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.
Fiction
Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Scramble City: Mobilization
At some undetermined point in time, Optimus Prime ordered the construction of a massive mobile fortress code-named Scramble City, believing that the Autobots would need a much larger base if they were to defeat the Decepticons. Housed in a gigantic underground facility, numerous Autobots and their human allies (Spike, Carly and Chip among them) worked to complete the behemoth under the leadership of the newly arrived Ultra Magnus.
Unfortunately, Megatron caught wind of some sort of secret project and ordered Soundwave to investigate. While Blaster and his cassettes managed to drive off most of the Decepticon cassettes, Ratbat managed to sneak into the cavern and return with an intelligence report. After receiving the report, Megatron immediately ordered an attack to destroy Scramble City before it was complete.
The initial attack led by Starscream was repelled, so Megatron decided to dispatch a second wave of attackers: the Stunticons! The Stunticons put up a much better showing than the previous attackers, putting the Autobot defenders under heavy pressure and driving Superion to the brink of defeat. The Combaticons also arrived to reinforce the Decepticon attack and quickly forced Superion to flee.
Unfortunately for the Decepticons, the Autobots held them back long enough for Scramble City to become operational. Ultra Magnus dispatched the Protectobots, then transformed Scamble City to mobile station mode and brought it into battle. Transforming into the towering Metroplex, Scramble City then sent the Decepticons packing with a single shot.
Presumably, the expertise used in building Scramble City was then used to build the even larger Autobot City. Scramble City: Mobilization
Robot Masters
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
The Transformers cartoon
The city was completed sometime before the year 2005 and was a key part of the Autobot war machine (acting as a stronghold and energy storage facility). While Optimus Prime himself commanded from the Autobot moon bases, Ultra Magnus was in charge of the city. Autobot City then took major damage during a Decepticon attack in the same year. Several notable Autobots fell during the battle, and both Optimus Prime and Megatron mortally wounded each other. Not long after Optimus' death and Ultra Magnus' promotion to Autobot supreme commander, the heavily damaged city was again attacked by the new Decepticon leader Galvatron and his forces. The city was repairable, though, and continued to operate for some time afterwards. The Transformers: The Movie
Following the destruction of Autobot Headquarters, Autobot City became the main Autobot stronghold on Earth. To replace the lost Teletraan I, 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 Autobot City would occasionally come under attack by Decepticon-hunting Decepticons, deceased Decepticons and was even the target of an overly ambitious human criminal's revenge.
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.
It did, however, come under attack on several occasions. Most infamously, Ultra Magnus was killed in battle with the Decepticon super-soldier Sixshot outside its gates.
When the Autobots finally drove the Decepticons off Earth, they opted to leave Earth behind themselves and pursue their enemies into space. Autobot City was never seen or mentioned again, despite the fact a fully functional fortress would've been handy during the Masterforce War and Deathsaurus's campaigns.
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!
Big Looker storybooks
At work at Autobot City, Kup and Hot Rod heard on the radio about the unveiling of a voice-controlled robot car at the coliseum. Leaving their tasks behind, the two went to attend the event. However, their talk about the robot car was overheard by Soundwave, who relayed it to Galvatron. Galvatron had been looking for a suitable worker to build him a city akin to the Autobot City, Decepticon City, and believed the robot car to be the ideal option.
The Decepticons set out to steal the robot car, but Kup and Hot Rod spotted them at the coliseum. Kup ordered Hot Rod to return to Autobot City and warn their comrades while he'd keep an eye on the Decepticons. Hot Rod raced back and explained the situation to Ultra Magnus, who immediately had the Autobots transform and roll out to stop whatever the Decepticons were planning to do. Car Show Blow Up
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
Kre-O animated shorts
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 a highly detailed concept for Autobot City; he touts it as his own unique creation, though an April 1985 draft of the script to The Transformers: The Movie describes a "bowl"-like version of the city that seems to have been the starting point for the design. As production carried on, Dery was instructed to redesign the city 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 comic adaptation of the 1986 movie refers to Autobot City as "Fortress Maximus" in a caption.
- Autobot City never appeared in the Japanese cartoon continuity following the Headmasters, raising a few questions (mainly concerning what happened to it). While it is possible the Autobots simply dismantled the place when they went after the Decepticons (since there were only a small handful of Autobots left), it still fails to explain why humans seemed to have completely forgotten about the Transformers during the events of Super-God Masterforce. In Victory, it was shown there were sizable Autobot forces on Earth again, so maybe it was reactivated.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Scramble City (スクランブルシティ Sukuranburu Shiti), Cybertron City (The Headmasters, サイバトロンシティ Saibatoron Shiti)
