Autobot City (G1)
- Autobot City is a city from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Autobot City (also known as Autobot City: Earth) is a city established by the Autobots on Earth, often under the command of Ultra Magnus. As well as being outfitted so that a large number of Autobots can live and work in comfort, the city can transform into a fortress as shields engage and weapons appear all over it. The transformation needs to be triggered by a series of bulky manual operations.
Generally, it is linked to Metroplex in some way, sometimes to the point where "Autobot City" and "Metroplex" are used interchangeably.
- Japanese name: Scramble City
Fiction
Cartoon continuity
Scramble City OVA
Here Metroplex was built and activated in the late 1980's, what this means for Autobot City is unclear
Robot Masters
Here Brave Maximus was integrated into Autobot City as well.
Madman The Transformers comic
By the year 2001, the Autobots' presence on Earth was sufficiently established that they began construction of their own high-tech, Transformer-scale city in North America. This work was carried out while the balance of the Autobot forces were engaged in an evacuation operation from the Decepticon-controlled Cybertron. The building site was also the location of a not-so-secret bunker where Optimus Prime stashed the Autobot Matrix of Leadership on the off-chance he should be captured or killed by the Decepticons during the exodus from Cybertron. The Transformers
Generation 1 cartoon
The city was completed sometime before the year 2005 and took major damage during a Decepticon attack in the same year. The city was repairable, though, and continued to operate for some time afterwards. The Transformers: The Movie
Autobot City's internal computer was Teletraan II. Metroplex transformed into a section of the city, being able to detach himself and become mobile when needed. Thief in the Night
In 2007, the Decepticons launched an attack on Autobot City to steal the key to the Plasma Energy Chamber. The Rebirth, Part 1
The Headmasters cartoon
By 2011, Autobot City was still the Autobots' Earth-based stronghold, and seemed to be under the command of Ultra Magnus. Its forces consisted mainly of generics, Autobots who had been on the planet since the 80's, and Metroplex. The city was not as involved with the war as it used to be, with the Athenia base and Battleship Maximus being used as the Autobots' primary headquarters instead.
Marvel UK comics continuity
The plans for Autobot City: Earth were finalized in 2003. Both the Autobots and the governments of Earth had hands in its construction. Ark Duty It was completed and opened in 2004, likely on the same site that Galvatron had built a superweapon to destroy Unicron in 1986 Target: 2006 (putting it in or near Oregon). Despite interference from Shockwave, the city opened on schedule, and relations between Autobots and humans were strengthened. Aspects of Evil!
It was attacked by the Quintessons in 2008, leaving many Autobots severely wounded and the city in terrible shape. The Quintessons were only driven off when Hot Rod activated the Transformer that made up the city's sentient core, Metroplex (the city needed a Transformer within it to be able to transform itself). Space Pirates! While successful, Metroplex's emergence only damaged the city further, and it was still in a state of disrepair the following year. Time Wars
In the revised timeline following the Time Wars, the Autobots fled there in 2009 to escape a Decepticon-dominated Cybertron. The Void! They had long since reclaimed the planet by 2356; then, Autobot City was providing medical care for a decrepit Rodimus Prime, who was possessed by Unicron. Aspects of Evil!
Dreamwave comics continuity
Construction was begun on Autobot City in 2004, after Prowl and several other Autobots realized they still needed a presence there and did not feel fully at home on Cybertron. The Route of All Evil
Toys
No toy of Autobot City itself was ever released, though Metroplex was billed as the "Autobot City" in packaging and promotion.
Notes
- During the design process, Floro Dery created his own concept for Autobot City, but was then instructed to redesign it to incorporate elements of the Metroplex toy (evidenced in the film itself by the city's shift from orange to white as it transforms and the appearance of a turret that is quite blatantly Metroplex's tank partner, Slammer). This led to the relationship between Metroplex and the city being vague and variable in the cartoon itself.
- The promotional trailer for The Transformers: The Movie features animation not seen in the final version of the movie, including a different design for Autobot City which was more white than the final orange. It is perhaps an earlier design for the city as some animation sequences in the movie featured the same primarily white colouration.
- The Marvel Comics adaptation of the 1986 movie refers to Autobot City as "Fortress Maximus" in a caption.
