Robot universe
The "robot universe" is the name given[1] to the reality dominated by the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons. It is also home to the superhero Spider-Man, the international peacekeeping team Action Force, and just about any robot or somebody in an iron suit.
Timeline
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Nearly two thousand years ago
1066
The Battle of Hastings – The True Story.
1775
1930s
1934
1939
1980s
The robot X-51, later known as Machine Man, was created as part of the X project Introducing Machine Man three or more years before his tussle with Khan, Xanadu! putting his birth in 1980 or 1981.
1984
The February 7, 1984 edition of the Daily Bugle reported a "stop press" story on the sudden eruption of Mount St. Hilary 
in Oregon –an eruption which, unbeknown to the general public, had reawakened the Ark and restarted the conflict between the dormant Autobots and Decepticons.[2] Once word of the giant rampaging robots in Oregon spread, Bugle editor-in-chief Robbie Robertson dispatched photographer Peter Parker to the scene, leading to his alter ego Spider-Man becoming involved in the Transformers' conflict. Prisoner of War!
1984 was a busy year for Machine Man. His civilian identity, Aaron Stack, gained a job at Delmar Insurance in New York City. Throughout the year he stopped the Binary Bug's crime spree, Byte of the Binary Bug! created the Ethicals, Where Walk the Gods!, defeated the mad crime lord Khan, Xanadu! cleared himself of a crime he didn't commit, The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls and tried to help a metamorphosed scientist. Kill Me or Cure Me In May and subsequent weeks afterwards, he clashed with Baron Brimstone. Baron Brimstone and his Sinister Satan Squad!
A recurring thorn in Machine Man's side was Senator Miles Brickman, who sought to demonise Machine Man in order to gain victory in the U.S. presidential election. Byte of the Binary Bug! The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls Brickman's presidential ambitions were thwarted before he became his party's nominee.[3] Alone Against Alpha Flight! Around Halloween, Machine Man came into conflict with Jack O'Lantern. Jolted by Jack O'Lantern!
1985
On Saturday September 12, 1985, the Bugle's headline news story was "GIANT ROBOTS ON RAMPAGE! Invasion from Space". By this point, the press was speculating that the Transformers were an alien invasion, or controlled by a foreign power. The Icarus Theory (By early 1986, Triple-I's Walter Barnett would run the cover story that the Transformers were all controlled by Robot-Master, a supervillain played by Marvel Comics' Donny Finkleberg. I, Robot-Master! )
1986
1987
Wanted: Galvatron — Dead or Alive!
Hunters
Fire on High!
Vicious Circle!
1990s
21st Century
2007
Wanted: Galvatron — Dead or Alive!
Headhunt
2008
2015
2020
If This Be Sanctuary?! Rime of the Ancient Wrecker!
24th Century
What Fools These Immortals Be!
Westphalling
The official stance is that The Transformers is not canon to the mainstream universe of Marvel Comics. 
However, the series' events take place in some kind of Marvel universe, due to the appearances of Spider-Man, Nick Fury, Dazzler, U.S. 1, the Savage Land, and others. As a result, Marvel considers the universe of Transformers U.S. to be Earth-91274 , and the universe of the UK version to be Earth-120185.
This, however, isn't fun, and the stance of The Transformers UK Appendix is to take in-story events and crossover character cameos at face value, building up a shared universe in the style of the Tommy Westphall hypothesis (and flying in the face of Dwayne McDuffie's original intent when coming up with it).
- The Transformers story "Prisoner of War!"
prominently features Spider-Man, as well as Robbie Robertson and the Daily Bugle.
- Spider-Man fought Iron Man 2020 in "Man of the Year", while namedropping Iron Man and Captain America.
- Iron Man and Captain America appeared in Matt and the Cat.
- Iron Man 2020 fought Machine Man in "Rime of the Ancient Wrecker!"
- Transformers crossed over with Action Force in "Ancient Relics!" .
- Spider-Man fought Iron Man 2020 in "Man of the Year", while namedropping Iron Man and Captain America.
- Spider-Man appeared in a number of Combat Colin strips. Colin also prominently fought Doctor Doom, and once met the Autobot Blaster.
- King Nonose and the Robot Inventor of Robo-Capers once tussled with Colin.
- Colin and Steve also fought the Gwanzulums, which cropped up to trouble the Doctor, the ThunderCats, and the Real Ghostbusters.
- Transformers also gave the world Death's Head, meaning that some or all Death's Head comics are in some way canonical. His career saw him face the Doctor, Dragon's Claws,
the Fantastic Four, Iron Man 2020, She-Hulk... though straying too far down this route yields the retcon that D.H. wasn't originally from the "robot universe" at all!
From outside sources
- Received wisdom tells us that both Rocket Raccoon and Planet Terry are Earth-616 characters, which means for our purposes, their stories are in the "robot universe".
- A version of Hercules also exists in Earth-616, though the Hercules in Hercules is classified as a version from Earth-829 as part of the general categorisation of all depictions of the future as alternate realities.
- Because of Planet Terry's level of technology and knowledge of Earth culture, Occam's razor suggests that he is a far future human. An adult Terry appeared in Earth-616 in the present day in Drax issue 7, retconning Terry's adventures as occurring roughly when they were published. This appearance leaned in to the familiar design of Terry's suit by revealing him to be a pink Kree.
The letters pages and metafiction
The general policy of The Transformers, from about issue 29 onwards, was that the comic itself was a close adaptation of the "real" Autobot/Decepticon conflict that happened in real life. This was a blanket policy to explain away the comic's inconsistency with the original cartoon, as well as provide a rationale for how these apparently "fictional" robots could respond to fan mail on the letters page. This results in incongruities such as...
- Grimlock going to see The Transformers: The Movie. Robo-Capers (issue 91)
- Combat Colin, Dudley, and Humph all being readers of The Transformers, and Terry reading Spider-Man.
- Anthony Duranti of G.I. Joe and the Transformers having a toy of Bumblebee. Power Struggle
- And, though not quite in our purview, the G.I. Joe Slip-Stream owning a toy of Jetfire (albeit one drawn as Megatron).[4]
So just because a story on The Transformers UK Appendix depicts The Transformers (or similar) as fiction, doesn't mean it can't also be in canon with the events of The Transformers.
References
- ↑ By the Doctor in The Incomplete Death's Head issue 12.
- ↑ Soundwaves, issue 29
- ↑ If we tie Miles Brickman to real-world politics, the nearest U.S. presidential election was in 1984, placing all Machine Man stories pre-"Alone Against Alpha Flight!" before August '84 at the absolute latest. See Miles Brickman#Notes for more information.
- ↑ "Showdown!" on Joepedia
