• Whoa, whoa, whoa there chief. If you remember he ended the war by sheer luck not skill, power or tactics. And that peace he brought to Cybertron? Yeah that only lasted from August 8, 1986 (movie release) to September 1, 1986 (debut of season 3 episode 1) That's less than a month. Optimus came back to live February 24, 1987 and during Rodimus' reign as a Prime (6 months) during which he: - Tried to give the Matrix back to a zombie Optimus controlled by the Quintessons. - Forced the pacifist Autobots of Paradron off their home world so that Ultra Magnus could blow it up and then joked about it. - When the Decepticons stole Metroplex's eyes for Unicron's disembodied head, after dealing with setting off an explosion in Unicron's head launching it back into space away from Cybertron he tells the Autobots their next mission is to retrieve Metroplex's eyes... Opps Just kidding, we probably blew them up! - Numerous times he has the Matrix stolen from him or is otherwise temporarily reverted back to Hot Rod. (most of the time he was glad to be rid of it or tried to willing give it up) - Walks into the Hate Plague trap after he's been warned about it, yet he still walks into it, risking the lives of about 30 Autobots, and then the whole planet through his stupidity. - Optimus basically comes back from the dead to save Rodimus' ass, clean up his mess, take back the Matrix and demote him. (Magnus was still second in command after Optimus came back) Those are just a few highlights from the 30 episodes of season 3, not counting the various comics and other media. His biggest failure was spending most of his time feeling sorry for himself and questioning his leadership abilities while Kup, Magnus, Arcee and others ran around doing most of the leading. Maybe Ultra Magnus shoulda just stepped up to the plate and accepted the Matrix or Leadership. Don't get me wrong I LOVE Hot Rod/Rodimus, but let's be honest about his career. P.S. a few trivia bits... At BotCon 2002, Dick Gautier "confirmed", jokingly, that Rodimus Prime is gay. Hot Rod's car mode is based off the failed Dome Zero Japanese super car.

• Except you know take back cybertron and end the war

• What I want to know is why are these 3D models being wasted on this video and not being put in my War for Cybertron video game! (And I realize they are recycling models from previous dance video...but does anyone else think this should have either been the dead Autobots from the movie or maybe Junkions?)

• Now I have Thriller stuck in my head and my Rodimus activated rage is rising. My G1 fan side wants to kill Rodimus on sight, but the more rational one figures that this would only be a waste of Optimus' time, so, no your not alone in the Rodimus hating.

• It's Hot Rod, but he does have a couple of details from Rodimus. Not that the animators or comic artists ever got it right either...

• It's still better than Energon's animation...

• First of all, not Rodimus Prime, thats Hot Rod. secondly, no, not a problem, he's definitely funkier than Optimus

• If Optimus hadn't been in the video at all then my nerd rage would have been terrible to behold. As it stands though I can deal with Hot Rod being the front man. Awesome video!

• Well he did spend quite a lot of the beginning of the film hanging around with a small child...

• Ha ha, that's awesome =o)

• Well ... you have to admit that Rodimus is ... on fire ... YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH

• Since when in motion media have they EVER moved like 'robots'. His point is still valid; the animation sucks.

• ummm Rodimus was incharge for like 5 minutes. Prime shows up again in season 3 and promply dies and comes back again. (he dies alot) Rodimus didn't really do all that much as a prime. The Thriller video itself is longer than his career as a Prime.

• Yeah, everyone know he plays basketball instead... http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_Master_Builders

• Along with other reasons mentioned above by other posters for why Rodimus (or is he Hot Rod here) made more sense in the lead than Optimus, there is also the practical fact that Optimus does not have lips and so could not lip-synch the lyrics. I SAID HE DOES NOT HAVE LIPS! STOP CHALLENGING WHAT I BELIEVE IN MY HEART TO BE TRUE!!! {weeping}

• Fortunately, you got to see Optimus covered in flame paint later, in live action! {g} (Dear Lord, I just realized that this may have in fact been part of the justification for putting flames on Prime in the truck design for the films...)

• Um.... WOW that is lame.

• No, he's right, they're both there. You can clear see a white Prime towards the end, along with Drift, OP, and a fully armored Ultra Magnus.

• It should've ended with Shockwave turning and having the cat's eye.

• "The movements of each character are jerky, stiff, and unnatural." Almost... robotic....

• Oh, geez, I apologize, I see the thing...wft... I blame it on the NyQuil.

• I guess you're not enough of a TF nerd to recognize that's NOT white Magnus but Drift, also known as IDW's Gary Stuatron. ;) I like the figures, they're well done, but I expect a slightly more appropriate setting for something like Thriller. No creativity at all there, and I find that annoying.

