As most members of the Transformers Fandom would be aware, this year is the 40th anniversary of the franchise.
As such, worldwide Hasbro held a special Transformers 40th Cinema Event worldwide!
This event consisted of firstly a sneak peak at Season 2 of the cartoon series Transformers Earthspark. This was then followed by a Table Read of the script of the very first episode of the Generation One cartoon, with many of the surviving voice actor cast. Lastly the subsequent 3 episodes of the G1 cartoon were shown.
Whilst it was cool to get a look at the upcoming S2 of Earthspark, a short two minute section of an episode showcasing Starscream and his Seekers fighting the Autobots, and was also cool to see the G1 Episodes up on the big screen, it was really the Table Read that was the highlight of the show.
As someone who knows (either proudly or sadly depending on your viewpoint) every episode of the old 80’s cartoon by heart, it was interesting to hear the likes of Pete Cullen and Frank Welker reading out their lines. Not only were the inflections different, but you could also hear (especially in Cullen) how their voices have aged over four decades.
Other members of the original cast were there too, but of course sadly not all have survived, necessitating some characters vocals being performed by other voice actors. The voice actor that picked up Starscream and Wheeljack did an impressive rendition of Starscream, however made Wheeljack sound like he should be trying to order food at a Kosher Deli before having an afternoon nap. The highlight however was Gregg Berger reading Spike Witwicky – he sounded nothing like Spike but rather a 4 year old about to tell on another student in kindergarten for taking his favorite toy. Every time he did Spike the audience erupted in laughter and delight!
Myself personally booked tickets the moment the showing was announced at Event cinemas and went along with a large group of friends and our sons, including superfans Dallas, Trent and Brendan.
However two weeks after we had booked and paid for our tickets, I was contacted by Hasbro and Double Jump Communications to let me know of a special VIP Showing in Sydney that same night. Whilst I would have loved to attend, there was no way I was bailing on my friends so sadly had to miss out. However lots of other friends attended, including David Quinn and Lisamaree. They have kindly provided some photos and a few words about their experiences.
Recount by Lisamaree:
I was lucky enough to attend the VIP 40th Anniversary Transformers cinematic screening event at Event Cinemas in George Street, in the heart of the Sydney CBD.
One of the big differences with this event from previous VIP events I’ve been to was the diversity and sheer number of fans. Sure, the regular mega fans were there, but so were a lot of fans who didn’t know about any of the Australian Transformers clubs or online forums. Some were collectors and others just love Transformers cartoons or characters. It was a great mix of geekdom ready to celebrate 40 years of transforming robots. Yeah!
At 6pm the fans were invited into an area where glorious cardboard cut-outs (or giant standees as a lot of the “younger generation” were calling them) greeted us. G1 box-art of Megatron, Soundwave, Bumblebee and Ravage were super-sized and lining the entry for everyone to enjoy and take photos with.
Inside the foyer there was a giant backdrop of the classic G1 box art from the original toys to take photos in front of, a demonstration of the Robosen Optimus, Megatron and Grimlock self-transforming robots, a glass display of new and upcoming toys and an array of Transformer One cut-out characters to grab a photo op with.
For those who posted on social media with the right tags, the event organisers gave a limited number of Transformers One posters as prizes.
We were encouraged to post our photos from the event on social media, which I always do for these kinds of events in the hope of encouraging other fans to get involved and join in.
As we were ushered into the V-Max cinema everyone received a goodie bag that contained a G1 40th anniversary poster, a legend class Legacy United figure (either Tasmania Kid or Dinobot Sludge) and a discount voucher for Amazon.
The cinema greeted us with a movie sized still of the G1 backing box art on the big screen. It was impressive to see the classic 80’s artwork larger than life. The chairs were well spaced very comfy recliners. Masterpiece Ironhide, who had joined me as my figure of choice for the night, made himself quite at home on my chair as I took in the atmosphere of all the fans filling the cinema in excitement.
The event organiser started the session off with a transformers trivia competition. They were all easy trivia until the question “Name the four moons of Cybertron” was asked. Can you answer that without googling it? No one in our cinema could and there were some absolute Transformers masterminds in the room.
We were given a preview of the Transformers One trailer before getting into the viewing of the first 4 episodes of the Transformers G1 cartoon. The first episode voices were re-recorded with as many of the original cast as possible and a couple of more recent voice actors standing in for those we’ve lost. Watching Peter Cullen and Frank Welker side by side reprising the first episode was nostalgic, funny, amazing and so very 80’s. As the episode progressed the voice actors were shown performing their lines side by side with the animation, which, was very pixelated and didn’t translate well onto the big screen… but that didn’t stop anyone enjoying the show. Notable shout out to Frank Todaro who did an amazing and incredibly expressive job filling in as Starscream.
At the end of the first episode we got to see a bloopers reel of Frank making Peter laugh, Greg Berger trying to make everyone laugh and some of the antics that had taken place while the voice actors had recorded the session together around a table.
There was a collective disappointment that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th episodes shown hadn’t been given the same re-recorded voice actor treatment but it was a novelty to see the tv episodes in a cinema format.
After the episodes finished the event organisers came back to the front of the cinema and told us there was one last prize for the best social media post.
Then they said the winner was … “aus – geek – mum”. My jaw dropped as I belatedly processed… ausgeekmum… that was me! I raised Ironhide in the air and yelled “woohoo” as the organiser came up and game me my prize. The prize included Rise of the Beasts Airazor, Rise of the Beasts legend class Arcee and a Rise of the Beasts Bumblebee mask.
At first I looked at it and thought “oh no – not ANOTHER Airazor!” but then another collector pointed out to me it was autographed. In fact, all the items were autographed. Arcee was autographed by the actress who voiced her in Rise of the Beasts – Liza Kolby. I was told Airazor was autographed by Michelle Yeoh, however I have yet to confirm this as the signature doesn’t look like her normal signature. Bumblebee was autographed too, but I gave him away to another collector I know really well as the mask wasn’t something I would have displayed in my collection and I believe in sharing the good luck around.
As everyone moved out of the cinema fans were congregated near a number of the large cut-out figures. People were focussed on a group of the cut-outs on one side of the walkway when I noticed Ravage standing on his own behind everyone. I walked up to him and said “well, since no one is taking you, you can come home with me!” I grabbed him with glee and said “I’m taking him”.
Someone asked if I wanted to swap with Bumblebee and I politely said no while in my mind thinking there was no comparison between the autobot scout and the supremely superior Ravage. I made the trip home via the train with Ravage taking up his own 3-seater seat, much to the delight of most of the people in the carriage who couldn’t believe what they were seeing. He will now take up pride of place as the Prime Shrine attack kitty for the rest of his days.
Overall it was a fun night. Lots of laughs, nostalgia and fun was had with a small swag of goodies to top it all off.
Photo’s by David Quinn:
From Big Angry Trev thanks to Hasbro and Double Jump for putting on these fantastic events! I’m sure we speak for all fans when we say we look forward to more in the future!
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts – Special Preview Screening Event!