The Transformers: The Movie goes back into cinemas on September 17, and two pieces of its fortieth anniversary merchandise are already on sale. Target has a light up Optimus Prime popcorn bucket, built by CultureFly, listed as new on its site this weekend at $24.99, and the thirty inch Big-Figs Optimus Prime it first put up on August 23 is now add to cart at $34.99, flagged on the page as a Target exclusive [1].
The bucket is a G1 Optimus head moulded in blue, twenty four ounces, with the crown hinged so it lifts back on a pair of pins and a battery door set into the chin. The eyes light up, which the card announces in a yellow starburst, next to a photograph of the thing brimming with popcorn. The same card carries the movie logo, the anniversary badge, and a line of small type reading BUILT BY CULTUREFLY. Target gives the DPCI as 087-26-4792 and the UPC as 840492338799. Write both down before you go looking.
The Big-Figs release is the same character at thirty inches, rated six and up, and sold in an open window tray whose front panel is the 1986 poster art: Optimus and Megatron squared off in the middle, with Hot Rod, Bumblebee, Arcee and Blitzwing scattered up the rocks around them. Target’s own copy calls it a centrepiece for a collection rather than a toy, but the five reviews already sitting on the page suggest it has been moving through stores for a while and the website has only just caught up.
Both boxes carry a small silver badge in the same place: 40 YEARS, 1986 to 2026, sitting under the movie logo. Neither of them came from Hasbro. CultureFly built the bucket, the Big-Figs tray carries a ShuShu Papa mark down in the corner beside the brand, and the anniversary has been licensed widely enough that those are the two names on the Optimus Prime product sitting at Target this month.
Three of the fortieth anniversary releases we have covered have now gone to Target first. The Upper Deck fortieth anniversary card set debuted there as a Target exclusive. Super7’s DX Deluxe VHS boxed figures turned up on Target pegs last week in two decos Super7’s own store still does not list. Hasbro’s own contribution to the fortieth has been the film and the products tied to its release, the 4K SteelBook in November and the Optimus Prime: Awakening short. The rest of the anniversary product has gone to licensees, and most of it to one retailer.
The bucket is the more interesting of the two because of what it is not. Hasbro and Fathom confirmed collectible concessions for the theatrical run, buckets and specialty drinkware included, and those are limited to participating theatres in the United States, while supplies last, with purchase limits. This one is an ordinary retail product with a barcode and a shipping option, so you can own an Optimus Prime popcorn bucket without ever buying a ticket, and it will come to your door. If you want the Fathom one as well, that is two buckets!
The film comes back on the seventeenth. The merchandise got there first, and it did not come from Hasbro [2].
Sources
- TFormers, “Daily Prime: 40th Anniversary Transformers Movie Optimus Prime Popcorn Bucket From Culture Fly”, September 6, 2026.
- TFormers, “Big-Figs 30 inch The Transformers The Movie Optimus Prime Action Figure Target Exclusive Available Online”, September 6, 2026.
- Target product pages A-1010261566 and A-95056707, read September 6, 2026.
- Key art: Target product photography.
[1] Both prices are Target’s own, read off the listings on the evening of September 6. Neither item is stocked by BigBadToyStore, Entertainment Earth or Amazon; a search of the last of those for the bucket returns twelve results, and none of them is it.
[2] The theatre buckets and the CultureFly one are not the same object. Nobody has photographed the Fathom concession yet, so whether the two share a sculpt is an open question, and it will stay open until the seventeenth.