• MJ's dream has finally come true. Far too late though... far too late. http://www.metro.co.uk/showbiz/42674-jackson-turned-into-50ft-robot

• That's what I was going to say but I wanted to check to see if anyone had said it first. Good on ya!

• I'm sorry, but that was not well animated at all. They hit good poses during the dance, but the arcs and eases were pretty bad, and the twinning and herky-jerky animation at the beginning about killed me.

• TOTALLY agreed.

• Well I think this motion data has been around since this past June at least. It probably took some tweaking so there wasn't a bunch more very noticeable clipping. I still prefer the version with the Dragon Quest zombies and Haruka Amami. I was disappointed the last MMD Cup didn't have more transformers; I can still hope there will be more in 7.

• I really want to know what the subtitles are saying. Do you think it's just the lyrics or some crazy japanese shit!?!

• I take great umbrage with this statement: "It's actually animated pretty well" No. No it isn't. You see, animation should emulate real motion, which doesn't happen here. At all. The movements of each character are jerky, stiff, and unnatural. Also, a non-static camera is a tough shot to pull off in any film making media. It is best avoided by none but the most skilled director. Moving cameras are grossly overused here (for example: well, see every damn shot.) Animation is a craft and an art. Maybe this film is a cute idea, maybe the characters are well modeled, maybe it's funny/witty/charming/clever. But it isn't good filmmaking and it is not good animation.

• What? No! Vincent Price must be Soundwave.

• As for the Video, gold star there. It's... distinctively Japanese, but I like the animation and I LOVE that they gave Perceptor his sniping monocle thing. Very sexy. Rodimus was the emo bitch of Transformers, which is why the Dr. Smoov thing makes me laugh myself into the ICU watching the "Rude Awakening of Optimus Prime". As I kid I was always frustrated with Rodimus in the TF 3rd season cutting himself and whining about wanting Optimus back and I sure as shit couldn't have agreed with him more. That is, after the therapy from seeing my cartoon father figure robot horrifically beaten to death and then replaced by a whiny RV... covered in flames. But yeah, the video was cool.

• Why the hell does a video with Transformers AND music not have Shockwave/Blaster???

• I couldn't read all of them, but I caught enough subtitles to see them calling each other RodiMichael, Ultra Michael, and Drift Jackson. I feel more nerd shame for recognizing that they used MikuMikuDance for the animations than for actually watching all of that, heh.

• Rodimus is in the lead because he's the child molester. Duh. Show me one TF fan who didn't have their childhood raped by the guy.

• "I can't deal with Thriller now!" - Ultra Funky Magnus

• I think that Perceptor should have been the Vincent Price voiceover.

• Being a Transformers nerd that I am, I was more confused as to why there were two versions of Ultra Magnus in there. The white optimus prime knock-off interior bot used for toys and busts, and then the armored out version that we all know from the original film and series

• Forget being mad about Hot Rod... I'm more annoyed that someone apparently likes Mary Stu Drift enough to put him into this.

• As we all know from the 1986 animated movie, Hot Rod (nee Rodimus Prime) is in charge now. Plus, do you really want to see/hear Optimus singing in MJ's whiny little girl-voice? I certainly don't. Or maybe, from an animation perspective, they just wanted to show they could do lip-syncing. Or, y'know... maybe Hot Rod just had more in common with Michael Jackson.

• I think Hot Rod was a better choice as lead. Not like I could imagine Optimus to sound like Micheal Jackson.

• Hotrod being the lead dancer pissing you off just means you know shit about Transformers

• Optimus doesn't dance the Thriller? I beg to differ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtGQgSY9Nn4

• Once Shockwave showed up I started giggling like a two year old, and it only got worse from there.

• The only thing that upset me was that Optimus Prime was even dancing. OP does not dance thriller.

• He has a monocle as it's the IDW Perceptor design. Who upgraded himself to have a targeting reticule/monocle eye. As for why Hot Rod's lead dancer, I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess someone in Japan animated it- Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime is far more popular in Japan after all.

• What the slag? Why does Perceptor have a monocle?

• There is no way Hot Rod would NOT be in MJ's role. They both wore all red for the video.

• <BLOCKQUOTE>I need to know if you also felt <I>incredibly</I> angry that somehow Rodimus was the lead dancer and not Optimus. Is it just meURL</BLOCKQUOTE> Just you. Clearly it should have been Perceptor.

• Yes, you are not alone in your Optimus snub rage. But then anything featuring Hot Rod has a instant +4 on the rage meter.

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