Hello and welcome to All Things Transformers.
things transformers i'm your host steve megatron
and joining me on this retrospective episode
is tfg1 mike oh boy folks it's been a friggin
week it's been wow we here at the gcrn at least
i have over our Network inception for the last
17 years. Every once in a while, we will talk
about when celebrities pass away. Part of our
year end year in review episodes that we do,
we get a list of the celebrities that have passed
away from that year. And we will. bundle that
together and talk about each one of them in that
year end episode kind of thing. Sometimes we
will do episode tributes like this one. And for
me, and I've talked about this expressing grief
about celebrities and things like that. For me,
it's about what that particular celebrity has
put out into the world. whether it's music or
film or television show or cartoon or video game
or whatever it is. However, they've impacted
me depending on that level of impact is how emotional
I get at hearing the news that they have left
this mortal coil. And the news that we got. August,
late in the evening, August 26th, but more so
the morning of August 27th, 2026. Peter Cullen,
the voice of Optimus Prime, the voice of Eeyore,
the voice of the narrator on Voltron, the original
Voltron animated series from 1984. He was the
voice of the Knight Automated Roving Robot for
one episode in Knight Rider, the original Knight
Rider series in 1982. He would then come back
to reprise Carr in the 2008 reboot series, continuation
series. Actually, the interesting thing about
that is Carr in that series. actually was the
Knight automated roving robot. Because in that
series, in the NBC 2008 series, both kit and
car had transformation capabilities. So car actually
transformed into a robot. And I'm sure I've probably
sent Steve a clip and I'm sure. Because now I'm
going to make him do it. Insert that clip right
here. And Peter Cullen, I mean, Optimus Prime.
I always make the joke because I'm a Rodimus
Prime fan. I was, oh, Optimus. All he ever did
was play basketball or throw snowballs or. Blah,
blah, blah. Sherman, damn this or blah, blah,
blah. Energy disc that whatever. But when it
comes right down to it, Peter Cullen. Best robot
dad ever. If you didn't. And I, my dad was around.
I didn't, I haven't lost. My dad is still here
to this day. My dad, he was an awesome, hardworking
father. Did everything he possibly could. Does
everything he possibly can. I'm not sitting here.
I would never, ever do this. I'm not sitting
here disparaging my father. I'm just saying Peter
Cullen and the voice of Optimus Prime, the voice
that came out of that man's mouth, inspired and
attached to so many millions of people that might
not have had a father figure in their life. He
changed people's lives with. The voice that came
out of his mouth as Optimus Prime. And for me,
as I went through the grieving stages after the
news broke, I went through two stages. every
clip and every scroll reel i went through whether
it was people now i did i did two things so i
was either doom scrolling facebook reels or instagram
reels and seeing creators and people i'd never
knew talk about him or i was going to the creators
and people i did know and hearing them tell stories
about him now when i was doing the instagram
scrolling I had the feeling of, oh, my God, you
know, it's usually people like replaying classic
clips of G1 or more recently. And I say more
recently, even though it's been almost 20 next
year is the 20th anniversary of the 2007 film.
How the hell did that happen? I don't even know.
But it's one of those things where. Most of the
stuff on Instagram is everybody like the 20th
anniversary or almost the 20th anniversary. They're
all doing movie clips. Nobody's really doing
generation one clips unless they're somebody
our age in forties or, you know, late thirties,
early forties is almost 50, whatever kind of
thing. And I got to the point where unless it
was a creator, I knew like, uh, Proto Man Daniel
or the guys over at Transmissions Podcast or
Rodimus Primal or Patriot Prime or Mike Seibert
from Mike Seibert Radio Podcast or whomever it
is. All the strangers that I watched, I'm just
like, OK, I am so like I'm kind of over the fact
that he passed away. So, again, it was two very
different things for me when I was consuming
the content of of. Dealing with, oh, my God,
we no longer have Peter Cullen, this amazing
man who did everything he possibly could for
everyone that he came into contact with. And
just wow. And me, all as I did was it's funny
because I did two things. I went through and
I watched maybe the first, I watched the first
part of more than meets the eye and I watched
like half of the second part of it. And then
I went through all my 17 years of podcast audio
clips that I, like I showed somebody, I pulled
up my podcast audio file folder. I forget who
it was that I showed, but I showed them that
I took a screenshot and showed them that folder.
