The Transformers: The Movie

Commercial releases

The cover image from the original Japanese home media release of the movie.

• The movie was originally released in North America on VHS and Beta on September 17th, 1987 by Family Home Entertainment, minus Spike's swear. Not long after, it was released in the UK by Video Gems. This version featured the opening text crawl and closing narration inherent to the UK version of the film. In Australia, the film was released on video by RCA/Columbia Pictures/Hoyts. In Japan, Hillcrane released a LaserDisc version alongside a VHS copy, both sporting a gorgeous painted cover that decorated many a fan's desktop back in the day.
• The movie was released spottily in the '90s, beginning with a budget VHS by Avid Home Entertainment in 1991. Malofilm released a VHS in Canada in 1995, notable for being the first home entertainment version to include Spike's swear. In 1998, Japanese company Pioneer produced another pair of LaserDisc and VHS releases. In 1999, things kicked off when American company Kid Rhino secured the Transformers license and released the film on VHS once again.
• The 21st century's flirtation with The Transformers: The Movie started with a UK budget VHS release of that country's version by Sony Wonder, distributed by Maverick Entertainment. A Japanese company called CatCo followed this up with a VideoCD, and Malofilm—now Seville—were the first to release a DVD version of the film, though it was just a dump of their VHS version.
• In November 2000, The Transformers: The Movie got its first, full professional DVD release from Kid Rhino. This edition, labelled a "Special Collector's Edition", is the first to feature remastered video and audio, and several special features, including storyboards and an interview with Vince DiCola. Rhino concurrently released this version on VHS, sans extras.
• In 2001 in the UK, Sony Wonder released their own much-delayed DVD version of the film. It was the UK version of the film, but included Spike's swear. However, the release was burdened by badly interlaced video, though it notably included the Omni Productions dub version of the Headmasters episode "Four Warriors Come out of the Sky" as an extra. This version (including the Headmasters episode) was simultaneously released on VHS.
• The movie was released on DVD in Australia in 2003 by Madman Entertainment, using the same video as the Maverick version, but distinguished by some nifty new cover art by Don Figueroa, and special features not seen on other editions, such as The Touch music video and 80s TV spots.

The UK poster art (left) has been the most common DVD and VHS cover in its home country, but the Ultimate Edition featured new art by Andy Wildman (right).

• After acquiring the license to release Transformers DVDs in the UK, Metrodome focused on completing their run of series box sets before turning their attention to the movie properly, releasing only a cheap budget DVD of the UK version through Prism Leisure with no extras, and a UMD of the same version.
• In 2005, Metrodome released Transformers: The Movie - Reconstructed, a new version of the film designed to expose as much of the animated picture as possible. This, however, only resulted in exposing the rough, unfinished edges of the animation, and an overly pale remaster was compounded by excessive interlacing due to an unnecessary NTSC to PAL transfer. This, coupled with a 5.1 remix from Magno Sound & Video, featuring the same extra sound effects that they added to Rhino's season box sets, made this release both controversial and disappointing to many. This was the first time that the US version of the movie was released in the UK, and the first to feature the US poster art as a cover (although a Silverscreen store exclusive version of the disc included a reversible cover with the UK poster art as well). Extras include trailers, TV spots, the character biographies from the Madman release, a looped version of the Lion Transformers theme on the main menu, and a subtitled version of "Four Warriors Come out of the Sky".

Sony's covers, by Don Figueroa.

• For the movie's 20th anniversary in 2006, new license holder Sony BMG released a two-disc special edition of the film, featuring both a high-quality widescreen remaster and the original fullscreen version, audio commentaries from crew and fans, several new featurettes interviewing those involved in the movie's production, storyboards, TV spots, American and Japanese commercials and more. Most notably, this version included the first Western release of "Scramble City: Mobilization", albeit silent and unsubtitled, featuring only audio commentary. Also very notable is that this version includes an actual deleted scene from the animated film as an extra, though it is more of interest as a curiosity than anything it actually contains, being an approximately 2-second-long aerial view of the Autobots running towards the critically damaged Optimus Prime. This release featured two covers by Don Figueroa: one is of the '84-'85 cast that appear in the movie, and one is of the movie's new characters, available either as a lenticular hologram that switches between the two, or as a reversible sleeve with the images printed on either side.

