A very cool piece of news to pass along to you today, one revolving around the Smithsonian’s first-ever Kickstarter to “conserve, digitize, and display Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 spacesuit in time for [the] milestone [50th] anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing.” The Kickstarter is already at $637,285 as of August 12th with over 8,300 backers, but if the $700,000 stretch goal is hit, all backers at the $20 donation level will receive an original Optimus Prime outgoing message for their voicemail!
Here are the details:
Optimus Prime Wants YOU to Help Reboot the Suit!
We are excited to offer an out of this world new reward that’s more than meets the eye! If we are able to reach our $700,000 stretch goal, we’ll thank all backers at the $20 level and above with an original Optimus Prime outgoing message for your voicemail.
Transformers’ connection to the National Air and Space Museum was discovered in 2009 when the Museum’s SR-71 Blackbird revealed a secret identity that took even our curators by surprise. Now, Jetfire’s friend Optimus Prime wants to help the Museum Reboot the Suit – and is lending his voice to the effort.
“As the first human to walk on another world, Neil Alden Armstrong was a hero and a bold pioneer,” Optimus Prime said in a statement. “As a fellow space traveler, it is my honor to participate in the project to honor Neil and the other brave humans who took part in the race to Planet Earth’s Moon.”
Now Roll Out! And let’s Reboot the Suit!
If you’d like to back this historic project and get a cool piece of Transformers media to go on your voicemail, jump here to the Kickstarter and back the project with at least $20. Hit the discussion link below to share your thoughts!
Megatron
I just gave one hundred, won't be claiming it on taxes. I think contributing to the preservation of an artifact used in one of mankinds greatest achievements is reward enough. It is cool I have Optimus recordings to use for my voicemail though
Autovolt 127
Ok all of that is awesome.
soundwaverulls
Huh, more like because a target of the Decepticons.
Xabungle
The messages from Optimus Prime have arrived; I received mine via email.
The email reads:
Peter Cullen, a.k.a. Optimus Prime, accepted this challenge and didn’t stop at one – he recorded THREE voicemail messages for you to use or change as you wish. Be prepared to be the envy of all your friends and strike fear in Decepticons!
The email concludes with 3 links for the 3 audio files. I will update with the contents of the messages.
File marked Optimus_Prime_1
Optimus_Prime_2
And my personal favorite, which will be on my voice mail…
Optimus_Prime_4
Hicks_Royel
That's the generic message, I was going with the individually personalized idea.
Raiju
Very cool!
Wow, that's awesome!
moreprimeland
If you have AHC with your provider another, different, SR-71 episode is airing right now.
negative
A two minute long voice mail message? I think most are in the neighborhood of 10 seconds.
"I AM OPTIMUS PRIME. Leave your message at the tone. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings"
I wonder if people will be sharing or selling these recordings after the fact.
Thank you
Fez Findie
I iz gonna back this up. Always been into space exploration stuffs or at least often enough to give appreciation
Hicks_Royel
$700,000… At 20 bucks a piece. 35,000 personalized messages to be recorded by Cullen. At… say, two minutes each. 1,167 hours. Roughly 49 days worth of Peter Cullen recorded messaging. Not including the actual recording session time.
I'm gonna guess that donator 35,000 would have one extremely awesome message from Optimus Prime, "Hello, fellow aero-space history enthusiast. Fuck you and your thirty-four thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine no-life, loser, space-nut buddies who have wasted two years of my life. Prime out." Then you hear him zoom off with the audio from the final scene of AoE.
Honestly, I'd rather have the itemized details explaining what about a space suit [digital] restoration will cost $700,000 in exchange for my twenty bucks.
HAH!
alfred p. sloan
I think it's cool that the Jetfire reference from ROTF was inserted in the press release. A neat bit of continuity reference.
GAUGE
meh.
LordGigaIce
Hey, a kickstarter featured on TFW2005 that's succeeding
Omnus
Doing the napkin math: When the pledges hit $700,000, everybody who pledged at least $20 can get a message. That's roughly 30,000 possible eligble donors. If Mr. Cullen gave each person a personalized message, his voice would be gone permanently. I'm pretty sure that your assumption is correct.
For the majority of donors, it's not just a good thought to pledge for this kickstarter campaign. It's also almost free. For the pledge levels listed below $100, people pledging at that amount will be able to write it off on their taxes. For the pledge levels at $100 and above, you can write off the pledge level minus $20. So, as long as you don't make a budget-destroying pledge, you get almost all of it back by tax deduction.
That's a pretty good deal. The kind of deal you almost never see.
CKPRIME
There's also the "Optimus Prime Scholarship" NASA gave out.
https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddar…contest-to-receive-scholarships/#.VcvOu_lViko
Prime17
Didn't know about this. That's pretty awesome. Just another reason why I need to visit this museum.
harveydent
Not really. There's still a Transfromers exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum right now. Took these on a recent trip.
reave
Sooooooo, I'm guessing it's not Cullen doing individual recordings? That I would do.
Triformis
Voicemail?!? I'd argue that very few of us, particularly the younger generations, rarely, if ever, use voicemail anymore! Still, it's the thought that counts, right?
ZapRowsdower
HEY! TFs are a popular franchise, right?
LET'S USE THEM TO PUSH AGENDA X!!! WOO!!!
I'm surprised they didn't tap Michael Bay for this. "Being the first director to address robots exploring the moon, Michael Bay understands the importance of preserving a space suit! He wants you to fund this kickstarter!"
(i.e. I find the use of the TF brand here to be tacky, unrelated, and completed inappropriate. Space robots make moon landings cool now? Maybe the Smithsonian can reach kids via twitter, line, Twilight movies next? )