Recent additions, December 2020

 Robotix

With thanks to Jim Sorenson, the show bible for Robotix has been added to the MP 4000 section.  Along with the 14 scripts for episode recap, with correspondence by story editor Alan Swayze

Transformers

Background keys for select episodes of Season One have been added to the archive, thanks to Ryan King.

Elaine Hultgren, co-owner of and layout artist at XAM Productions in Utah, made the jump to storyboard artist for Marvel in 1985.  For her storyboard test, the Transformers episode Blaster Blues was used for story.  Those storyboards are now available at the archive.  Elaine would go on to be credited for the entire runs of Jem, Inhumanoids and Dino-riders.  Her career would continue to be involved with shows covered by the archive throughout the 1990s.  First with Marvel, then with Graz Entertainment and the final involvement with a Sunbow co-production coming with Generation O! in the year 2000.

The Transformers The Movie

All 31 storyboard sequences for the movie have been cropped to the original two-panel pages.  All pages have been straightened, vertical pans rotated and file sizes reduced for ease of loading and viewing.

Fraggle Rock

The full storyboard for the main title sequence has been added to the archive.

Transformers deleted dialogue recordings

 Uploads by Transformers At The Moon

MP 4023 The Transformers - Day 1 (in five parts)

MP 4024 The Transformers - Day 2

MP 4025 The Transformers - Day 3

MP 700

01 Transport To Oblivion

02 Roll For It

03 Divide And Conquer

04 Fire In The Sky

05 S.O.S Dinobots

06 Fire On The Mountain

07 War Of The Dinobots

08 The Ultimate Doom, Part 1

09 The Ultimate Doom, Part 2

10 The Ultimate Doom, Part 3

11 Countdown To Extinction

12 A Plague Of Insecticons (including Insecticon Body English for sound library)

13 Heavy Metal War

Laserbeak ADR session - Chris Latta and Wally Burr

Ravage ADR session - Frank Welker and Wally Burr

August 2020 update

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.

Marvel Productions Behind The Scenes

A documentary made in 1981 during the production of Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends.  Spider-Man On The Move, presented by Stan Lee.  According to documentary producer Arthur Greenwald, Stan's star turn on this programme led to NBC requesting he record narration for seasons 2 and 3 of Amazing Friends, as well as narration retroactively added to repeats of season 1 and to The Incredible Hulk.

Sadly, the main production office (flat-topped, single story building) featured in this documentary burned down in March 1984.

8mm home video of Marvel Productions' head office, filmed in 1984 and uploaded by Bryce Malek, as he and Dick Robbins worked as story editors on The Transformers

Recently recovered from a dumpster.  A floor plan of the head office from February 1986 (recovered by https://www.reddit.com/user/Urban_Archeologist/)

1st floor

Ground floor

More of Bryce Malek's home video, this time of the office Christmas Party in 1986.  Putting faces to a lot of the names on the above floor plans.

MP 200 Pandamonium 1982 (Marvel Productions/Intermedia Entertainment)

Development work
Concept art and main cast model sheets

01 The Beginning - Dennis Marks
Abominable Snowman model sheet

02 Algernon's Story 
Model sheets - High Priest, Guards

06 Ice Hassles
Model sheets - Penguins, Walruses

09 The Cybernetic City
Model sheets and backgrounds

Air Raiders 1987 (Sunbow Productions/Marvel Productions)

In early 1987, plans were in place for the next co-production between Sunbow and Marvel to support a Hasbro toyline: Air Raiders.  Development work by Doug Booth and Ron Friedman had taken place over the summer of 1986, with a three-part pilot miniseries written by Friedman and ready by January 1987.

Unfortunately due to low retail orders of £30 million at Toyfair '87.  As well as a general slump on all toylines caused by over-saturation of the market.  All plans for an Air Raiders cartoon were dropped and Hasbro were not willing to fund any more shows beyond the existing contracts, the last of which was taking Jem to 65 epusodes, fulfilled on May 2nd 1988.

Sunbow press kit

The following are preview photos by Heritage Auctions, who sold off the available material for Air Raiders on behalf of Ron Friedman in 2010.

Product information book

Hasbro briefing book

Show bible and story summary - Ron Friedman and Doug Booth

Three-part pilot - Ron Friedman

Outlines, scripts and notes - Ron Friedman

July 2020 update

This month has seen some housekeeping at the archive.  The "Productions" links have been moved to the top of the page for easier navigation between the various shows

MP 600 G.I Joe

Due to the official Hasbro YouTube channel releases reaching 50 out of 95 full episodes.  The GI Joe section of the archive has been split into two parts, in the same manner as Transformers.
For production material from season 2, as well as the full script and storyboard samples from GI Joe The Movie.  Update your bookmarks to: https://sunbowmarvelarchive.blogspot.com/2020/07/mp-600-gi-joe-real-american-hero-1983.html

MP 900 Defenders Of The Earth

To streamline the DoE page, only full episodes which are supported by available production material will be uploaded.


MP 5205 Jem

A trio of music video storyboards have been made available to the archive:

First up we have There's A Melody Playin' by future Shrek director Vicky Jenson, from the episode In Search Of The Stolen Album.  Jenson took visual ideas from Madonna's Papa Don't Preach video, the single for which was only released less than two months before these storyboards were finalized.

Next is the original version of Love's Not Easy, by comics legend Romeo Tanghal.  This music video was slated to be the third video for the episode Island Of Deception.  Due to the issues which affected many shows sent out to overseas animators by Marvel Productions in the summer of 1986.  This episode along with 6 others in season 1 were cut down to 19 minutes of original animation.  The time being made up with music video replays and Superstar PSAs.

The video below is of a fanmade animatic using colourised versions of the storyboards.  This was premiered at Jemcon 2018:

Finally, there is Gettin' Down To Business, version 2.  Drawn by Marvel Comics and Productions artist Mike Vosburg for the season 2 episode The Bands Break Up.  Unusually for the time, the storyboards were drawn on 3-panel pages (left over from GI Joe The Movie), versus the usual 6 panels.  Viewers are encouraged to compare the storyboards with the finished video as major changes are made to the first five pages: