This was Orson Welles' final film before his death on October 10, 1985 at the age of 70. He recorded his lines five days prior, on October 5.
IDW published its own adaptation of this film in 2006. This includes extra scenes such as a battle between the missing combiners and Omega Supreme at the Ark and Shockwave and Reflector being destroyed by Unicron.
Director Nelson Shin and story consultant Flint Dille have confirmed that Orson Welles had a hard time recording his lines due to his failing health. Most of his lines included labored breathing and heavy wheezing. Shin considered most of Welles' dialogue unusable, but put the recordings through a voice synthesizer to give Welles' voice a clearer, more ominous tone. According to Shin, Unicron's on-screen voice is an enhanced, synthesized version of Welles' voice.
Cybertron's third moon, which exists solely due to an editing error in this movie, would reappear on Beast Machines: Transformers (1999), still bearing Unicron's claw-marks.