The Apology Tour is Hasbro’s own name for the campaign it has been running all year around the fortieth anniversary of The Transformers: The Movie, and the thing it is apologising for is the scene where Optimus Prime dies. The announcement Fathom and Hasbro put out in May said the turn “left a generation of fans emotionally unprepared for what a children’s film could deliver”, and invited those fans to come and “grieve, heal, and reminisce” about it. The joke had a real bruise under it. Then, on August 26, Peter Cullen died at 85, and the date Hasbro calls one of the biggest moments of the whole celebration arrived three weeks later.

That date is today. The Transformers: The Movie is back in theatres in a new 4K restoration from Hasbro and Fathom Entertainment, September 17 through 22, with premium large-format 4DX presentations in select markets. Fathom’s own listing promises that every screening, not a selected few, carries the world premiere of OPTIMUS PRIME: AWAKENING after the credits, and that participating theatres have collectible concessions while supplies last. [1]

Awakening runs twelve minutes, it is CG rather than cel, and Frank Welker is back as both Megatron and Soundwave. Hasbro’s release calls it a love letter to the community and to Cullen, and describes what is in it as Cullen’s final original voice performance as Optimus Prime. Go for that, if you go for nothing else. Hasbro has also put the score from the short on the streaming platforms as of today.

Hasbro’s own copy puts him first. The press release opens on Cullen’s six decades before it reaches a single product, and Kim Boyd, the company’s President of Licensing and Entertainment, is quoted on where the performance came from.

“Peter Cullen showed generations of fans that strength and gentleness can exist together. He shaped Optimus Prime around the example of his brother Larry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, who told him to ‘be strong enough to be gentle.’ Peter carried that guidance into a hero defined as much by compassion as courage.”

London is doing the same thing. The Transformers Store at Battersea Power Station is running a screening tonight, and Hasbro’s own description of what follows it is tribute speeches, refreshments, and a celebration of the life and legacy of Optimus Prime. The international footprint has widened too. France, Singapore, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Peru have all been confirmed since the last announcement. [2]

The rest of the slate, and the record that changed under it

Most of the product half is already on shelves and we covered a fair bit of it as it landed. The Upper Deck 40th anniversary card set is $19.99, the CultureFly Optimus Prime popcorn bucket $24.99, Blokees Galaxy Version Wave 8 $7.99, and a thirty inch ShuShu Papa Optimus lands at $34.99 in November, alongside a Transformers capsule collection at Target and a pair of Zak Designs tumblers. The Noble Collection announced a Transformers line of its own today, three bracelets and an Optimus Prime diorama with a Matrix hidden under the figure!

Four pressings of The Transformers: The Movie Reformatted Edition soundtrack, showing Energon hot pink, Primus teal, Decepticon purple and Quintesson green vinyl beside their sleeves.

The soundtrack is the part worth stopping on. The Reformatted Edition, the album the Celebration of Life concert was performing, is the ten track re-recording the Knights of Unicron built with Stan Bush, Sebastian Bach, Brittney Slayes, Mark Osegueda, Francesco Cavalieri and Cold Slither’s Torch. Until today the only pressing we had seen was the Hot Rod red one BigBadToyStore sells. Hasbro’s release art shows four more, Energon hot pink at trade, Primus teal for Amazon, Quintesson green direct from Reigning Phoenix Music, and a Decepticon purple for Target. The purple is the odd one out twice over. Its sleeve carries Megatron art where the other four carry the Optimus art, and the sticker on the shrink names an exclusive track, a version of “Instruments of Destruction” featuring Ripper of Cold Slither rather than the Francesco Cavalieri take on the standard running order. [3]

One more thing moved today, on the schedule we published a week ago. The Hot Wheels Transformers Bumblebee opened on Mattel Creations at 9:00 am PT as promised, at $65.00 with a limit of three. The two Creations cars before it are both gone from Mattel’s store, but this one was still buyable seventy minutes after it opened, and it opened as a backorder rather than as stock. Mattel’s own product data gives a ship date on or before March 5, 2027. Check that before the card comes out.

Nobody really owes an apology for the best decision they ever made. The death of Optimus Prime is why the audience that watched it as children is still turning out, for a re-recorded soundtrack and a cinema ticket to a film it has owned on home video for decades. But the man who made that scene work is gone, and through Tuesday his last performance as Optimus Prime is playing in theatres. Go while it is on.

Sources

[1]: The May announcement had the US run as September 17 through 21. Fathom’s listing now reads September 17 through 22, while its date selector offers screenings into early October. Fathom has not said whether those are held-over bookings or part of the event, so buy on the dates rather than on the assumption. [2]: Confirmed in addition to the regions announced earlier, per Hasbro’s release. Tickets are on sale online and at participating box offices, and Hasbro’s own copy warns that theatre locations are subject to change. [3]: Hasbro credits the standard “Instruments of Destruction” to Francesco Cavalieri of Wind Rose. Ripper and Torch are both credited as members of Cold Slither, the fictional G.I. Joe band Hasbro has fielded as a working act since the Celebration of Life concert in July, where they played their own set. So a Cold Slither member is covering an N.R.G. song on a Transformers record.