Is there a connection between Maryland and the Autobots?

June 6, 2014 1:55 PM

I feel like I keep seeing the Transformers logo every time I go to Maryland. It's on people's bumpers, T-shirts, etc. Is this just confirmation bias, or is there some significance to this logo that is somehow connected to the state of Maryland? Is there a similar logo used for something that's local to MD?
posted by capricorn to Society & Culture (18 answers total)

I grew up in Maryland and I don't know of anything local that resembles that logo.

I mean, people liked Transformers toys and cartoons when I was a kid, but presumably no more than anywhere else in the U.S.
posted by drjimmy11 at 2:11 PM on June 6, 2014

I live in Maryland. I wonder if you are seeing the state flag, and perhaps interpreting the red part as the transformers logo? I see blown-up versions of the flag on lots of things, like these shorts, or this bumper sticker, that crop the image in a way that might be reminiscent of that logo.
posted by OrangeDisk at 2:38 PM on June 6, 2014

I see it a lot here in Portland, OR. I think it's just a trendy hipster-ish thing right now.
posted by tacodave at 2:39 PM on June 6, 2014

The Maryland State Flag could, possibly, be mistaken for the logo if you're in severe need of glasses.
posted by brentajones at 2:39 PM on June 6, 2014 [2 favorites]

I suspect it's confirmation bias. I have three six year old boys, so I definitely notice it a lot more nowadays too. (Especially stickers on the back windows of cars.)
posted by pyjammy at 2:42 PM on June 6, 2014

Maybe your brain is playing tricks on you with the Caps or DC United logo. They kind of have a similar aesthetic.
posted by windbox at 2:48 PM on June 6, 2014

Response by poster: Definitely not the state flag or the Caps or DC United logo.
posted by capricorn at 2:54 PM on June 6, 2014

It's everywhere here, too. Does the part of Maryland you go to have more college-age guys or maybe Asian-Americans than where you live? Those are the two (overlapping) groups here who seem to have that decal the most (though I've seen it on a wide variety of people's cars).
posted by wintersweet at 2:54 PM on June 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I've seen it plenty here in St Louis. And not just the Autobot logo - the Decepticon logo shows up at least, I'd say 30% of the time. Just some thing people do.
posted by notsnot at 2:57 PM on June 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

Marylander here. OP is not mistaking our ugly state flag or any DC professional sports team's logo for the Transformers logo. My coworker has a Transformer logo on the bumper of his FJ Cruiser, and every day I see an orange tuner car on Brock Bridge Road in Anne Arundel County with a gigantic Transformer logo on the hood.

A while back I asked my coworker if he got the FJ Cruiser with the Optimus Prime package, but he just laughed and said he (and his son) liked the Transformers.
posted by Rob Rockets at 2:58 PM on June 6, 2014

A buddy of mine had a sticker on his car that for years I thought was the Autobots logo. Once I finally looked at it closely I realized it was some sort of stylized military patch/insignia from his Army days.

Also, the Autobots and Decepticons logos are all over the place here in Los Angeles. Might just be a popular thing right now.
posted by erst at 4:08 PM on June 6, 2014

Best answer: They're in Colorado, too. I asked someone with one what it was about, and he said it's really just a Transformers sticker (Autobots, whatever) and doesn't mean anything else.

He could have been bullshitting me and it's really some young person thing he didn't want me to know about, but I don't think so.
posted by ernielundquist at 4:14 PM on June 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Yeah these are plentiful in San Francisco as well. I think people just like them is all.
posted by aubilenon at 4:16 PM on June 6, 2014

Another Marylander here. I definitely see the stickers from time to time, but I don't know if they're any less common outside the state. I assume people just like implying their car could turn into a robot if it really wanted to.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:39 PM on June 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Yep, it's the new peeing Calvin.
posted by Lardmitten at 7:46 PM on June 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

So that's what that is. I'm from Maryland but I see it out here in California, usually adorning cars in some way. Isn't a new Transformers movie coming out soon?
posted by Rash at 9:46 PM on June 6, 2014

Google-fu is failing me, but I could have sworn that there used to be a smog check franchise that had a sticker that looked like a Transformer logo. So it wasn't cars with Transformer stickers, rather cars that had visited a certain smog check place.
posted by zengargoyle at 7:34 AM on June 7, 2014

When I was living in Southwest Michigan in the early 00s, the Decepticons was the name for the group that's eventually developed into the Moped Army, and they put Decepticons stickers on their non-moped vehicles.
posted by jocelmeow at 9:31 AM on June 9, 2014