Image via Toronto Blue Jays
On August 1st, 2026, Major League Baseball team the Toronto Blue Jays held a special "Transformers Day" event at their hometown stadium, the Rogers Centre Skydome. What this meant was that after the game, they were going to be running the 1986 The Transformers: The Movie up on the big screen for all ticket holders to see.
Now, I'm not huge into baseball, but I do like to go to the occasional game. Mostly because there's no hot dog like a ball park hot dog, but there's usually a pretty fun vibe, too. So having this happen just down the street from me? How could I resist?
How did it go? Well, read on to find out.
The promotion for the event was... well, let me put it this way, I had a hard time finding much about it from the Blue Jays account on Twitter (I tried Bluesky as well, but only found tumbleweeds on their accounts). The main thing going around was this Theme Days page, which has an FAQ about the movie, plus a mention that the first 15,000 in would get this neat Blue Jays Transformers hat:
The idea is that you can change out the emblem on the front to any of the six Transformers faces shown. I thought it an interesting selection, given the big event is about the '86 movie. Sure, all of them are in it, but... I guess you gotta have Bumblebee no matter what these days. Still, would have been nice to have Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime and Galvatron on there.
Didn't matter for me in the end, though, as we wound up arriving too late to get one (so if anything, not having the '86 cast was more of a mercy). Had no idea the doors were opening at 1pm. Ah, well.
We were there in time for the start of the game, took our seats, and it wasn't long before the big screen cut away to reveal something interesting: "Transformers Day" wasn't just about the movie or the hat; they had an entire event going on throughout the stadium as the game was going on! So my wife and I decided to, as Thundercracker might say, "see what we could see."
And get some shots and stuff for you all here on the Allspark, of course.
After a visit to the service desk to ask about where to go, it turned out they had a QR code that took me to this page, revealing that "Transformers Day" was -- perhaps fittingly enough, in retrospect -- "more than meets the eye." I had no idea any of this would be going on going in!
So, let's take it from the top... or rather, the bottom. We were seated at the top 500 level, and wound up working our way down, but this is the way they're listed on the site.
At one of the entrances on 100 Level was "The Stop," where you could get your face painted with Transformers insignias. I didn't take any pics, as there wasn't much to see, and it just felt like it would be creepy if I photographed a bunch of kids getting their faces painted.
But across from it was a big Optimus Prime graphic on the wall, and his "hand" that you could "step into" for a photo op. Except when asked, the people working the event there said you can't actually stand on the hand platform, so here's my lovely wife and Axe of the Blood God/Retronauts host Nadia Oxford standing behind it:
"I approve of your choice of basketball team, but not its star player's tendency to travel."
Oh, and instead of taking someone's face, Optimus gave us his!
"Freedom is-- ow! Til all are-- ouch! One shall-- oof! Would you quit stepping on me long enough to finish one of my classic lines?!"
To walk on, that is.
That was it for the first level, so welcome to the next level!
On 200 Level was a coloring wall, featuring a black-and-white image of Autobots and Decepticons locked in battle for fans to color in as they pleased:
It was hard to get a picture of the whole thing -- in fact, it was hard to get good pictures of a lot of the stuff there, with so many people walking around and doing stuff, so I hope you appreciate what I do for you people. Ahem.
Image via Toronto Blue Jays
While I wasn't able to get any pics of the Autobot Lounge (seen above), nor verification that those were Energon cubes, I was able to get pics of the Autobots backwall with big Blue Jays letters:
Probably a good time to note there were lots of cutouts of various Transformers in their "evergreen" designs around, too.
Bay 4 had an entire arcade with Transformers games and non-Transformers games alike!
As you can see, in addition to SEGA's Transformers: Human Alliance games in two forms, there was also the recently-released Stern Pinball machine, which I gave a good try. I had some pretty good fun with that, but stopped after a few minutes so more of the kids around could have a turn. Don't want them to get corrupted by Bayformers before they can experience G1, after all.
There was a photo op to let you see how you'd look as a Transformer:
I, uh, don't know if they mean that literally, like having some sort of software that would Transform my face or something, or if it just meant standing on a Blue Jay-controlled Cybertron. I missed the former part until reading back just now, so I just kinda assumed the latter. Shame. It would probably have been an improvement.
"Curious what you’d look like standing next to Ace and Diamond as Transformers? Come to Section 237 to find out and let our caricature artists transform you!"
Ace and Diamond are the new Blue Jays mascots, and they were on the field dressed as Optimus and Bumblebee. It was hard to get any good pics of them, but you can see them here:
Kids 14 and under could "show [their] creativity while playing with a bunch of Transformers figurines" in the "Build-a-bot zone". Again, no pictures. Lotta Transformers: Cyberworld toys were there, though.
Image via Toronto Blue Jays. Yeah, I took one or two as well, but this once's better.
