Photo-A-Day #02781
Forty years ago a toy company broke the hearts of a generation of kids when they killed off a beloved character in a major movie just to clear up shelf space for a new cast of characters. The movie was The Transformers: The Movie. In it the leader of the heroic Autobots, Optimus Prime, is killed and as he dies he hands the mantle off to the new generation of Autobots. It was crushing to me and many others.
Forty years later and Hasbro has been having an "Apology Tour" for traumatizing us kids. They are re-releasing the movie into theaters in the next two weeks with all new footage. There was a special concert by bands from the cartoons of Transformers, G.I. JOE and Jem and the Holograms at San Diego Comicon.
But before the release of the movie the universe decides to kick us Gen Xers one more time with the death of actor Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime for the past forty years.
This has been a week of big deaths including Dolly Parton and Tim Curry and both were sad, both were icons for a generation. Dolly was an outstanding philanthropist and all around human. Tim curry was so talented and iconic to the LGBTQIA+ community. But Peter Cullen, he was the voice. I still read my Transformers comics, new and old, and hear Peter Cullen's voice when I do. This one hurt.