Detroit
Detroit, Michigan is a city in the United States of America. It is located near Lake Erie.
Transformers Animated
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 is led by (and may consist solely of) the Sumdac Systems corporation. This reliance on a single, monolithic industry is certain to provide economic stability for all time. Of course, Sumdac Systems does have some competition economically if not in terms of actual product, but nothing of great note as yet.
The city had a newly unveiled mass transit system, sponsored by Sumdac Systems.
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; this involved hitting things with an ax, naturally. The Autobots made their home in an abandoned early 20th Century factory. Transform and Roll Out!
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, and robots inducing rolling electrical blackouts across the city Thrill of the Hunt.
Notable Locations
Actual Detroit landmarks featured in Transformers Animated include:
- Grand Circus Park, featuring the statue of Governor Hazen S. Pingree (where Prowl gets birdpooped on) Transform and Roll Out!
- 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
Fictional Detroit landmarks featured in Transformers Animated include:
- Burger Bot, home of the Big Bot Burger
- Sumdac Systems manufacturing plants
- The Dino Drive theme park
Trivia
- 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 All Spark is actually Detroit's long-abandoned Michigan Central Station.
