United Kingdom
From Transformers Wiki
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (also called Region 2) is a strange, possibly allegorical, land where pants are called trousers, underwear is called pants, women run the government, Batman kidnaps children, state-sponsored media is popular instead of elitist, vinegar is a condiment, and they have good rock and roll.
Also, they spell things funny and their DVDs won't play on our DVD players. Spooky.
Fiction
Generation 1 continuity family
Marvel Comics continuity
Marvel The Transformers comics
Some time in the past, the Man of Iron and his Navigator came to Earth while searching for the Ark and left their ship beneath the area that would one day become Stansham. There they remained, though the Man of Iron would occasionally leave the ship to visit the surface—in 1017 he encountered humans, including Godwin the Strongarm and Aethelric, and a further two sightings were recorded.
In 1984 a beacon from the ship attracted the attention of the earthbound Autobots and they took a shuttle to the United Kingdom to investigate. Upon arrival, Jazz kidnapped a human named Sammy Harker to provide the Autobots with intelligence about the local area, but they were attacked by the Decepticons, who had also followed the beacon to its source.
As battle raged above Stansham Castle, the Man of Iron emerged from his ship once more, only to be blown up by Thundercracker. Jazz destroyed the ship (inadvertently killing the Navigator) and the Transformers left the United Kingdom. Man of Iron
About a year later they would return, seeking the source of an energy transmission that caused aspects of their personalities to reverse. Tracing the signal to a secret research facility Jazz and Starscream fought over Zeke Heilmann, a human who was stealing the core of PARD for his own nefarious purposes. In the ensuing battle both Zeke and the device were destroyed by Jazz. To a Power Unknown!
By 1987, the country was the home of the European branch of international anti-terrorism taskforce Action Force; their field leader Flint was an English soldier. They ended up battling alongside Grimlock, Blades and Centurion against a raging Megatron (or so they thought) in London's docklands. Centurion and Megatron fell into the River Thames. Ancient Relics!
Richard Branson (or Mister Johnson) attempted to fish out the remains, only for Shockwave and the Seacons to swipe his catch. Salvage!
In 1990, Shockwave emerged from the sea off the coast of Blackpool where he paused only to squash a man and his dog before leaving for New Jersey to spy on Scorponok. Dark Creation He later set up his Decepticon dissident base there. Surrender!
Transformers Comic-Magazin
As Scotland was an oil exporter, Glasgow came under heavy Decepticon attack in their attempt to seize all oil in one go. (I think you meant Aberdeen, guys.) The Autobots slowly pushed the Decepticons out. Transformers in Action: He Who Laughs Last ...
Fleetway Generation 2 comic
In 1994, Bludgeon led his forces to attack London with the intention of attracting Optimus Prime. The damage to the city was severe; even the Houses of Parliament were bombed. Optimus defeated Bludgeon only to face a returned Megatron, who handed his skidplate to him. Before he could finish off his old adversary, Megatron was attacked by Bludgeon's troops and Optimus was rescued by the Dinobots. The arrival of Jazz's group forced Megatron to escape with Starscream and Prime declared victory, though he advocated that the Autobots vacate the area to escape any human retaliation. War Without End War Zone
Marvel Generation 2 comic
London was one of the cities hit in the Decepticons' global slaughter. The Gathering Darkness
Generation 1 cartoon continuity
The Transformers cartoon
A group of Decepticons, the Autobots Warpath and Hoist, and Spike Witwicky ended up time-travelling to England in the 6th Century. Starscream got involved in a spat between local Sirs Wigend of Blackthorn and Aetheling the Red before seizing control from the former and attempting to conquer the latter's fiefdom, as well as messing about with history by creating gunpowder in Europe centuries early. Luckily, Spike and the Autobots stopped him.
We also learned England possesses the time-travelling site known as Dragon Mound, that plate armour existed far earlier than stuffy historians and their "facts" would tell us, and that dragons existed naturally in England. A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court
In the 20th Century the country had the dubious honour of big-game hunter and national stereotype Lord Chumley causing an international incident when he stole a top secret Soviet jet. The Autobots sorted it out and made a mess of his castle. Prime Target
Japanese cartoon continuity
Strangely, by this point in time, Britain was covered with the type of thick fog that hadn't been seen since the 1950s. It's almost like someone hadn't done any research.
Sixshot blackmailed the UK to hand over its energy or he would devastate London. It didn't, so he did. Terror! The Six Shadows
The Godmaster Lightfoot, heir to British Motors, was born in Britain. His father was unable to start a car company in England and so moved to that land of enterprise, Canada. Lightfoot: A Dramatic Encounter Champion racer and fellow Godmaster Road King also originated from the UK, having the nickname "the British Wolf".
