Check Out The Original 1986 Trailer For The Transformers: The Movie!

Friends, I have mentioned before how I was quite the fan of Hasbro’s The Transformers toys back in the day – in all honesty I am still an enormous fan of the franchise. I may not be rushing to the toy shelves like I did when the toys were originally released in ’84 but once in a blue moon I might add the likes of Thundercracker or Ironhide from the War for Cybertron: Siege series to my shopping cart. But back in the mid-1980s it is safe to say that my free time was spent waging epic battle between my collection of Autobots and Decepticons – or reading The Transformers Marvel Comics series… or watching the assortment of episodes from the syndicated animated series that I had taped off TV. Then one afternoon – August 5th of 1986 while visiting my Grandparents a television spot would pop up during one of the commercial breaks for The Transformers… and I kind of lost my mind.

I had no inkling that there was an animated feature film coming out for The Transformers – you could have knocked me off my feet with a feather. When I told my Father about it after he got off work… I couldn’t remember even half of that trailer – I was just too gobsmacked – although I did recall saying it was coming out in just three days. The next afternoon after having gotten off the school bus I rushed home – the VCR was prepped and ready to capture that TV spot… and I did not see it again until that Saturday afternoon we were heading out to catch The Transformers: The Movie. I can vividly recall talking about how worried I was for Optimus Prime on the drive up to theater – why would the narrator (Victor Caroli) question if Prime was going to die? My role model and hero surely wouldn’t fall in battle during the movie – then 25 minutes after The Transformers: The Movie had begun…

I would like to tell you that 34 years after The Transformers: The Movie had been released I no longer react in that manner… that scene plays at the arcade or at home though – it’s as if someone started cutting onions next to me. I never saw a trailer for the 1986 animated film in the theaters back in the day – especially not this first one – which is in fact an edited version of a presentation reel for investors that ran a little more than four minutes in length. Interestingly enough this original 1986 trailer for The Transformers: The Movie features some alternate scenes – like the attack on Autobot City – or even the coloring of Ultra Magnus. In addition where in the finished animated feature – the Dinobots are seen in their dinosaur forms while on the escape shuttle – they are in their robot modes in this particular trailer among a few other differences.