One of the wonderful things about being in Rhode Island is that it is the Home of Hasbro Toys. Hasbro invited my family and I to attend HASCON last weekend and it was amazing! There are so many things I want to tell you about, but I really wanted to touch base on the Transformers first.

Aside from seeing all of the cool toys and games, and playing a little Transformers Earth Wars, we got to learn all about The Last Knight’s Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, the voices of Optimus Prime and Megatron. It’s so cool hearing them go from their regular voice into character.

I found the story of Peter Cullen’s character development so interesting. I’m always thinking about actors going to auditions and getting into character to win the role, but I’ve never really thought about the process one goes through as a Voice. It really needs to be well thought out just like a regular “acting audition.” Peter Cullen got the inspiration for the voice of Optimus Prime from his brother Larry, who was a Captain in the US Marines, who served in Vietnam. He said, “‘Well if you are going to be a hero, Peter, be a real hero. Don’t do all the flashy Hollywood stuff, do it from your gut.’” And thus the iconic voice of Optimus Prime was born and he does it amazingly well.

Frank Welker is also incredible. I never realized what an art form it was to create these voices. The voices he was using on stage during his friendly banter with Cullen were amazing. He is a true talent with incredible range, and he is also incredibly funny!

Unfortunately we didn’t stay late enough to see this heart-throb, but we did get to see Bumblebee.

Sponsored post: Passes to this great event were provided by Hasbro.