Flight 308 from Mont Parta was captured by Blood off the coast of England, in the Strait of Dover. Kidnapping!? The Targeted Jumbo Jet Violating UK airspace was apparently a laugh, as the Decepticon Godmaster jets Hydra and Buster had fun zooming over London at high speeds before heading on to Japan. Super Warriors - The Godmaster Brothers
Wings Universe
Pyro Ignatius Spark was a citizen of the United Kingdom. When Clench's Decepticon Syndicate attempted to kidnap and ransom the Queen of England, Pyro was motivated to gather his own team of second generation Autobots to oppose the Syndicate. Clench's profile
Battle Beneath the Ice
The United Kingdom would presumably be part of the Federation of Western Europe, something the EEC will turn into in the near future of 2000. Battle Beneath the Ice
Beast Wars: Uprising
Circa 1984, the Acton family took a trip to England, much to the ire of their son Noah, seeing a variety of historic landmarks. During their trip to the British Museum, Starscream led an attack on the facility to claim a statue of Amenhotep III that supposedly had magical powers. They also got a nifty paperweight. Cultural Appropriation
Unicron Trilogy
Energon cartoon
In the peaceful inter-war period, the Autobots built Plains City in England. It wasn't actually on a plain. Official Guidebook
Cybertron cartoon
While looking for the Omega Lock, the Autobots dug up around an ancient druid site. The area briefly became a battleground when Thundercracker and Starscream attacked. Space
Later, Starscream's Ancient Decepticon army swarmed in the skies of the nation, spreading panic. Invasion
Live-action film series
IDW movie comics
Diego Garcia, a British overseas territory and home to a joint UK-US military base, was used as a training facility for NEST and base for Autobots. Alliance #3 British armed forces eventually became part of NEST and helped destroy the Decepticon Overcast. Alliance #4
Titan movie comic
The Orkney Islands are home to a NEST base, and noted as a forward operating location. The base contains a training facility for Autobots. New Tricks
Revenge of the Fallen film
An unknown number of British Army soldiers served in NEST, at least one who would get killed in battle. SASF Agent Graham, a special forces operative, was part of Major Lennox's NEST command structure; like most of NEST, he trusted the Autobots. Revenge of the Fallen
Dark of the Moon film
Carly Spencer was British, and worked for the UK embassy when she first met Sam Witwicky. Dark of the Moon
The Last Knight film
The legendary King Arthur was helped by the Transformers, and millennia later the United Kingdom was visited again by the denizens of Cybertron.The Last Knight
Bumblebee film
Charlie Watson had a Union Jack poster stashed in her room. Bumblebee
Merchandise
Bendy-Bus Prime landed in London and took the form of a bendy bus.
Shattered Glass
The British want to invade the United States. Boo, hiss! Don't be too concerned, though. The queen knows that bombing land she wants to conquer is VERY counter-productive. Wonder why no one else thought of that. Eye in the Sky
Animated cartoon
By the 22nd century, Wales was no longer a part of the UK and had become a U.S. State. At some prior point, diplomatic relations between the US and UK were broken before President Benito Caruso restored those ties. The AllSpark Almanac II
Aligned continuity family
Prime cartoon
During the search for Predacon remains, Ultra Magnus, Wheeljack, and Bulkhead went to investigate Decepticon activity in Scotland. Project Predacon Though they easily overcame the Vehicons searching there, Starscream and his Predacon were a different matter, and the Decepticons ultimately got away with the fossil they needed. Chain of Command
2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon
Fixit intercepted a Decepticon transmission coming from a remote island off the English coast and was excited to get a chance to visit, despite Bumblebee's warnings that dashing knights and chivalric adventures are only in the movies. Then they slayed a dragon! The Golden Knight
Spacewarp's Log
In the 31st century, a combined alliance of the Darkling Lord and Inhumanoids have conquered all mainland areas on earth. Arthur Pendragon reists them as the crowned king of The United Kingdom of Great Britain; Ireland; Iceland; Greenland; Australia; New Zealand; New Guinea; Madagascar; Cuba; Manhattan, Staten Island, and Long Island; the Canadian Island Territories; Japan; Borneo; Hispaniola; Svalbard; Tierra del Fuego; Puerto Rico; Indonesia; the Philippines; Sakhalin; and Taiwan, also known as the UK for short.
Notes
- Despite being a tiny country, English, the primary native language of the UK, seems to have become wide-spoken throughout the galaxy. Interesting.
- By strange coincidence, a number of Transformers (including the entire planet of Gigantion) have accents identical to some of those in the United Kingdom! And we thought they were all American...
- In 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a public appeal for Optimus Prime to come and solve the country's problems, to which the Conservative Party responded Brown had "more in common with the Decepticons".[1] The following year's Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition would presumably make the Lib Dems the Mini-Cons but we're not sure who the Scottish National Party count as in this stretched metaphor.
- The UK has produced several Transformers comics, including the long running Marvel UK Transformers title, which reprinted (sometimes with edits) American Marvel comics and created new stories around them. It's never had the same success yet, though it has made comics based on Generation 2, Armada, the live-action films, and Animated, and Prime. If that wasn't enough transforming robots, it also published a strip based on the GoBots under their Robo Machine branding![2]
- The UK also produced a few people who've done the odd Transformers-related thing, like "strategically shaved ape" Simon Furman, James Roberts, Andrew Wildman, and Geoff Senior.
- The word "slag" is considered offensive in the UK (you wouldn't want your sister to be described as one). This has caused some TV shows to be (very badly) edited to avoid use of the term (although strangely not all), and at least one character name change on both sides of the Atlantic. They also have trouble with the word "spastic", resulting in similar controversies and abrupt character name-changes. It's still okay to call a cigarette a "fag", though.
- We have DVD boxsets of the 2001 Robots in Disguise cartoon and Zone, and you Yanks still don't. Ahhh ha ha ha HA. (Now let us have more than two super-cheap Beast Wars DVDs :( )
- At least our DVDs are better than the ones the Jerries have, take that Fritz!
- British fan Louis Georgiou formerly had the largest collection of Transformers toys and merchandise (2,111) as of 11 May 2017,[3] but has since been surpassed by American AJ Ard in 2018 (with 3,626 items).[4]
- In 2024, the world's first dedicated Transformers store opened; situated in Battersea Power Station, London.
References
- ↑ Daily Telegraph report
- ↑ http://counter-x.net/gobots/comic/robo_machines/
- ↑ Guiness World Records 2020 page 72
- ↑ Guiness World Records 2022 page 197
External links
- United Kingdom at Wikipedia
