My Little Pony n' Friends audition audio, part 1

On 8th November 1985, auditions were held for the My Little Pony n' Friends series. The following actors auditioned for the main human character Megan Williams, replacing Tammy Amerson who voiced her in the 1984 and 1985 specials, as well as the 1986 movie:

Katie Leigh. Ellen Gerstell, Pamela Hayden, Liz Georges, Bobbi Block, Bettina Bush, Marsha Kramer

On December 4th, 1985, Pat Fraley, Charlie Adler, Frank Welker, Peter Cullen and Michael Bell auditioned for the following roles: 0:00 Bushwoolies 2:32 Grundle King (replacing Danny DeVito) and assorted Grundle responses 5:40 Second round of auditions for the Moochick (replacing Tony Randall)

The Young Astronauts: more audition audio, part 1

Thanks to yanchagraffiti for supplying the digital files, more audio from ill-fated Marvel Productions series The Young Astronauts is now available.  Samples of which will be posted to the Archive's YouTube channel over the coming days and weeks.

Starting off with a short excerpt from an hour-long reel containing auditions for the character of Kelly Hampton, mother to Rick, Wendy and Mikey and Commander of the mothership Courageous.
Among those trying out for the role included Linda Gary. Famous for her many voice roles on both He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and She-Ra: Princess of Power, particularly Queen Marlena: former NASA astronaut and mother to Prince Adam and Princess Adora.

Next up is the unmodulated voice of maintenance droid Retro, performed by Stu Rosen, as he records pickup lines for the episode Ghost Ship

Spider-Man 1981: Three partial scripts

The Archive now hosts partial scripts of 13 to 14 pages, written from Jeffrey Scott, for the 1981 Spider-Man syndication series: Doctor Doom...Master Of The World, Curiosity Killed The Spider-Man and The Sandman Is Coming To Town.

The first five script of the series were written by Scott and submitted to DePatie-Freleng Enterprises between late 1979 and early 1980, but were not produced until after DfE's purchase by Cadence Industries, becoming Marvel Productions in 1981.

Read them all at Marvel Superheroes

G.I Joe: DiC model sheets and backgrounds

Recent arrivals at the Archive have included over 190 model sheets and background layouts from DiC Entertainment's continuation of G.I Joe.  The majority from the Season 1 episode D-Day at Alcatraz, Part 1, as well as high quality scans of Season 2 main character models.

To view these along with material covering G.I Joe's animated history from 1986 to 1992, head to G.I Joe, Part 2

New secondary blog: Animated 80s

Within the last week, I have launched and am currently building a companion blog to the Sunbow Marvel Archive.  One which will house production material from cartoons of the 1980s not produced by either Sunbow or Marvel Productions: Animated 80s

This site will feature scripts and storyboards that have come my way whilst in the course of pursuing material for the Archive proper.  These currently include:

• The New Adventures of Flash Gordon
• Blackstar
• The Smurfs
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
• Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors
• She-Ra: Princess of Power
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)
• G.I Joe: A Real American Hero (DiC)

Dungeons & Dragons: Jeffrey Scott premises, outlines, etc

The Archive now hosts various premise lists and outlines for seasons 1 and 2 of Dungeons & Dragons, previously sold off by Jeffrey Scott

Season 1

• Eye Of The Beholder premise
• In Search Of The Dungeon Master - Step outline
• Beauty And The Bogbeast - full outline
• Servant Of Evil premise
• The Garden Of Zinn full outline
• The Box - Step outline
• The Lost Children - Step outline

Season 2

• 9 pages of unused premises
• The Dark Side outline (later to become The Traitor)
• Dungeon Master...Rest In Peace outline, revised to become...
• The Master's Disciple outline (taken to full script by Michael Reaves as Day Of The Dungeon Master)
• Venger's Turnabout premise by Wendell Washer (with CBS feedback notes)
• The Last Illusion outline (with CBS feedback notes)

To read all of the new material, head to Marvel Network Shows

The Incredible Hulk and She-Hulk: 1983 attempted relaunch

The 1982 Incredible Hulk series lasted only one season of 13 episodes, with no renewal by network NBC.  However, Marvel Productions still held out hope that it could be salvaged.  

