Carbombya

Carbombya is a fictional North African nation from the Transformers cartoon universe. Its formal name is the Socialist Democratic Federated Republic of Carbombya. Ruled by Supreme Military Dictator, King of Kings, and President For Life, Abdul Fakkadi, the country is rich in particularly fine oil and is intensely nationalistic. Ships that venture too close to the coastline are often fired upon. According to a sign seen in the episode "Thief in the Night," Carbombya City has a population of 4,000 people, and 10,000 camels. Carbombya has been known to harbor Decepticons.

Carbombya is designed as a pastiche of Middle Eastern tensions that existed in the 1980's. It's name is a play on the term car bomb and Fakkadi's name is intended to invoke that of Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi. Residents of the country are heard swearing on the lives of their mother's camels, and so forth, in a stereotypical manner.

This did not go over well with longtime voice-over actor Casey Kasem--himself of Arab descent--who was to provide Teletraan I's voice in "Thief in the Night," the episode which was primarily set in Carbombya. He demanded that the portrayal of Arabs be changed--and when it was not, he quit the show. Kasem's sudden departure necessitated the replacement of Teletraan I with Teletraan II. Frank Welker was the voice of Teletraan II.

Carbombya is occasionally misspelled as Carbombia (an error that recently appeared in the story "Two For the Price of One" by Brandie Tarvin in the Transformers Legends anthology book), and in the script for the episode in which it first appeared, "Five Faces of Darkness," it was spelled Karbomia, in a less-overt pun. Fakkadi's name is also often misspelled, generally as "Fakaddi," but the aforementioned Legends story went as far afield as "Faghadi." Perhaps this not surprising, however, given the numerous English spellings that have been used for Muammar al-Qadaafi's name over the years.