Transformers Optimus Prime Quotes

Freedom is the right of all sentient beings

We wanted Optimus Prime to feel heroic and powerful. His design helped define the lanquage of the design approach for the whole show. -Jose Lopez

Because of the number of flashbacks to Optimus' days on Cybertron, he is one of the few characters in Prime to have a dedicated Cybertronian model. Note the lack of "kibble" in this streamlined form.

For example, we learned that on the toys they always design the vehicle first and then the robot. They design a vehicle then they break it apart. With us, because the robot is the actor and is what we see 90% of the time in the show we told them that we wanted to design the robot first and from there, break it apart and create a vehicle. Obviously we'll know things like Optimus is a truck, Soundwave's going to be some kind of jet, so we know what kind of vehicle it is but we have the robot dictate the shape of the vehicle. That was one of the new things we did on the show that was pretty interesting. -Jose Lopez

We looked through all the incarnations of Optimus over the years and kept the iconic elements that make him who he is. The crest on his head. The windshield wipers on his chest. The position of the wheels on the lower legs. The position of the emblems on the shoulders. Even on the biceps you see the slightly lighter grey tone just to mimic the white on the biceps of G1. -Jose Lopez

I was really just trying to bring back what G1 was- a bulked-out Optimus Prime with giant shoulder pads. We tried 2 or 3 different color schemes. One was very G1, very bright red and white, but we muted it down to something that fits more in with the Prime universe. -Walter Gatus

Here's an example: as a kid I always wanted to see Optimus peel his wheels out on Megatron's face. It's just something I did as a kid, you know, they've got these tires! We've got a director, Vinton Heuck, and in the last two or three episodes of the first season we had this giant fight at a volcano and he put that shot in there for me. Watching that I had a tear running down my face. Those moments are when I'm still watching it as a kid and I'm like "Oh my God, this is Transformers, am I going to die now? Is the circle complete?" But it's always fun. -David Hartman

Predaking was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. I designed Optimus 2.0 and Predaking simultaneously and I went nuts with the detail. A lot of people freaked out, on the toy side and at Polygon. I made a lot of people's lives more difficult. -Jose Lopez