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The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 164: Transformers: The Movie (1986) (Patreon)

Published:
2026-01-13 00:14:22
Edited:
2026-01-20 01:22:49
Imported:
2026-01
Tags:

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Content

The Watchcast is back for another year, and we're kicking off 2026 by laying waste to our plastic filled childhoods! The first entry in our trio of toy commercials disguised as films is one very near and dear to our youthful hearts in Transformers: The Movie, a film that simultaneously enthralled and traumatized an entire generation of budding robot enthusiasts, and tested the limits of how many popular characters you can kill off in the name of commerce.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 164: Transformers: The Movie (1986(00:00:25) - Intro.(00:05:57) - Let's talk about our own histories with Transformers fandom.(00:14:45) - On the trauma of Transformer murder.(00:20:49) - How did Transformers (generally) come into existence? And some other miscellaneous bits.(00:31:55) - Onto the movie, and who is responsible for all this.(00:38:14) - Killing off the old toy line.(00:44:54) - What a (bizarre) cast! And soundtrack!(01:00:19) - Break!(01:00:50) - We're back, and real quick, let's chat about the version we watched.(01:03:22) - Kicking off your kids movie with an entire planet being devoured.(01:10:46) - Leaping into the year 2005, and everybody's got moonbases now.(01:15:59) - Say goodbye to several Autobots.(01:19:48) - Hot Rod, Kup, Arcee, and the rest!(01:29:00) - Optimus is here to save the--oh no.(01:35:47) - The scene that middle-aged nerds still describe to their therapists.(01:40:18) - Unicron, Galvatron, and various Cyclonuses.(01:51:43) - Eat it, Starscream.(01:54:09) - On Arcee, and how the party gets split.(02:00:12) - Are the Quintessons interesting? A debate.(02:08:33) - Are the Junkions interesting? No.(02:13:02) - Unicron goes ham, and Rodimus is born.(02:29:14) - Final thoughts.(02:40:31) - Teeing up for next week's movie: G.I. Joe: The Movie!(02:43:46) - Outro.

Files

Comments

Joseph Tavano

FUCK YES. FIRST GOOD NEWS OF 2026. CANNOT WAIT. Thanks guys.

Michael Polston

I thought TFTM was bad as a kid, and I think it’s bad as an adult. But without it we wouldn’t have the amazeballs third season, which I maintain is the best season of the show. All unpopular opinions, but I said what I said.

Mr. Samuel Scratch

Misheard lyrics from my childhood: DEATH! DEATH YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN'T SURVIVE!

Zeenius

Finally, a movie for 6-year-old boys who have a split personality of a WW2 vet who is Kubrick staring into the middle distance after deeply contemplating a war flashback.

Daniel Barnett

My two takeaways from watching this for the first time in like 40 years: 1. The moon design of Unicron is very well done. It's menacing and alien in the right ways, actually pretty scary. Then they ruin it by making him turn into a big dumb robot. 2. I forgot just how hard Starscream eats shit in this. Megatron has been hauling this winging coward around for, what, centuries? Then he gets the tiniest amount of backbone whith the Galvatron thing and just obliterates Starscream on sight. RIP BOZO.

Zeenius

Also, I guess it's cool in an extremely dumb kind of way but, I wanted to add that a transformer turning into a gun slightly bigger than a gun that it could just hold or make come out of its arm, makes the same amount of sense as Jackie Chan transforming into a fist that's only slightly larger than his own fist

Nathan

Never seen this movie only heard of it's nonsense from you yall on early bombastic but definitely gonna watch it now. Sounds rad.

WulfBane

I remember WANTING to see this back in the day but for some reason it never happened. I later surmised my parents & grandparents that would have taken me heard about the crying kids and shielded me from it. Also I very much always wanted a Megatron toy but by the Christmas they were going to fulfill that, it was post movie and I got Galvatron instead. My mom was assuring me that the guy at the store said he’s the leader but I was disappointed in getting a purple space ray gun instead of the cool silver real pistol.

Drew

"the butthole turned him into a dick" lmao As someone a little younger without attachment, the beginning of the movie is cool up the the Starscteam coronation but the rest was a bit of a mess.

Joseph Tavano

How old are you and what year did you watch it? Super curious.

Michael Polston

I’m 47. I saw this movie on VHS when it came out, and at the time I disliked it for all the reasons you’d think. As an adult, I dislike it because I just think the story kinda sucks and the movie is tedious. As an adult though, I watched through season 3 for this first time with no nostalgia for it and found it to be a much more nuanced and mature set of episodes, budget and time restraints be damned. That season went some neat places and I seriously think it’s a highlight of 80s kids entertainment.

swiftdraw

It is only now that I learn Arcee is pronounced “RC” and not “Arc-ee.”

Hilary Neloms

I saw this in the theater with my friend and his dad. It was the first movie that ever made me cry.

Justin Gibson

If you're after visual quality Space Adventure Cobra is the BEST animated 4k disk I've ever seen. Would love to see you guys check it out.

ActiveUP Games

To comment on the Unicron toy stuff (because I've been obsessed with the movie and him since a kid), they tried to make a toy (the blue/yellow bulbous one that the ReAction one is based on) but it sucked and cost too much so they never made it. There was a possible revision proposed I want to say in the late 90s/early 00s where he is gray and almost broken up into quarters (eighths?), but again, never shipped and IIRC it was only shown at the toy expo in NYC. But then they eventually made the half-planet version in 2003, which I immediately bought. Then in 2021 they made the Haslab one that was $800 and I missed it and have regretted ever since because it is amazing, and now runs upwards of $2k on ebay.

ActiveUP Games

I'm with Brad on it in that it's my favorite movie of all time. It's the one I've watched the most by far, and I could probably do a podcast episode myself about how much I love it. It's so weird and such a great escalation on the cartoon. My childhood mind was blown and to this day I don't think any other property has matched what they brought to the table, even though the GI Joe movie got super weird.

Brian Streleckis

I first watched this movie some time in the 2000s, well before the first Michael Bay movie. I remember having little clue what was happening, aside from Optimus dying and Hot Rod eventually taking his place. I didn't watch Transformers growing up, just Beast Wars later on in the mid-90s. I subscribe to one other Patreon - POST Wrestling, great for following wrestling and MMA news - where they do a random show chosen by higher-up patrons. They've expanded it to things outside of wrestling, which led to a Transformers superfan choosing this movie. The hosts had trouble making sense of it, so they had that fan with them to help explain Transformers stuff. Needless to say, Nextlander's review, with professional podcasting hosts that know Transformers, has been much more rewarding and easier to listen to.

Matt Hannum

1. I 100% saw this in theaters when I was 7 and cried when Prime died. 2. I 100% got Megatron for Christmas and broke his damn leg off that morning while trying to transform him. I cried. 3. Season 3 is bananas in the best ways possible. It goes places. Cobra Commander shows up in an episode, ffs.