The Quotable Optimus Prime

Prime says,

"Thanks for transforming."

Episode: Desertion of the Dinobots
Context: Ravage attacks Prime, and then uncharacteristically transforms back into a helpless cassette. Prime picks him up and drops him in a trash can.

Sam: "If we do what they want how can we live with ourselves?"
Prime: "You are my friend, Sam. But your leaders have spoken. From here the fight will be your own."

Episode: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Context: Sam says goodbye to the Autobots, who have been banished from earth.
Pictured: Waiting for the DVD

Prime says,

"Stay behind me!"

Episode: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Context: Optimus gears up in his trailer while telling the N.E.S.T. soldiers to stay back. He always puts himself on the front line.
Pictured: OP and his transformed trailer

Prime says,

"Sentinel Prime, we bid you return."

Episode: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Context: Optimus uses the Matrix of Leadership to bring Sentinel Prime back from near death.
Pictured: Optimus with the Matrix

Prime says,

"Shockwave can't hunt all of us at once. Wreckers, we need a diversion."

Episode: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Context: Prime commands the Autobots as they try to retake Chicago.
Pictured: Waiting for the DVD

Prime says,

"We were once a peaceful race of intelligent mechanical beings, but then came the war between the Autobots who fought for freedom and the Decepticons who dreamed of tyranny."

Episode: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Context: Optimus sets up the history of the Cybertronian civil war.
Pictured:Waiting for the DVD.

Bumblebee: "Is that good or bad?"
Optimus: "We’re locked inside an enemy prison surrounded by countless Decepticons bent on our destruction."
Bumblebee: "So it IS bad."
Optimus: "It’s purely a matter of perspective."

Episode: War for Cybertron: Kaon Prison Break
Context: Optimus tries to help Bumblebee reorient himself while in hostile territory.
Pictured: Sideswipe and Optimus

Prime says,

"In war, there are calms between storms. There will be days when we lose faith, days when our allies turn against us."

Episode: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Context: Prime delivers the epilogue after the Chicago battle.
Pictured: Waiting for the DVD

Prime says,

"You were our leader, Sentinel. It is your right to lead us again."

Episode: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Context: Optimus relinquishes command of the Autobots and the Matrix of Leadership to Sentinel, but the elder Autobot refuses.
Pictured: Waiting for the DVD

Megatron: "Who would you be without me, Prime?"
Optimus: "Time to find out."

Episode: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Context: Megatron does the double-double-cross. Optimus has had all he can stands, and he can't stands no more. His battle mask slides down and it is SOOOO on.
Pictured: Optimus

Prime says,

"What your leaders say is true. This was all my fault. I told them whom to trust. I was so wrong."

Episode: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Context: Banished from earth as rebels, Optimus takes responsibility for the betrayal of one of their own.
Pictured: Waiting for the DVD

Prime says,

"One shall stand, one shall fall."

Listen to this quote or download the MP3

Episode: Transformers (2007), Transformers: The Movie (1986)
Context: Optimus Prime's iconic ultimatum to Megatron in both movies.

What's New?

Jan. 17, 2012
*Remember that contest that Hasbro had about winning a ride to school in Optimus Prime? Well, here's a video of the kid who won the contest, and he's quite a Transformers fan. Congrats to him! What a great prize.

Dec. 2, 2011
* Read this great interview with the original voice actors of Optimus Prime and Megatron (Peter Cullen and Frank Welker) and their latest pairing on the new series, Transformers: Prime.

Nov. 24, 2011
* Happy Thanksgiving from the Quotable Optimus Prime. God bless.

Nov. 21, 2011
* Optimus Prime voice actor Peter Cullen will voice the character in a new cartoon aimed at younger children called Transformers: Rescue Bots. However, these will be "cameo" spots. Bummer. Read more...

Oct. 30, 2011
* 400 people follow @quotableoptimus on Twitter. Join in!

Oct. 29, 2011
* Game designers from High Moon Studios talk about their next game, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, including Peter Cullen reprising his role as Optimus Prime. Says one, "Up to that point you're working on a project. Once Peter Cullen's voice goes in there, now you're working on a Transformers game."

Oct. 2, 2011
* More new screencaps from Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Oct. 1, 2011
* New screencaps of Transformers: Dark of the Moon are being posted today and tomorrow.

