You’ve Got the Touch: ‘The Transformers: The Movie’ at 40

Editor’s note: This cover story* for The Toy Book’s 2026 Fall Toy & Licensing Preview Issue was written based on interviews and plans made prior to the unfortunate passing of Peter Cullen, the legendary voice of Optimus Prime. We’re presenting it here in its mostly original format, with new information celebrating the legacy of the film, the franchise, and an unmistakable voice. We at The Toy Book dedicate our new issue to Cullen’s memory.

Sorry, Optimus.

Forty years after Optimus Prime’s death stunned a generation of young Transformers fans, Hasbro is doing something unusual: apologizing.

The “Apology Tour,” built around the 40th anniversary of The Transformers: The Movie, takes a moment that became part of childhood lore and turns it into a celebration of everything that made the 1986 animated film endure. Behind the joke is a strategy that treats nostalgia as more than a punchline and recognizes the emotional weight fans still carry well into adulthood.

“We approached the ‘Apology Tour’ with a lot of affection and humility,” says Alyse D’Antuono, Vice President of Global Brand Strategy, Action Brands at Hasbro. “For so many kids of the ’80s, Optimus Prime wasn’t just a favorite character. He was their hero. He represented courage, leadership, and doing the right thing, and then they watched him fall at the hands of his greatest enemy. That was an incredibly powerful thing to experience as a child, and the fact that so many fans are still talking about how it made them feel 40 years later shows just how deeply it affected them.”

The Hasbro team knew that pulling this off would only work if fans felt that the company understood why the movie still mattered.

“We’re being self-aware and saying, ‘We know. We understand why you’re still not over it.’ The playful part is Hasbro owning that history and being willing to say we’re sorry,” D’Antuono says.

The weight of the film and its staying power extend beyond that single, infamous death scene, which, as history goes, was designed to sell more toys by wiping out the characters that had already been on shelves. It “hit like a truck,” Hasbro says, and while the idea backfired (and, spoiler alert: Optimus returned a few months later), The Transformers: The Movie established how emotional, cinematic, and ambitious the franchise could be, while expanding its mythology with new characters, higher stakes, and a soundtrack that became inseparable from the film itself.
That legacy is guiding the anniversary product strategy, too.

Nate Purswell, Senior Manager of Global Brand Development & Marketing, Transformers at Hasbro, says the assortment was shaped around characters and scenes that continue to resonate with longtime fans, while making room for first-time representations of characters, including Kranix and Prowl, and new takes on Optimus Prime and Megatron.

Evan Brooks, Senior Product Designer, Action Brands at Hasbro, says the team wanted to do more than re-create movie moments, capturing the qualities that made the characters feel essential. “Optimus Prime and Megatron’s final battle brought emotional weight, and Hot Rod allowed us to represent the youthful energy he would bring as the future leader of the Autobots,” he explains.

That thinking extends to one of the collection’s centerpieces, the Transformers Studio Series The Transformers: The Movie The Matrix of Leadership. Senior Product Designer Mark Maher says the team wanted it to feel like more than a replica.

“We looked closely at the details. The shape had to feel iconic from a distance, but rewarding up close, with enough detail to make fans want to hold, display, and discover the craftsmanship in the piece,” Maher says.

Lights, sounds, and music were integrated into the design, including Stan Bush’s “The Touch,” connecting the collectible directly to one of the movie’s defining musical moments.

That soundtrack remains one of the clearest examples of the film’s pull. D’Antuono points to The Transformers: The Movie: The Soundtrack: The Reformatted Edition, which features cover art by Matthew Ferguson (the same artwork that graces The Toy Book‘s digital cover*), reached No. 19 on Billboard’s U.S. Top Vinyl Albums chart and No. 18 on the U.S. Top Current Album Sales chart.

“Four decades later, people aren’t just remembering this music,” she says. “They’re actively seeking it out and bringing it home.”

At Comic-Con International: San Diego (SDCC), the music fueled an epic “Celebration of Life” concert featuring real-life versions of fictional bands from the Hasbro universe, including Knights of Unicron (Gus Rios, Matt Harvey, Ross Sewage, and Andy Selway), performing with Stan Bush, composer Vince DiCola, and former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach, Britta Phillips as Jem from Jem and the Holograms, and Cold Slither, the Cobra-affiliated Dreadnoks from the world of G.I. Joe.

Hasbro is also using the anniversary to bring younger audiences into the story. Parents who experienced the film in 1986 have spent decades retelling its biggest moments, while newer fans have encountered the characters through other corners of the Transformers universe. The theatrical return gives those audiences a chance to see the movie together.

Transformers Day on Sept. 17 brings The Transformers: The Movie back to theaters through Fathom Entertainment, remastered in 4K, with premium 4DX screenings planned for the U.S. and U.K. In addition to previously announced markets, theaters across France, Singapore, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and Peru will now participate in the celebration.

Fans who remain through the credits during select anniversary screenings will see a never-before-seen cinematic chapter created for the event, an animated short entitled Optimus Prime: Awakening. This 12-minute animated short is a love letter to the Transformers community and to the late Peter Cullen (1941-2026), the legendary voice of Optimus Prime. Hasbro says it builds on the film’s storytelling and visuals, “giving audiences the rare opportunity to experience the iconic cultural moment from the franchise’s past while exploring its future on the big screen.”

Optimus Prime: Awakening features Peter Cullen’s final original voice performance as Optimus Prime, and reunites the late actor with Frank Welker as Megatron and Soundwave. Prior to his passing, Cullen expressed that returning for the short film felt like a homecoming to a character he had shaped for more than four decades.

“Optimus Prime and Megatron were made for each other,” Welker shares. “After all, one needs the perfect hero against the epitome of evil to create great drama. Peter’s portrayal of Prime was born of his own personal beliefs: honesty, loyalty, and always insisting on doing the right thing. This made it easy to be friends. Returning as Megatron and Soundwave for one final story opposite Peter’s Optimus in Optimus Prime: Awakening was a real gift. I will miss my friend, but that voice and his heart and values will always be part of Optimus Prime.”

The ramp-up to Transformers Day starts Sept. 6, when Target launches a major in-store takeover across the U.S. with toys, collectibles, and other products tied to the film. Across the pond, the Transformers Store at Battersea Power Station in London will mark Transformers Day with a tribute to Optimus Prime, a screening, commemorative gifts, fan tributes, and a post-screening toast.

Licensees are also going big this summer and into fall with new products from CultureFly, Jada Toys, Monogram International, ShuShu Papa, Skybound Entertainment, Super7, Threezero, and Trends International hitting retail shelves. Shout! Factory and Insight Editions bring the celebration into home entertainment and publishing, while Robosen enters the fray with its G1 Flagship Fallen Leader Optimus Prime robot.

With more Transformers milestones on the horizon (next year marks the 20th anniversary of Michael Bay’s live-action Transformers), Hasbro’s biggest opportunity lies in using history without becoming trapped by it.

“The goal is never to look backward just for the sake of nostalgia,” D’Antuono says. “It’s about understanding why a particular moment mattered, what fans still love about it, and then finding a way to build on that connection.”

That philosophy leaves plenty of room for whatever comes next. As D’Antuono puts it, Transformers has decades of characters, eras, and stories for fans to rediscover — proof that, even “after 40 years, there is clearly still More Than Meets the Eye.”

*Print editions of this issue feature an alternate cover with artwork created and shipped prior to the passing of Peter Cullen.

A version of this feature appears in The Toy Book‘s 2026 Fall Toy & Licensing Preview Issue. Read the full issue here!

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