I’ve been a life-long fan of both the original Transformers and Predator characters. It is surprising that it took decades for me to realize that Optimus Prime was also the alien who hunted a bunch of future politicians in the jungle back in ’87.

Of course, the late Kevin Peter Hall was actually in the suit (and not Van-Damme, thank goodness). Though the character had only one spoken word in the film, and not one I can type here, it was provided by Peter Cullen.

Besides voicing the legendary leader of the Autobots, Cullen has also done work on a lot of projects. You may have heard him on Scooby-Doo, Knight Rider, G.I. Joe, Gremlins, Voltron, GoBots… and the impressive list goes on.

I have to admit that I actually went to the mall to see the first live-action Transformers movie when it came out back when… well, when there were malls. It was very exciting to hear the original voice of Prime doing the opening voice-over.

That excitement quickly faded when I saw what Michael Bay did to the franchise.