I said, this is just the Transformers audio I
have out of the 17 years. I took 21 clips of
Optimus Prime from the Generation 1 cartoon.
I took those 21 clips and I put them all together
in a multi -track file thing. Ends up being like
a three minute long montage. of various things
that optimus prime said in the cartoon series
along with uh you know one shall stand one shall
fall uh i you know i'll rip you into with my
bare hands and blah blah blah all the stuff from
the movie i think there's one line and i'll have
to go back and get it but i'll have to i'll have
to figure out what it is but There's one, that
cartoon, Transformers Generation 1, everyone
kind of like, oh, it's just a toy. It's just
a toy commercial. It's just this. Hell no. I'm
being very cautious with my words here, folks,
because there was a point where I got so mad
at something the other day. where I was ready
to just like literally somebody on their podcast,
they would just, you know how the beep goes.
Like every time you say an F bomb, beep, beep,
beep, my beeps were going to be literally, I
was like, I was holding my, my anger in so much
from something, but, uh, there, there's a lot
like, I, There's a line in one of the episodes.
I got it. It's one of the clips where he said
Peter Cullen is Optimus Prime says something
about we don't. It's something very inspirational.
And I can't believe I'm frigging blanking on
it now. I wish I had it written down somewhere.
But I had never read like I've watched Generation
One so many times. I've watched those 98 episodes
so many times. I've never watched it looking
for the subtlety in the script of some of those
episodes. I've watched it for the funny bits.
I've watched it for the stupid bits. I've watched
it to analyze it, but I've never watched it to
look for specifically Optimus Prime's wisdom
of the ages. because it's not lost it's in there
and it's awesome and i don't know i i i didn't
even really add you're gonna get to tell your
story obviously but i didn't even ask you the
the like the 27th like how you found out and
whatever else and i know you're gonna tell us
here in a second but like man that whole weekend
was like oh, Peter Cullen is no longer here.
What are we going to do? And I know the man was
85. I don't care. And I don't say that I don't
care to be it as a negative way. But this was
our guy. This was the man that inspired many
with one character. And yes, he's played other
characters, but... Not many people get to affect
the entire world for 42 years with one voice.
So yeah, that's, that's where that, that, that,
yeah, I don't know anymore. Uh, you know, right
now I'm. I mean, other than the fact that we're
talking about it now, generally, the last couple
of days, I've been okay. Because I've been listening
to everybody else. I've been watching everybody
else and hearing their stories. And I told, you
know, I got together with Mike Seibert and Anthony
Bercali. Anthony Bercali does TFU. Transformers
University, TFU .info. And we did an episode
of Mike's show. So this is like my second therapy
session to talk about this. Because podcasting
is therapy, folks. But what's your Peter Cullen
grief story, sir? So when I heard about it, I
was at work. And my coworker. leans over to me
and he goes hey dude Optimus Prime died and I
was like what I was like really shocked to hear
it which I was like okay like we've lost you
know because I paid attention to like the you
know there was the Hayden Panettiere that had
passed away. Then there was Dolly Parton. Then
there was Tim Curry. And I was like, these people
have been, you know, in some form of entertainment,
like our entire time growing up. Yep. And then,
and then we get to, we get to, you know, this
news. And I was like, What the heck? It was just,
yeah, I was quite surprised to be honest. And
I still don't know what to think about it. I
mean, I'm glad that he lived a nice long life.
However, you know, it still sucks. I don't know.
It's, it's just, yeah. And the funny thing for
me was how I found out it wasn't that I was surfing
the web. It wasn't that I was on Twitter or Facebook
or Instagram. I mean, I was on like everything
I've already said. I did all that. But how I
initially first found out I was on discord talking
to chaos. We were typing away at each other and
dragon Lord Kai from Kai dragon media messages
me on discord. Optimus Prime has died. And I
just looked at his message and I'm like, bullshit.
