Old Shame: Reportedly, Leonard Nimoy was so embarrassed by his participation that he avoided talking about it. Nowadays, it's remembered as one of his better (and few) villain roles, even by Nimoy himself, who was quoted around the time of Revenge of the Fallen as wanting very much to be a part of Transformers again. The opportunity finally arose with Dark of the Moon, wherein he plays Sentinel Prime.
When Megatron got upgraded to Galvatron, his voice changed to Leonard Nimoy during the story itself. After the movie, he changed back to Frank Welker, but now with his balls being squeezed uncomfortably.
In the series, Ultra Magnus went from Robert Stack to Jack Angel, Kup went from Lionel Stander to John Stephenson, Tony Pope replaced Eric Idle as Wreck-Gar, Roger C. Carmel took Orson Welles' position as Unicron's voice actor, and Rodimus Prime's Judd Nelson became Richard Gautier. John Moschitta stayed on board, however.
There is a long-prevailing myth among the fandom that Orson Welles died before the recording of Unicron's final lines and that Leonard Nimoy completed for them - with the recordings speeded down to match Welles' pitch. Voice director Wally Burr has since debunked this in interviews, however.
What Could Have Been: Originally, they were to kill Smokescreen instead of Wheeljack, and Red Alert, Trailbreaker, and possibly Mirage would bite the dust as well. Ultra Magnus, Red Alert, Sideswipe, and Tracks would get a scene where they fight Devastator, leading to Red Alert's death.
Shockwave was to die by (literally) Unicron's hand when he comes to Cybertron, thus explaining his absence in season 3
Likewise, the earlier drafts of the films featured many, many different elements, in one revision, Windcharger was to be flown up and torn apart by Cyclonus, his remains falling down on a shocked Blaster. Another version described Ironhide and Ratchet's deaths as them being fused together from all the laser blasts, then blown apart.
At one point, Megatron was not to be jettisonned from Astrotrain, but brought back to Cybertron and killed by a falling statue while other Decepticons fought for leadership, with his ghost ("life spark"), as well as ghosts of Decepticon legends enshrined nearby, being gathered by Unicron to become Galvatron and his troops.
A certain element of it survived in the finished film: a statue of a previous Decepticon leader named Devron◊ resembling Scourge, which was suddenly missing when Unicron communicates with Galvatron on Cybertron.
Just before facing Megatron, Optimus Prime is inexplicably missing his rifle. The reason for this is a cut scene, where Blitzwing was supposed to knock it out of Prime's hands, before being hurled away by Prime.
Early drafts included a large number of generic Decepticons participating in the assault on Autobot City. That way, Perceptor's comment about the Autobots being outnumbered would have actually made sense.
The revelation of the Quintessons being the creators of the Transformers originated in an early draft.
A similar concept was used in the online flash game Transformers Cybertron: Primus Unleashed.
In the original art and storyboards, the Junkion's homeworld was intended to be a spherical planet, with several rounded slabs seeming to rise off of its surface. In the end, only the "northernmost" rounded section of the planetoid was retained on film.
