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.
Marvel 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 grafitti-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 Starscream absorbed a portion of the Underbase, New York is one of the three cities he chose to destroy. He announced this, of course, 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 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 a storm generator station, creating a massive thunderstorm over the New York City area. An electrostater was to be placed atop the Empire State Building by Iguanis, 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 Iguanis 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; a battle between Scorponok and Shockwave spilled over into the area of Battery Park. 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 indcident. Out of Time!
Alternate future
In an offshoot version of the year 2009, Galvatron and his forces had conquered much of Earth. New York was a deserted wasteland; the remains of Autobot leader Rodimus Prime were strung up between the remaining stumps of the destroyed World Trade Center towers. (Note that, since the WTC towers were each about 200' on a side, then according to the art on the right, Rodimus' body would fill a football field.)
Generation 1 cartoon
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 temporarily retreat 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 subsubstructure 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; meanwhile, 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' 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
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