I didn't type that back to him. I didn't type
anything to him. I immediately went to TFW2005
.com to check and see. And then I went to Tformers
and then I went to AllSpark and then I went to
every Transformers website. and tfw 2005 was
grayed out and i'm like oh oh oh shnikes oh no
and then i went back to kai and i'm like oh shit
what are we gonna do now what but yeah and it
was kind of and i was seeing like the stuff going
around the rounds, you know, all over the internet,
everybody was like, Oh crap, man. And then quotes
of Peter Cullen were coming up everywhere. And
I was, I was, I was happy to see that. Yeah.
And then, you know, there were individuals that
were like, you know, this new, it's like a truck,
uh, artwork is pretty tasteless now. Yeah. And
I was looking at them and I was going, you know,
you could look at it that way. Mm hmm. Or you
could flip it. Yeah, that's the way it said.
Yeah, I was like, you could look at as, you know,
the joke that it was intended as. Yep. Or you
could look at it from the other perspective.
It hits like a truck because we lost Optimus
Prime. Yeah, that's like we lost Peter Cullen.
And so it still hits like a truck is like, yes,
we lost Optimus Prime, you know, 40 years ago.
But we've just lost the man himself who voiced
it. And I don't know if it's... It hits at the
right time for the hits like a truck. I did like
the fact that with all of that, they changed
directions with the artwork from that to something
brighter. you know, on Optimus Prime to honor
the man who played him. And I feel like I feel
like Prime and Peter Cullen, although I didn't
meet the man, seemed very genuine from everything
I saw. It seemed very personable, very down to
earth, loved his fans and was just grateful for
where he'd landed having played Prime and G1.
as well as the live -action films, and then Transformers
Prime, and then the Machinima series for a short
stint. Rescue Bots. Yeah, and he was Optimus
Prime. And I'm grateful that I was able to meet
Frank Walker years ago at BotCon. And I'm glad
that he's still around too, but it's going to
be just as painful watching him go. just because
he's also unseen voices on countless other animated
series. Yeah, Frank is everything. Frank is not
just Megatron. Frank is Scooby -Doo. Frank is
this. Frank is that. Yeah, Frank is everything.
Yeah, so it's going to be rough when that day
comes. And we're hitting, and it's really weird,
too, because we're hitting this age where we're
the old people. Yep. And... we still think of
ourselves of like, oh, 20 years ago, it was the
80s. It's like, no. No, 20 years ago was 2007.
40 years ago was the 80s. So it's really weird,
especially for me, because I'm sitting here going,
I'm 40. The movie's 40. You know, in a few more
years, the 80s are gone. Yep. long gone like
it's it's going to be over 45 years you know
and it's so it's i'm on the one hand i'm i'm
very thankful for the you know the life and all
the people that have gotten to be in it uh you
know through all of these different series that
got me through uh all of the the the discomfort
of my childhood my parents divorced the you know
the crap of just growing up and, you know, prime
was a staple primal was a staple, you know, they
both seemed like, you know, the surrogate parent,
you know, I looked at captain Kirk and captain
Picard the same way. So, I mean, these, these
legends that have, you know, more or less raised
us through these animated series and these television
series are, are great and they'll be missed.
And as we get older, we're going to see more
of. Our heroes from, you know, the 80s, 90s and
early 2000s pass away and it's going to get much
more difficult to watch the things. I mean, I
even going back and watching Robin Williams films,
I've had the same thought of, you know, man,
this guy got taken way too soon. And. I know
Colin was 85, but. Just. The amount of stuff
that I didn't realize he was in. Yeah. I mean,
I listened to, you know, I watched E1. He did
the Voltron, Defenders of the Universe, you know.
Plus he was two different voices in that show.
He was the voice of Coran, the old guy that helped
the princess and the pilots, and he was the voice
of something else as well in the show. He was
in GI Joe is, you know, wild bill among others.
Yeah. He, I mean, he's been in all kinds of stuff
that you just don't realize he was your, yeah.
He was the, or if you grew up with Winnie the
Pooh, I mean, you got your, he also was the voice
of tsunami. Yeah. The announcer when we didn't
have Steve bloom doing the, you know, the Tom
bits or the, it's like when you were doing the
promos in between, he was Peter Allen. and oh
my god i've i've re -watched that batman beyond
promo like seven times well and he did that for
like yeah dragon ball z he did that for beast
wars when it was on on toonami he did it you
know so i've got all these clips of him over
the years of of doing these things and i'm just
like man that's awesome yeah yeah he was such
a great Great voice actor. Such a great actor
in general. Just simply amazing. Just wow. And
he did the video games. He did Transformer video
games. He did War for Cybertron, Fall of Cybertron,
and Devastation. He was in the Robots in Disguise
series. He was in Titans Return and Power of
the Primes. He was in Rise of the Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles. Yep. He did Prime's voice in Fortnite.