Madman's 2003 DVD cover (left), and their 2007 Special Edition cover (right).

• Delayed a bit to coincide with the hype for the 2007 live-action movie, Metrodome also released a two-disc "Ultimate Edition" with a different widescreen master. Like "Reconstructed", this version used the US edition of the film, but this time, the UK version was also included, in fullscreen, on the second disc. Extras include TV spots, commercials, the Madman biographies, storyboards, commentary, "Scramble City" (with audio and subtitles), featurettes with Flint Dille and Peter Cullen, and more. The double-disc edition was sold in a steel case featuring new art by Andrew Wildman, with the UK poster art adorning the standard case inside. Various store exclusives were available, including postcards from Play.Com, a reversible cover with the US poster art from HMV, art cards from Virgin Megastore and posters from Woolworths and Toys"R"Us. It was also available in an extra-less single-disc version. This version was premiered at the Mid Ulster Film Festival in Ireland which was the only cinema showing of the remastered version of the film to date.

Shout! Factory's 2016 Blu-ray cover.

• The film was released in Full HD 1080p on Blu-ray in the UK in October 2007. The Blu-ray is not region-locked, so it will play anywhere in the world. It features a 2.0 soundtrack, 5.1 Dolby Digital track, and a full bitrate DTS 5.1 track. The master used was the same used by Sony for their US DVD. Sadly, there are no extras on the DVD. The version of the film on the Blu-ray is the US one, complete with curse words.
• Madman produced their two-disc special edition through some collaboration with Metrodome, and consequently it features much of the same content, with additional extras taking the form of The Touch music video and a bonus episode of Beast Wars. This release again features cover artwork by Don Figueroa, specifically the cover of IDW's Transformers: The Animated Movie adaptation.
• For the film's 30th Anniversary, and after being out of print in the US for 10 years, the film was rereleased on Region 1 DVD and given its first Region A Blu-ray release on September 13, 2016 by Shout! Factory. Both versions are sourced from a brand-new 4K transfer which underwent extensive color-correction and remastering, and a Steelbook packaging variant of the Blu-ray was also made available. The Steelbook Blu-ray was released in the UK by Manga Entertainment as a limited edition on December 12, 2016, followed by a standard edition release a year later.
• On September 27, 2018, Fathom Events screened the movie at select theaters in the United States. The movie was preceded by an interview with Travis Knight and Hailee Steinfeld and a preview of a scene from Bumblebee, and followed by a short featurette of Stan Bush discussing the music he contributed to the movie and performing acoustic versions of The Touch and Dare. Cineplex would later show the movie in Canadian theaters on October 4.
• For the 35th anniversary, Shout! Factory produced the first 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of the movie — presented in widescreen only — and a remastered fullscreen 1080p Blu-ray. Feature-length storyboards and the Stan Bush featurette from the 2018 Fathom Events screening were added as new bonus features. The two discs were first made available in a limited edition SteelBook with four art cards on August 3, 2021; a wide release in standard packaging followed on September 28, as did a third set comprised of the new fullscreen Blu-ray and a widescreen DVD. Cover art for the new releases was created by Matt Ferguson.
  • Region B versions of the Shout! Factory 35th Anniversary discs were distributed by Funimation and released on October 25, and an additional collector's edition set was made exclusive to Zavvi, packaging the 4K and Blu-ray discs with an art book, poster and six art cards. Zavvi also partnered with Ferguson to release a line of art prints and apparel featuring his cover art.
• Fathom Events once again returned the film to select theaters on September 26–27, 2021, accompanied by a set of stop-motion comedy videos inspired by the film.