Speaking of Transformers: Cyberworld, they invited everyone to "Visit the Transformers figurine wall photo opportunity, showcasing a wide variety of Transformers figurines of all your favourite characters." Nothing to purchase, only look at, behind glass. A few Studio Series and more "collector" oriented figures managed to sneak their way in, including the new Icons Optimus Prime, and Kranix is in there somewhere, along with Devastation Optimus and Bumblebee.
The funny part is, there are a lot of repeats in there, too. So as collections go, it's more like getting a pic at the toy store, rather than someone's comprehensive collection.
Alright, now it's time to take it to the top! The 500 Level, to be precise, which is where we began our "Transformers Day" journey. (I mean, kinda.... we had to enter at 100, just through a different entrance, then make our way up.)
In the Defeat the Decepticons Sports Zone, you could win a prize if you scored well enough with pitching and batting accuracy:
I didn't see any mention of prizes when I was there, or else I might have given it a shot. My batting is probably utter scrap, but my throwing arm is usually pretty good.
If there's one thing we all know Bumblebee loves to do, it's dance. So of course they'd have a Bumblebee Dance Party section...
...wait, why is he in car mode?
They had a DJ playing some tunes with Optimus and the Autobots gathered around:
And live music performers!
I think that does it for everything listed on the secret site, but here's some other stuff we saw as we wandered around.
I'm not sure what they were doing there, but looking out a window from the top level, we could see what appears to be Bumblebee and Barricade across the street. As far as I'm aware, they weren't a part of the festivities, and they weren't letting people go in and out, so it would be an awkward place for a photo op, to say the least.
They got little festive with Transformers balloons when they weren't decorating everything with air duct hoses.
In addition to the coloring wall, which seemed to end up becoming a big graffiti wall, there was... well, an actual graffiti wall.
The Corona bars were decked out with Transformer heads. I got as many as I could:
Okay, I must be getting old. I admit I can't remember every single last Transformer anymore, but... I don't know who half these guys are.
First pic: Is that... Prowl? Second is clearly Optimus... except he has a mouth. Well, that's not uncommon these days, though it kinda looks more like it's on top of/in his face plate, rather than behind one. And not even in the cool Optimus Primal split-mask way.
Pic two, Bumblebee and Arcee. Pic three, I don't know and I don't know even harder. Pic four has some repeats, but still no one I recognize. Do you? Sound off in the comments below!
...
What I wish I could provide more of here was the special menu they had for "Transformers Day", but I can't find mention of it anywhere online, not even the online food list during the event.
But I did get this one sign for something being sold all around the arena:
Look, I'm not going to lie to you: I wanted to get this. Even after seeing the price. However, after seeing someone with one and how large it was, I'm fairly certain it would have worked well for two people.
Problem was, my wife was nowhere near as interested, so we passed on it.
They had some other stuff, but amusingly, all the Transformers-themed drinks had alcohol in them.
We went back to our seats, and here's a little footage I got with most of a speech from Optimus Prime during the game about the movie showing afterwards:
https://bsky.app/profile/lbdnytetrayn.bsky.social/post/3ms34tom4ls2t
The Power of the Primes must have been with the Blue Jays, as they overcame the competition brought forth by their opponents, the St. Louis Cardinals, with a score of 5-1.
Til All Are Won
Maybe they should have made it a "Transformers Weekend", though, as the Cardinals would flip the script and overcome the Jays with their own 5-1 triumph in Sunday's game.
Anyway, after the game -- well, they weren't kidding about "select" concessions remaining open. Pretty much everything shut down immediately after the game. I was really hoping to try one of those "Kaz-adillas" I saw promoted throughout our walk around the stadium, but alas, it was not to be. Too bad, I've never had a quesadilla with smoked brisket before.
A significant chunk of the crowd cleared out after the game, which meant we could sit just about anywhere. But we had a really good view of the screen already, so we moved closer to the exit, but not too far from where we already were.
The movie showing was fun, and a novel way to experience the film. And really, that's what the whole day was about to me. That, and getting to hear other fans react at certain. I was surprised when there was like, no crying from any of the kids when Optimus died. Or heck, the adults, for that matter. Maybe they're a hardier generation than we were.
There was quite a crowd pop when Daniel saved Spike and the others, though.
Going in, I wondered if this was going to be the same showing as the "Apology Tour" showing that's supposed to come out next month. Alas, it was not. Or if it was, they cut off whatever was added after the movie, as they shut down the video after the credits began to roll. The song continued on for a bit, but was also cut short, much to my disappointment. It was very "Eat it and get out", only without the "eat it" part, as noted above.
So if there was anything to behold, we didn't get to see it. Oh well, September it is, then!
All in all, it was a pretty fun time. I mainly went for the movie, but was surprised by the wealth of other things going on. If they do something like this again, I can recommend it, particularly if you have kids who are into Robots in Disguise.
Note: All photographs herein belong to LBD "Nytetrayn" unless otherwise specified.
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