Yep. He was in Invincible. He was in just the
amount of stuff. It's just mind boggling. He
also was the voice of the Predator. Yep. Those
Predator clicks. I remember watching that TFCon
video that they took when they first. Oh, my
God. That 2015. Yeah. But I think one of the
best things that I ever saw was when Frank Welker
gave him that Lifetime Achievement Award. Holy
crap. That was so good. I mean, he was Monterey
Jack in Chippendale. Yep. The dude's been...
He's literally been a legend in everything that
we've seen over the years. And yeah, he'll 100
% be missed. Yep. He just absolutely will be.
You know, like, it just... And it's just one
of those things where you think of... When I
think of... Optimus Prime, the first thing I
think of is that voice and him and what he did.
We've said this for the last... Was it September
9th, 2008? No, it was August 9th, 2008 that you
started. Obviously, I wasn't there with you August
9th, 2008, but... When you started all things
Transformers, we've said this from the beginning,
or at least since I've been on here. Oh, to be
a fly on the wall of a Transformers, Sunbow Productions,
Transformers Generation One voice session. Look
at everybody we no longer have. Peter Cullen,
Scatman Crothers, the voice director, Wally Burr.
Wally Burr passed away a number of years ago.
Lady Wreck mentioned that to me yesterday. I
remember seeing him at TFCon in 2012. Yeah. Chris
Lotta is no longer with us. Jack Angel, voice
of Astrotrain, is no longer with us. There's
so many people that are no longer with us. Peter
Cullen, sadly, now is one of them. But you have
all these amazing characters and voices and everything
else up there doing their own voice session and
doing whatever they're doing up there. And all
that. And it just is just crazy. But man. Just
the works that he has done. I just absolutely.
He was just amazing. Just an amazing person.
And you look at the filmography. Yes, he's done
other things besides Transformers, but this man
built a career. Even if it took years, like from
1984, because I remember a clip of him where
he said, oh, I hadn't been on it in a while.
It's been years or whatever. And it kind of was,
but I mean, I don't find a besides the film.
yeah it kind of was so yeah i guess the film
was whatever but still like it just it's just
one of those things where you anytime he would
show up as optimus prime is just amazing and
he was an amazing man and uh turns out according
to I'm trying to get the source on this to make
sure the source is right. At least until this
link pops up, Wikipedia says he died of cardiac
arrest. Who said that? Wikipedia. About Colin?
Yes. There was something that came out. I just
saw it. that his agent said he died of natural
causes in his sleep. So. Okay. Well, we need
to update that then. But, but yeah, the man will
be missed and it's going to be so weird in the
Transformers fandom. Because I think I said this
to you off air. I don't think Hemsworth is going
to be a good voice to pick up the mantle. He
was a fine Orion Pax for that character, I guess,
for me. I don't see Chris Hemsworth as the next
Optimus Prime, in my personal opinion. Yeah,
I mean, I can kind of see that. I don't know
who they're going to get. I don't know what they're
going to do. I don't know how much of a rush
they're in to do anything, honestly, right now.
I will say, since we are talking about this,
I guess I did get it from Dan Gilvezan himself
because he published it on his Instagram and
Facebook. But TFW does have an article about
unpublished interview with Peter Cullen from
2017 available online. I read that interview.
Oh, it's so good. I think Dan was originally
going to put this in his book, but I'll have
to send that to you. It was such a good read.
Absolutely amazing read. But yeah, Peter Cullen.
Just he will be missed. I agree. The apology
tour is still going on. As you said earlier.
