"Transformers", "Voltron"... what's next?

[AndyC]

The tough red one was Ironhide. Ironic that he was the tough guy when he was essentially a minivan.

I'd completely forgotten that his death was especially dramatic, crawling up to Megatron and getting blasted point-blank as the scene changed.

I agree it was nice the way they handled robotic death, making it a bit more tragic. I remember one father sitting near us in the theatre had said, during the death of Optimus, that robots don't die. I guess this was before Beast Wars introduced the idea of a 'spark' as a sort of robotic soul, but anyone who has owned a computer knows that machines can catastrophically fail in spite of everything, and lose everything stored in them. In that light, I can see that if the lights go out for Optimus, that's that.

Then again, in 1985, it's probably a good bet the guy never owned a computer, or at least knew nothing about them.