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.

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

Transformers: Flint Dille's Character Binder

The last major Transformers-related item uncovered from the storage of former Sunbow producer Flint Dille in 2020 has been released.  Flint's character binder, which received its last update on December 3rd, 1986.  Nearly all of the 1987 toy lineup is represented within its 333 pages, as well a copy of Bob Budiansky's 11-page treatment for the Marvel Comics' Headmasters miniseries.

Due to its size, the binder has been split up into three galleries, which can be viewed at: Briefing/Reference Binder Gallery Index

Transformers: The Secret of Omega Supreme storyboards

Thanks to Larry Houston for saving them from likely destruction back in the 1980s and thanks to Rich Helscher for making them available, the Archive now hosts the tenth full Transformers storyboard set: The Secret of Omega Supreme.

View galleries for all ten sets, as well as partial storyboards for ten more episodes at the Storyboard Viewing Gallery Index

Transformers: the resurrection of Skyfire/Jetfire

With thanks to Rich Helscher, the Archive now hosts an earlier version of Transformers script Fire on the Mountain.  Accompanying the script are memos from story editor Bryce Malek notifying producer Nelson Shin of rewritten pages to accompany the 2nd July 1984 revision, the earlier first draft having already gone forward to storyboards (as was common during the series run):

The impetus for these revisions was to insert a scene where Wheeljack and Sideswipe rescue Skyfire from the Arctic ice, where he was buried at the end of concurrently-written episode Fire in the Sky

Insert pages 13 and 13A, as mentioned in the above memos

The original pages 12 and 13 from the first draft are included with this copy of the revised script, and show Doug Booth writing Skyfire as simply being an established part of the Autobot roster. Setting out from Autobot Headquarters with Brawn and Windcharger to investigate the destruction of their Sky Spy satellite by Megatron's new weapon.

These pages were replaced by the new inserts and the script handed over to Ron Friedman for his dialogue changes.

Both scripts can be read at The Transformers, Part 1

Transformers: Blaster Blues storyboard and 150 model sheets

Thanks to Ryan King, the Archive now hosts material found by Marvel Productions storyboard artist/producer/director Larry Houston.

Firstly, the full storyboard set for Transformers episode Blaster Blues. To view the boards, head to the Blaster Blues storyboard gallery

Next are two model sheet books: one covering the main 1984 cast and the other incidental models from the 13 main episodes of Season 1. Including designs that did not make it to air, such as Dr. Lynn Hyashi, whose role in War of the Dinobots was given to Chip Chase in script revisions.

To view, head to the Briefing/Reference Binder Gallery Index

2023 Year in Review

2023 was an interesting year for the Sunbow Marvel Archive. Thanks to the various contributors, material from a wider variety of shows is now available and also helped in demystifying a series that has previously been considered "lost media."

In terms of general organisation, the website has been streamlined to collect the material for 24 shows on 6 pages.

For Transformers, the march towards series completion continued with full or partial storyboards for another 10 episodes, over 100 audition sheets from voice director Wally Burr's collection, plus various model sheets, backgrounds and the script for The Killing Jar.

The biggest Transformers-related item saw release in August. Three years since it was found by Flint Dille and scanned by Jim Sorenson, the very first script for The Transformers: The Movie is available to the public.

G.I Joe saw its first newly-revealed scripts in over a decade, with Flint Dille's Skeletons In The Closet and Doug Booth's My Favorite Things

An unexpected surprise came in the form of over a dozen My Little Pony storyboard sets, sold from the estate of artist Wendell Washer. Including the first special Rescue At Midnight Castle and a selection of episodes from the main series, spanning from the first episode Ghost Of Paradise Estate to the final one The Prince And The Ponies.

Beyond paper material, a selection of dialogue reels from various Marvel Productions' series came to light. Among them was audio from The Young Astronauts, Marvel's ill-fated series about space exploration that was cancelled in mid-production due to the Challenger shuttle explosion. The reels covered dialogue for the episode Ghost Ship, as well as auditions for the series narrator, featuring a who's who of 1980s voice actors.

 

With 2024 marking the 40th anniversaries of Transformers, Muppet Babies and My Little Pony making their television debuts, who knows what untold stories will be uncovered in the year ahead.

My Little Pony N Friends: Storyboards for 13 episodes, model sheets and more

Thanks to yanchagraffiti, the Sunbow Marvel Archive now hosts a large collection of storyboards and other material from My Little Pony N Friends.  

