This month has seen some obscure rarities come to the archive.
MP 200 Pandamonium
Added model sheets, height comparison charts and background layouts for Pandamonium. One of two co-productions in 1982 between Marvel and Intermedia Entertainment (on behalf of MGM/United Artists).
The series revolves around an alien artifact, sought by the sorcerer Mondraggor, which falls to Earth and breaks into pieces. American brother and sister Pete and Peggy observe the piece which makes planetfall in Tibet. Upon flying out to examine it, they discover three pandas have been turned into talking bipeds: Chesty, Timothy and Algernon. The siblings and the pandas are now in a race against Mondraggor to reunite the pieces of the artifact.
The series was presented as a comedy with the panda's personalities being expys of The Three Stooges. It and fellow Marvel/Intermedia show Meatballs & Spaghetti were among the last US animated shows to include a laugh track. Both were cancelled after one season and have had no modern home release.
MP 700 Transformers
The Hasbro briefing binders, originally purchased from the Ron Friedman auctions, have been uploaded to the archive.
These include binders for the initial 1984 cast, including early names and designs. As well as separate briefing material covering Shockwave, Jetfire, the Dinobots, Insecticons and Constructticons.
Air Raiders
Added the Sunbow press kit for what would have been the next Sunbow/Marvel co-production for 1987. Development work by Doug Booth and Ron Friedman during the summer of 1986 led to a three-part pilot script written by Friedman and ready by January 1987.
Unfortunately, low retail orders of $30 million at Toyfair in February, combined with Hasbro's decision to abandon funding for full-length animation once the existing contracts were fulfilled, led to the pilot being cancelled.