Sept. 30, 2011
* It's Transformers Friday! Did you pick up your copy of Dark of the Moon? I did!
* Read a new interview the OP voice actor Peter Cullen about working on the Transformer movies, including what it was like for Cullen to be on the set with the DOTM actors.

Sept. 25, 2011
* New quote from Transformers: Dark of the Moon posted.

Sept. 21, 2011
* New quote from Transformers: Dark of the Moon posted.

Sept. 18, 2011
* Pick up Transformers: Dark of the Moon on Blu-ray on Sept. 30 at a store near you. And we'll have high quality screencaps and audio files up shortly after that!!

Sept. 11, 2011
* Courage. 10 years later we still have courage.

Sept. 6, 2011
* Win a ride to school inside Optimus Prime. No foolin'. Click here to enter.
* New quote posted from Transformers: Dark of the Moon

View previous updates.

What are people saying about Optimus Prime?

"... There's a calmness to Optimus Prime, and yet a gentility and strength and honor and dignity."

-- Peter Cullen, original voice actor for Optimus Prime, interview with www.readingeagle.com, August 2008

    "You know it was special when literally all the hairs on my arms and on the back of my neck stood up when [Peter Cullen spoke the opening line of the 2007 live-action movie]. I went, 'Oh Peter, you're back!'"
    "Welcome back, Peter. Welcome back into my life!"
    "It's been so long."
    "Come on in. Put your feet up."

-- Andy and Dave, hosts of Moonbase 2 Podcast talking about the 2007 movie - Jan. 30, 2010

"For two glorious years, Optimus Prime was America's hero....Then in 1986, the original Prime did something that distinguished him from most other cartoon heroes. He died. He died for freedom, for righteousness, and for shelf space....For nearly two decades...the sons of Prime waited for Papa Bot..."

"...Prime practically step-parented the latchkey kids of the mid-'80s. He was our Allfather at a time when flesh-and-blood role models were increasingly few and far between....So when Prime declared, "One shall stand, one shall fall!" in that seismic, tear-down-this-wall timbre of his (or, more accurately, voice actor Peter Cullen), you believed him...."

"With bated breath and shaken faith we await the return of our Almighty Rig. Because without Prime, we're stuck with whiney Spider-Boys, metrosexual pirates, and koan-spouting kung-fu Christs in designer sunglasses and unisex clubwear. Because he died protecting us in '86, and nothing's ever been the same since. Because these days, the only real men left are giant robots..."

-- from "The Rebirth of Optimus Prime" - Wired Magazine, June 2007

"I remember scrambling to the television when voice actor Peter Cullen would command the troops to “Roll out!” and my second father – with a voice like John Wayne playing Abraham Lincoln – would contort into a Mack Truck, rev his engine, and roll his crushing 16-wheels down the heroic highway, barreling over the face of evil with unstoppable resolve. An action figure, Rubik’s cube, and Tonka toy all rolled into one, combined with an unshakable morality and sacrificial love, even the “tech specs” on his packaging in 1984 proclaimed his mission to bring freedom to “all sentient beings."

"Twenty-three years later, his steely face is plastered on a poster with a single word: “protect." It’s no wonder so many boys laid their weekly allowance on the energon altar."

-- James Harleman, Mars Hill Church

"...I've been re-watching the original G1 cartoons, glued to the screen, sometimes laughing hysterically, but also finding myself kind of...touched? inspired? Not exactly sure exactly how to word it - but at this point I've just decided to tear up my membership card to the grown-ups club and sit down in my pj's with a bowl of cereal and watch cartoons! All I have to do is replay a little Optimus Prime voice in my head and suddenly everything is all right with the world."

-- January 2008 visitor to The Quotable Optimus Prime

"As a child of the 80s I learned that the best things in life were supposed to be big, powerful and manly. When it came to TV characters the biggest, most manly, most powerful robot was, of course, Optimus Prime. Mostly it was that voice. A slightly smoky baritone, strong and clear. He sounded like a hero. And he CARED about people. He would put himself in harm's way to protect others. You can call it hackneyed, but when I was 12 it was glorious."

– NPR's "In Character" Blog

"It’s funny watching the producers of the [1986] Transformers movie and hearing from the toy executives at Hasbro as they look back on the phenomenon that was created by the death of Optimus Prime. No one saw it coming. No one realized that so many young boys had firmly latched onto that enigmatic robot as a childhood hero and role model. But the fact of the matter is there’s purity about Optimus that makes it hard not to like him."

– Johann Snyder, www.cmcentral.com/popculture

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