Where to watch
the 1986 movie

Netflix does not have it; its own page for the title returns an error in the United States rather than a play button. It is not included with Prime either. The Prime Video listing is the thing that misleads, sitting above the rental entries in the Amazon results where a membership title would sit, and opening it produces two buttons, Rent and Buy.

What is left is the transactional tier, where all three of the big storefronts land on the same pair of HD numbers. Amazon Video, Apple TV and Fandango At Home each rent the film for $2.99 and sell it for $9.99. Apple and Amazon both ask $3.99 for the 4K tier, and Amazon wants $11.99 to own that one outright, all of it read off the listings on 21 September 2026 and all of it liable to move.

Shout! Factory is putting out two 40th Anniversary editions five weeks apart, and they differ on picture, on sound, and on what sits on disc two.

The DVD streets 13 October at $15.99. It is a single Region 1 disc at standard definition, and it carries the legacy supplementary package: the Nelson Shin commentary with Flint Dille and Susan Blu, the feature documentary ’Til All Are One, three archival featurettes, the animated storyboards, and the 1986 trailers and TV spots. Two of the larger Transformers outlets filed this release as bare-bones, having read the runtime printed on the box rather than the distributor’s listing. Shin, Dille and Blu talk the film through end to end on the commentary alone! What the DVD does not carry is anything made in 2026.

The steelbook streets 17 November at $39.99 direct from Shout, or $49.98 on Amazon, with both listings showing two discs. Dolby Vision on the 4K, Dolby Atmos on both, and disc two adds three items the listing dates 2026: a reformatted “The Touch” music video by Stan Bush, the 2026 theatrical trailer, and an entry given only as “Animated Coda (TBD)”.

Shout has not described that last entry on the product page or in the announcement, and nobody official has tied it to the chapter that played after the credits at Fathom, so we are not claiming that it is. The listing says only that it is animated, new in 2026, and not on the October DVD.

• To see it this week: rent it in HD for $2.99. Nothing else needed.
• To have the best picture and sound: the steelbook on 17 November. It is the first release with Dolby Vision and a Dolby Atmos mix, and the first 4K at list price since the 35th Anniversary edition went out of print.
• To have a disc sooner: the 40th Anniversary DVD at $15.99, with a commentary and documentary worth the money on their own.
• If a 30th or 35th Anniversary Blu-ray is already in the house: it beats the new DVD on resolution and carries much of the same supplementary material, so the only upgrade from there is the steelbook.
• If the 35th Anniversary 4K is already in the house: what the steelbook adds is Dolby Vision, the Atmos mix and the three 2026 items on disc two.