Presentation documents were written by Misty Stewart in early 1983, seeking to relaunch the series as The Incredible Hulk And The She-Hulk, with Bruce Banner's cousin Jennifer Walters, introduced in the episode Enter: She-Hulk, as a co-headliner.

Changes included rewriting the Hulk to be less like the comics incarnation and more like the live-action TV series which had ended the year before.  Additionally, the network presentation suggests that the show have Bruce Banner and Jennifer Walters not be related to one another, in order to facilitate love triangle storylines involving Betty Ross. 

Photos taken from ebay auction. 

The Transformers: new information on CBS network pitch

Originally appearing in an article about Marvel Productions, in the pages of Comics Feature magazine for January 1985, artwork for a Saturday morning network pitch titled Car And Cable showed a transforming Volkswagen in a comedic setting with three humans and a dog.  Long assumed to be Marvel's attempt at producing a knockoff to their own success story in The Transformers.

That was until March 2020, when Instagram user consumercollectibles contacted this archive and others to show the original pitch artwork, revealing a previously unseen piece that shows this was in fact an early pitch for Transformers.

Subsequent to this discovery, in late 2024 and early 2025, Jeffrey Scott sold off all paperwork relating to his involvement with developing a Transformers series for Saturday morning broadcast on CBS.

In February 1984, the Transformers toyline had racked up retail orders at New York Toy Fair that would eventually total $100 million,  Hasbro sought to capitalise on this sudden success and before Toy Fair had concluded, had commissioned Jeffrey Scott to work with Marvel Productions' Hank Saroyan on a development bible and pilot script.  While George Arthur Bloom was concurrently writing his pilot miniseries for syndication (Act I of Bloom's script was sent to Scott as part of his reference material).

Notes show that Hasbro, Tom Griffin, Joe Bacal, Hank Saroyan and CBS executives were all in communication, providing feedback on the series' development.  

Set five years after the events of 'More Than Meets The Eye', the series would follow the Autobots as they wage guerilla warfare on a Decepticon-dominated Earth.  Working with their human allies: trucker Matt Conroy, driver of Optimus Prime, along with his dog Burt.  Along with teenagers Eddie and Wendy Fairchild, owners of clumsy VW Beetle Muffler a.k.a Muffy.  

Choosing one of 13 stock plots included with the development bible, Jeffrey Scott finished the pilot episode script "A Robot's Best Friend Is His Dog", at the end of March 1984.

Evidently CBS chose not to pick up the series for its 1984 season lineup.  Undeterred, Hasbro and Griffin-Bacal (via Sunbow Productions and Claster Television) sold 13 additional episodes into syndication for that year, with Marvel assigning Bryce Malek and Dick Robbins to act as story editors.

The Archive will bring more information as it becomes available in the future.

Transformers: 1986 Character Binder

Thanks to Autoclot@tfw2005, the Archive now hosts the 1986 character binder for Transformers, formerly owned by Paul Davids.

This 186 page document covers profiles and model sheets for nearly all of the incoming 1986 toyline (excluding the new minibots Swerve, Pipes, Tailgate, Hubcap and Outback), as well as returning 1984 and 1985 characters.

View the document in gallery form at 1986 Character Binder

(YOUTUBE) Storyboard video playlists

In order to grow the Archive's YouTube channel, I have been creating videos showcasing the various storyboard sets available.  Either full half-hour, full quarter-hour or a single Act.  Playlists are available below

Transformers

My Little Pony N Friends

More videos will be added in future, so please consider subscribing to the Archive YouTube channel

The Transformers: The Movie: storyboard files reduced

As part of space-saving and general housekeeping, storyboards for all 31 final sequences of The Transformers: The Movie, as well as Peter Chung's early sequences, have been put through OCR and greatly reduced in file size.  Additionally, the 1600+ page full storyboard book is available to download at 175mb (down from over 1gb).

To view all of the storyboards, head to The Transformers: The Movie

An appeal for help

If you've enjoyed the production material my website has brought to you over the past 5+ years, please consider helping me with clearing my rent arrears via my gofundme

Other Companies: He-Man scripts and She-Ra storyboards

Couple of quick additions to the Archive over the last month.  Two scripts from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Paul Dini's Quest For He-Man and David Wise' The Search.  As well as the storyboard set for Bob Forward's classic She-Ra episode Sweet Bee's Home.

Check them out at Other Companies