the automobile manufacturing capital of the world. By the 22nd Century, Detroit had once again become a leading manufacturing hub—for robots. As for what happened to the city between those two periods, well, who knows?

The city's robotics industry was led by (and may have consisted solely of) the Sumdac Systems corporation. Most of the competition proved less than inspiring. This reliance on a single, monolithic industry is certain to provide economic stability for all time.

The city had a newly unveiled mass transit system, sponsored by Sumdac Systems, the Fully Automated Rapid Transit System, or FARTS. Real mature, Isaac, real mature.

The city then became home to a team of five robotic superheroes, the Autobots. Having crashed aboard their ship some fifty years earlier in Lake Erie, they awoke and appointed themselves guardians and defenders of the city's Humanity. When one of their old foes showed up in town, they ended up trashing a fair bit of the city. Not to be deterred, they worked hard to help rebuild it. Naturally, this involved hitting things with an ax. The Autobots made their home in an abandoned, early 20th-century factory. Transform and Roll Out

Just an average day in Detroit. That's the price you pay for letting Transformers live there.

Poor Detroit continued to suffer a great deal of robot-inflicted calamities after that. Among their troubles were robots flinging flaming fuel tanks into the air Home Is Where the Spark Is, robots smashing an entire parking lot full of cars Blast from the Past, robots getting thrown through the roof of the local sports arena Total Meltdown, robots inducing rolling electrical blackouts across the city The Thrill of the Hunt, robots disguised as rocket-powered cars crashing into things Nanosec, robots sucking the life force from the city's population Along Came a Spider, robots sparking a massive automaton rebellion Sound and Fury, robots obliterating construction sites while flat-out trying to kill one another Lost and Found, robots kidnapping young children from their homes Survival of the Fittest, robots unable to stop the destruction of the city without destroying half of it Headmaster, robots blasting holes in major downtown skyscrapers Megatron Rising - Part 1, robots destroying downtown buildings and bridges while trying to kill each other Megatron Rising - Part 2, good robots driving over cars in the street The Elite Guard The Return of the Headmaster, evil robots threatening to bomb passenger trains Mission Accomplished, robots dumping garbage all over the city before threatening to destroy it with super-powered nanobots, Garbage In, Garbage Out, robots destroying overpasses and stealing construction materials Rise of the Constructicons, robots shutting down every other mechanical device in the city SUV: Society of Ultimate Villainy, robots rampaging through the city while trying to find devices Black Friday, and robots raiding motor supply stores and destroying cars stuck in traffic jams Sari, No One's Home.

To be fair, Detroit has also suffered at the hands of its own human population. These include humans with fancy weapons attempting to rob armored cars Home Is Where the Spark Is Garbage In, Garbage Out, humans going on steroid-induced rampages Total Meltdown, humans risking city-destroying explosions by stealing incredibly volatile substances Nanosec, humans waging violent crusades against war toys Sound and Fury, humans attempting to detonate nuclear reactors in blatant attempts to destroy the city Headmaster, humans organizing illegal street races without regard for the safety of other drivers and pedestrians Velocity, and human crime syndicates stealing various pieces of equipment for nefarious purposes SUV: Society of Ultimate Villainy.

You wouldn't want to be its mayor.

Strangely, nearly every machine in Detroit has a keyhole, even alien robots and toilets!

Notable locations

"Tonight's skies are fairly cloudy, with a 50% chance of falling spacecraft..."

Actual Detroit landmarks featured in Transformers Animated include:

• Hazen S. Pingree (where Prowl gets birdpooped on) Transform and Roll Out
• Wayne County Building — Optimus and Sentinel hold a press conference in front of this prominent downtown landmark. The Return of the Headmaster
• GM Renaissance Center — briefly visible as the Autobots start their press conference. The Return of the Headmaster
• Michigan Central Station (where Isaac Sumdac reveals his new train) Transform and Roll Out
• Though the details don't match any exact building, the abandoned factory used by the Autobots resembles such early automobile manufacturing plants as the Highland Park Ford Plant (where the assembly line was first implemented) and the abandoned Packard Plant. Transform and Roll Out
• Interstate 94 — the main US Interstate highway westbound from Detroit to Chicago. One of its marker signs adorns the interior of the Autobots' headquarters. Total Meltdown
• Lake Erie — one of the Great Lakes; its northwest shore lies just south of the city.
• One Detroit Center — briefly seen in sweeps of the city, can be seen in the picture at the top of the article. Transform and Roll Out SUV: Society of Ultimate Villainy

Fictional Detroit landmarks featured in Transformers Animated include:

• Burger Bot, home of the Big Bot Burger Transform and Roll Out
• Detroit Military Base, containing bomber planes, fighter jets, and twin barrel assault tanks. Lost and Found
• The Detroit Solar Fusion Power Plant, whose reactor contains enough power to wipe out the entire state of Michigan. Comforting! Headmaster
• The Dino Drive theme park Blast from the Past
• Izzo National Bank, one of the city's many financial institutions. Home Is Where the Spark Is
• Motor City Motors and Mechanoids, a used automobiles and automatons business. Attention Surplus Disorder
• Sumdac Systems robot manufacturing plant, located in the real-life southern suburb of Monroe. Transform and Roll Out Nanosec
• Sumdac Tower, a skyscraper somewhere in the central city. Nanosec
• Tigatron Stadium, the baseball diamond where the local team (presumably the Detroit Tigers) plays. Based on the real-life Tiger Stadium, possibly a rebuilt version of the stadium since it was completely demolished in 2009. Five Servos of Doom
• Wyatt Toys, a toy store. Sound and Fury

Time-Quake

A time machine, located in either the Lions Tower in the financial district or in a disused warehouse, began causing temporal disturbances across Detroit. The Autobots searched the city, eventually tracking down the time machine and stopping the disruptions. Time-Quake

IDW Generation 1 comics

Detroit was home to an operations base for the Machination. Abraham Dante returned there after he and Scorponok failed to convince Grimlock to join up with them. Spotlight: Grimlock

Notes

• Part of the final battle in the live-action Transformers film, set in the fictional location of Mission City, was filmed in the real-life Detroit: the empty building that Sam runs into with the AllSpark is actually Detroit's long-abandoned Michigan Central Station.
• The vehicles for Ratchet, Bumblebee, Ironhide and Jazz were put on display at the GM Renaissance Center during the Riverside Festival just prior to the premiere of the 2007 Transformers film.
• Filming returned to Detroit for Dark of the Moon in 2010; the train station was again used as a filming location, this time as an interior in war-torn Chicago. The abandoned Packard Plant was likewise filmed and used as a Chicago location.

External links

• Detroit at Wikipedia