It is a great piece of marketing. It just hits
a little different now since Peter has passed
away. But we do have a actual reveal of what
is after the movie. And no, it is not just a
Robosen reveal of whatever the next Robosen.
automatic robot toy is the transformers the movie
40th anniversary reveals peter cullen's final
optimus prime performance so this is kind of
like i'm gonna go out by being batman that's
the first thing i thought of was the the jlu
or the crisis on whatever blah blah blah So,
courtesy of Fathom and Hasbro, we have new information
about the Transformers the movie 40th anniversary,
revealing Peter Cullen's final Optimus Prime
performance. Following the credits of Transformers
the movie, audiences will get an exclusive look
at Optimus Prime Awakening, a brand new 12 -minute...
animated short that expands the story and gives
the iconic Autobot leader one final adventure.
This says, the short isn't simply being presented
as a traditional post -credit scene either. Optimus
Prime Awakening is described as a fully realized
12 -minute cinematic event created as a love
letter to the Transformers community and to Coen.
The project also reunites Cullen with another
legendary voice actor from the franchise. Frank
Welker returns as Megatron and Soundwave, giving
the short one final story featuring two of the
most important characters in Transformers history.
To our surprise, we finally have Frank Welker's
statement about working with Cullen one final
time. Optimus Prime and Megatron were made for
each other. 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 and 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. This is sure a great surprise
for all fans. The upcoming re -screening of the
classic G1 Transformers movie will feel so different
now till all are one. Let's see what else it
says. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Transformers,
the movie has Rojas crew. As a special animated
short, as part of its broader... By the late
Peter Cullen, Frank Welker. Animated short delivers
emotional storytelling. Peter shared returning
for Optimus Prime Awakening meant a great deal
to him as he felt that the project was a homecoming
to the character he had shaped for more than
four decades. Peter's performance reveals a deeper
vulnerability while retaining the unmistakable
strength and authenticity that made his portrayal
iconic. okay so that's already yeah so that's
that's what's gonna be at the end of the movie
so that's what all that was about the um the
special performance or the special this or the
this this this this this so that's what all that
was so that's what's at the end of the movie
here's i'm assuming this is what's going to happen
uh is that going to be at The end of the movie
on the physical media releases. That's my question.
I don't know if it will or not, but I'm assuming
so because they haven't released any information.
Yeah, because I did go to... Why does Amazon
always change their web color thing? Because
I did go to Amazon. Hopefully this will be the
last time I have to order a Transformers the
movie physical media copy 40th anniversary. I
did preorder it. It is arriving November 20th.
According to Amazon, it does say on it that the
art is not final. So it does have the. So let's
see on Discord so you can see it. It has the
one that we were trying to figure out where the
art came from thing. If Discord will paste it.
Come on, Discord. Really? Really, Discord? There
we go. So it has that. But it does say art is
not final. So I don't know what they're going
to do. When I was taught when Mike Seibert and
I were talking about this, honestly, at this
point, you already leaned into 40 years later,
still hits like a truck, the Marcelo Matera art.
Just leave it at this point. I know it kind of
feels yucky to still have that. But honestly,
it's kind of an homage, even though Peter is
no longer with us. But I'm trying to see. It
does not directly say on Amazon what the features
are, but I don't know. But yeah, that's coming
out in November. So yeah, Transformers the movie,
40th anniversary, 4K. It's on DVD. It's everywhere.
Optimus Prime, Peter Cullen. I hope you are resting
in peace, sir, because we sure do miss you. Yeah,
it's. Yeah. It sucks. It sucks. Yeah, I'm I'm
looking forward to the movie and then seeing
the the new 12 minute clip. Yep. It'd be nice
if Hasbro or Hasbro Pulse or whatever would just
put the 12 minute clip on their YouTube channel.
And maybe they will. Maybe. Maybe they will.
You never know. We'll see. You never know. Anyways,
I think that's I think that's everything, right?
Yeah, I think that's everything for now. I don't
think there's anything else like majorly going
on. Of course, I say that now. And of course,
as soon as we hit stop, some sort of major news
is going to. Oh, my God, they did this or oh,
my God, they did that or oh, my God. You know,
that's what's going to happen as soon as it always
happens that way. I think that about rounds this
episode out. Let us know on the comment section
what you guys think. Also, let us know what your
memories are or what your connection is to Peter
Cullen if you got a chance to meet the man or
how you feel about all that stuff. 100%. Yep.
So until next time, transform and transcend.
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