The Quotable Optimus Prime

Megatron: "Why throw away your life so recklessly?"
Prime: "That's a question you should ask yourself, Megatron."

Listen to this quote or download the MP3

Episode: Transformers: The Movie (1986)
Context: Megatron's a bit too sure of himself when he challenges Optimus to a final battle.

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What's New?

Feb. 16, 2012
• Over 400 people follow @quotableoptimus. How about you?

Feb. 12, 2012
• He is Optimus Prime's best friend and right-hand man...er...bot. Quotable Optimus Prime salutes Ironhide with a front page list of quotes and pictures.
• New quote from Dinobot Island, Part 2 posted.

Feb. 4, 2012
• Watch a new video of Optimus promoting Transformers: The Ride

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.

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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