40 years ago, Hasbro broke Transformers fans’ hearts with the release of 1986’s still excellent The Transformers: The Movie, which infamously killed off Optimus Prime. Flash forward to 2026, and Hasbro is atoning for those old wounds and thanking fans for four decades of support with the 1986 Apology Tour, which they say will bring”fans together to grieve, heal, and reminisce together at special fan events and screenings all year long.” Part of the tour also includes some great new additions to the Transformers action figure collection.
For the 40th anniversary tour, Hasbro has revealed a new wave of products celebrating the film’s milestone anniversary, including new Studio Series additions, and we’ve been given the chance of a closer look at three of the key figures: Transformers Studio Series MTMTE Collection The Transformers: The Movie Leader Class Optimus Prime, Transformers Studio Series The Transformers: The Movie Voyager Class Shockwave, and Transformers Studio Series The Transformers: The Movie Voyager Class Thundercracker. Quite the mouthful, but the Optimus Prime, Shockwave, and Thundercracker figures are strong additions to anyone’s Transformers collection.
All three of the Studio Series ’86 figures are based on the G1 era looks, which means classic, more cartoonish looks than some of the other lines, with less detail. But they look great, and it’s an instant shot of nostalgia to get to play with them. Somewhat fittingly, given the tone of the ’86 Apology Tour, the three characters I was sent to review all die in the movie: Optimus is famously killed in his fight with Megatron; Shockwave dies off-screen when Unicron attacks Cyberton; and Thundercracker is very quickly killed off by the Decepticons, who transform his corpse into Scourge. On reflection, perhaps the Apology should go further…
The figures don’t come with a lot of accessories, but that’s not an issue, as it means keeping them complete won’t be a struggle. Optimus has his cannon, which fits into either hand, as well as the giant metal shard Megatron stabs into his flank, which fits into the mortal wound that ended up killing him when his nemesis also shot him in it. Not quite as light-hearted as you might expect, but at least you can relive the trauma of Optimus’ final fight with Megatron if you also buy his Studio Series ’86 figure (which also looks geat). He also has the Matrix of Leadership hidden inside his chest. Meanwhile, Shockwave comes with a small arm-mounted blaster, and Thundercracker has two missiles that double as arm blasters.
All three of the Transformers figures are highly posable with an impressive array of articulation points. They’re heavy enough to feel like collectibles, but the articulation and the resilience means if you’re more inclined to be an active player as well as a collector, they’re more than up to it. Once in vehicle form, there were no issues with stability, but you do have to make sure you click everything in place or you might find Soundwave bends, and Optimus’ back end is more floppy than you’d need to play with him as a truck.
An important note here: the transformations are quite complex. Even with the included instructions, which rely solely on textless images, several sequences – particularly on Optimus Prime and Thundercracker take a bit of getting used to. For adult collectors, that’s probably fine, but my nine-year-old needed help – though you can’t overvalue that kind of bonding. The construction on all three is worthy of praise too, because some of the transition sequences require more force than you might expect, but nothing feels remotely like it’s going to fall apart under the effort. I did find a couple of pieces of Optimus actually popped off when we attempted the wrong order of things, but they also reattached easily.
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