Transformers: The Paul Davids Collection, Part 2

To view and purchase original artwork by Paul Davids, visit: Shop Art | Paul Davids Art

With thanks to turbobluestreak for his hard work and to the man himself for his permission, the Sunbow Marvel Archive now hosts part of Paul Davids' collection of Transformers cartoon production material, saved from his time as episode writer and Production Coordinator on seasons 2 and 3.

The latest additions center around his final episode of the series: Grimlock's New Brain

• The initial premise, submitted at the beginning of Season 3 in March 1986 and repitched in the summer, with accompanying memo to his Sunbow counterpart Elise Goyette
• Autobot Park, an initial premise to bring the Technobots into the series
• Creation Of The Technobots, which combines ideas from the above two premises.  There are four revisions of the full outline document, with feedback from Roger Slifer and Marv Wolfman
• The first draft and final scripts for Grimlock's New Brain
• Full storyboards (currently the pages are each scanned in two parts, a solution is being worked on).
• Series update memo from late September 1986 showing progress on the latter half of Season 3
• Early, more toy-based character models for Computron, Nosecone, Afterburner, Strafe and Lightspeed

Coming Attractions

 Coming Soon: The Evil That Lies Within

Peter Cullen 1941-2026

Peter Cullen Dead: 'Transformers' Optimus Prime Voice Was 85

As the voice of characters I've known for 39 of my 43 years, this news has been a real punch in the gut for me.  So I'll just get out of the way and end this post with the statement from Peter's family:

"Peter Cullen passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family - and held in the hearts of his many friends and countless fans worldwide. His family asks that you honor his remarkable legacy by serving your communities and leading others with compassion, integrity, and loyalty and always remember 'be strong enough to be gentle.'"

The Transformers: Season 1 and 2 script collection now complete (65 episodes)

Thanks to Morgan Evans, the Archive now hosts scripts for all 65 episodes of seasons 1 and 2 of The Transformers.

The 16 remaining episodes added today are:

Autobot Spike
Changing Gears
City Of Steel
Attack Of The Autobots
Traitor
The Immobilizer
The Autobot Run
Atlantis, Arise!
Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2
The Key To Vector Sigma, Part 1
The Key To Vector Sigma, Part 2
Aerial Assault
War Dawn
Trans-Europe Express
Masquerade
B.O.T

The three partial scripts that came from the Ron Friedman auctions in 2010 (Enter The Nightbird, A Prime Problem and The Core) have been supplemented by full versions,  18 episodes which previously had a revised or finalised script now have first drafts available.

Additional material includes Marvel Productions' internal correspondence, story editor inserts as the team tried to fix the myriad problems with Megatron's Master Plan and finally, scripts for 10 planned Public Service Announcements.

Read them all at The Transformers, Part 1

Other Companies: The Real Ghostbusters scripts and storyboards

The Archive now hosts a trove of material from The Real Ghostbusters, with scripts and storyboards covering 37 half-hour episodes, 5 Slimer! shorts, 3 different show bibles and storyboards for the four-minute pitch promo that sold the series.

To view them all, head to Other Companies

Patreon

The Sunbow Marvel Archive's Patreon page is now live. If you'd like to support my continuing work to digitally archive production material from 20 years of animated series, please subscribe.

The Young Astronauts: first episode script

With thanks to yanchagraffiti, the Sunbow Marvel Archive is proud to present the first episode script from Marvel Productions' ill-fated series The Young Astronauts.  Written by Karl Geurs, with a story by Jack Mendelsohn and Michael O'Mahony, A Fall Of Marsdust would have introduced viewers of CBS' 1985 Saturday morning lineup to the Hampton family and the crew of the mothership Courageous.

To read the script, and to hear dialogue audio from the first episode to actually be produced, Ghost Ship, head to Marvel Network Shows

The series was first delayed, then cancelled following the Challenger tragedy, but that was not the end of the story for this particular script.  Even after Challenger, hope remained that the already-planned Marvel comic could still be published in the summer of 1986, on the STAR Comics imprint.  As described by writer Denny O'Neil in Marvel Age #37, he adapted this animation script to become the first issue of the comic, drawn by June Brigham and inked by Pat Redding.

Alas, this too was not to be, as the Young Astronauts Council chose to extricate itself from their agreement with Marvel.  A decision that would later spark a lawsuit in 1988..