Sadly, last week, Peter Cullen, the beloved voice actor behind Optimus Prime, passed away. As an iconic and cherished character who played a major role in many childhoods, this death has hit many people hard. In turn, plenty of people are now honoring Cullen’s work, rewatching shows and professing their love online.
Recently, even MTG players have been doing the same, buying up and collecting Optimus Prime cards. This has caused Optimus Prime MTG cards to spike in price, with the Secret Lair reprint now hitting $40.
MTG Optimus Prime
Originally released back in 2022 as part of the Transformers: Optimus Prime vs. Megatron Secret Lair, this reprint is a unique reskin of
Darksteel Colossus
Darksteel Colossus
Trample (This creature can deal excess combat damage to the player or planeswalker it's attacking.)
Indestructible (Damage and effects that say "destroy" don't destroy this creature.)
If Darksteel Colossus would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal Darksteel Colossus and shuffle it into its owner's library instead.
. At the time, this made Optimus Prime a pretty compelling reprint; however, the raw reprint price has since plummeted. Thanks to MTG Foundations, you can now pick up a copy of Darksteel Colossus for under $1 on average.
Notably, the Optimus Prime reskin of Darksteel Colossus wasn’t just a regular run-of-the-mill reprint. Not only did it have a Universes Beyond skin, but this card was uniquely double-sided. On the front face, you had Optimus Prime as his Cybertronian self, while the reverse is Optimus’ iconic truck form.
While this unique art treatment has kept Optimus Prime as one of the more expensive Darksteel Colossus printings, the card itself isn’t amazing. As much as it’s difficult to get rid of, Darksteel Colossus isn’t really that impressive, especially compared to
Blightsteel Colossus
Blightsteel Colossus
Trample, infect, indestructible
If Blightsteel Colossus would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal Blightsteel Colossus and shuffle it into its owner's library instead.
. While this has led to the low raw reprint value, power isn’t the reason people are buying up Optimus Prime.
A Solem Spike
Following the death of Peter Cullen on August 26th, 2026, there was an immediate surge in sales of Optimus Prime. Typically, only one or two copies would be sold each day, but on the 26th, 18 were sold, with four more going the next day. This has had a massive impact on the available supply and prices, since there was never much to go around.
Back in early August, a near-mint non-foil copy of Optimus Prime would have set you back around $15. Now, however, prices have jumped up to $42 for non-foil copies, with foil copies being marginally less at $41. Unfortunately for any budget-conscious collectors, there aren’t any worse-condition copies available for cheaper at the moment.
A Fickle Future
Looking ahead, it’s incredibly difficult to know which way this Optimus Prime MTG card will go. As an MTG card,
Darksteel Colossus
Darksteel Colossus
Trample (This creature can deal excess combat damage to the player or planeswalker it's attacking.)
Indestructible (Damage and effects that say "destroy" don't destroy this creature.)
If Darksteel Colossus would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal Darksteel Colossus and shuffle it into its owner's library instead.
definitely isn’t worth this price tag, but this isn’t really a card anymore. Instead, this Optimus Prime printing is more of a collectible for players to honor Cullen’s memory with.
With this in mind, there’s no telling how long players will hold onto copies, keeping prices high. Additionally, it’s difficult to tell how much investors have influenced this spike to capitalize on increased interest. Either way, it does feel like prices will drop eventually, but even that isn’t guaranteed.
If anything, this Optimus Prime price spike is a reminder of how fickle Universes Beyond cards can be. When new games or media get announced, old cards can often spike in value, and deaths can evidently do the same. In theory, even controversy could have a huge impact on a Universes Beyond card’s value, but we’ve not had to cross that bridge yet.
Ultimately, as always, we can only really wait and see what happens to Optimus Prime and other Transformers cards in the long run.
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