Portugal

Portugal, formally the Portuguese Republic, is a coastal nation in southwestern Europe, bordering Spain and sharing the Mediterranean Sea with multiple other European countries like France, Italy, and Greece. Its capital is Lisbon.

The Decepticons rarely bother it, but when they do bother it, they bother it.

Fiction

Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

You know Destro is evil because he's probably going to turn his property into an Airbnb and gentrify every neighborhood in a 10km radius.

The Headmasters cartoon

Bruticus and Predaking sunk a cruise ship off the coast of Lisbon for... well, shits and giggles. The Final Showdown on Earth (Part 1)

Victory cartoon

It later turned out the fabled Atlantis existed off the coast of Portugal! Awesome, right? Wrong, cos Deathsaurus forcibly raised it and caused huge tidal waves across the Portuguese coast. The Terror of the Giant Tidal Waves

G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers

Destro owned a villa on the Portuguese coast, and met with Cobra Commander there to discuss funding Cobra's latest project. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers II #1

The Last Knight film

Hound mentioned he was bouncing Tessa Yeager's voice message from Portugal to Istanbul to Kathmandu to prevent her father's opponents from tracing the signal. The Last Knight

Transformers in Portugal

The second last thing you'd expect to find in Portugal, only behind sidewalks that you don't slip on.

Transformers media arrived relatively late to Portugal, with the cartoon debuting in November of 1989 and now-defunct publishing company Meribérica/Líber only printing the US comic all the way into 1990. The first 18 issues, from "The Transformers" to "The Bridge to Nowhere!", were released by Meribérica, but the series was abruptly cut short after the release of the last issue in December of 1990. ^[1]

As with other regions that experienced a peak in the popularity of Transformers during the early 90s, Portugal saw a mixture of 1989's Chinese reprint of the The Transformers toyline and the later European Classics reissues making up the bulk of its toy offerings in national stores. The Chinese figures were imported by Portuguese distributor Chaves, Feist & Cia. S.A. (which also distributed several Tomy and Nintendo products during this era), and the rear portion of the packaging usually included a large printed sticker with the transformation instructions translated into Portuguese and - if any - a list of included acessories. ^[2]

Also sometime during the early 90s, an oddity hit the Portuguese market when the (otherwise) Japanese-exclusive Star Convoy managed to show up in his original Takara packaging across a handful of Portuguese stores, most notably in hypermarket chain Jumbo (later rebranded and renamed into the French Auchan group). ^[3] As a result, it is surprisingly not too uncommon to find Star Convoy copies on the Portuguese secondary market.

As with other European countries, some U.S. retail exclusives were released in Portugal under different national retail chains: for instance, the second wave of Target's Scout Class figures from the 2007 Transformers movie toyline were released by the now-defunct Feira Nova stores, and some of the Netflix War for Cybertron Trilogy figures and Walmart's Transformers One toys were released through Toys"R"Us in Portugal ^[4] - which, in conjunction with their Iberian cousins in Spain; have continued to operate as a major toy retailer after the bankruptcy of their American counterpart.

Notable people

• Gonçalo Lopes, a Portuguese comic book artist who's illustrated and colored some IDW Publishing comics and Transformers Collectors' Club stories.
• Joana Lafuente, a Portuguese artist who's worked as a colorist for IDW Publishing.

External links

• Portugal on Wikipedia

References