All of the material was formerly owned and mostly drawn by artist Wendell Washer, who sadly passed away in 2022.  Here is what is available so far:

• 4012 Rescue At Midnight Castle: Sunbow press pack, 2x partial Act II storyboard, full Act III storyboard
• 185 page model sheet pack, broken down into Attitudes, Turnarounds, Mouth Guides and Construction Model sections.
• 01 Ghost Of Paradise Estate, Part 1: full storyboard
• 22 The Return Of Tambelon, Part 4: full storyboard
• 23 Baby, It's Cold Outside, Part 1: storyboard samples
• 29 Would-Be Dragonslayer: partial storyboard
• 38-47 The End Of Flutter Valley: Part 2 song sequence, Part 3 full storyboard, Part 4 full storyboard, Part 9 full storyboard
• 54 Quest Of The Princess Ponies, Part 1: full storyboard
• 58-59 Somnambula: Part 1 full storyboard, Part 2 partial storyboard and sketches
• 61 The Prince And The Ponies: full storyboard

View them all in PDF form at My Little Pony N Friends or in viewing gallery form at the Storyboard viewing gallery index

As a taster, the Witches from the Volcano of Gloom are cooking a Dark and Dirty tune below:

(VIDEO) Transformers dialogue recording audio: The Revenge Of Bruticus

Thanks to the winner of a recent audio reel auction, who has supplied digital files, I can now present the full dialogue recording audio for Transformers episode The Revenge Of Bruticus.

54 minutes in total, the recording is effectively split in half, with one group of actors doing pickup sessions, and then the main ensemble from beginning to end.

For those wanting to follow along with the available written material, links are provided below

Dialogue script
Full Script (final)

Timecodes:

0:00 Bruticus 
3:08 Kickback and Shrapnel 
05:00 Tracks
05:45 Walla (people screaming in terror) 
06:40 Inferno 
07:07 Shrapnel, Kickback and Ramjet (underground parking lot) 
07:53 Walla (refugees), Woman on rooftop (Morgan Lofting) 
09:21 Bruticus (final fight) 
11:01 Insecticon voracious eating 
13:35 Red Alert 
13:57 Ensemble recording (start to finish)
54:13 End

Transformers: storyboards, unused premises, briefing material and more

Added to the Archive this month is a plethora of Transformers material, with storyboards from the following:

• Unproduced pilot miniseries/Season 1 intro sequence 
• More Than Meets The Eye, Part 2
• More Than Meets The Eye, Part 3 
• Transport To Oblivion 
• Roll For It
• The Ultimate Doom, Part 3
• Countdown To Extinction
• Unproduced Season 2 intro sequence
• Unproduced commercial bumper
• Autobot Spike
• The Immobilizer

Additionally, a quartet of story premises, written by storyboard artist Wendell Washer during early Season 2, have also become available.  Along with the early version of the 1985 New Product briefing he was given for reference.

All of these can be viewed at The Transformers, Part 1

Below is an animatic edited by me of the unproduced season 2 intro sequence:

Storyboard animatics

A couple of home-made animatics I have made using recently-revealed Transformers storyboards, combined with episode broadcast audio.  If these pique your interest, then please follow the links to the full storyboard galleries.

Firstly, Attack Of The Autobots.

Full storyboard gallery

And secondly, Sea Change

Full storyboard gallery

Transformers: Deleted dialogue audio vs storyboards: S.O.S Dinobots

In 2016, the Mapes brothers found an assortment of Marvel Productions cassette tapes containing dialogue recorded in the summer of 1984, principally Season 1 of The Transformers.  Deleted dialogue from those tapes is available on the Transformers At The Moon YouTube channel.

At the time of the recordings being found and made available, only one episode had a complete storyboard set available: Heavy Metal War.  Animatics utilising the deleted dialogue from that episode were created and presented by Chris McFeely for TFNation 2017.

Since then, the number of full episode storyboards available online has grown to seven.  Including a second episode for which a dialogue tape is available: S.O.S Dinobots.

To view the scenes in full context, head to: S.O.S Dinobots storyboard viewing gallery

Below is the video containing deleted recordings, along with the relevant storyboard pages and time indexes.

0:22 to 0:46

Scenes 8-15 cut

Brawn scene 13 dialogue moved to scene 18, scene 14 dialogue moved to scenes 17 and 17A

1:00 to 1:22

Scenes 31 -34 and 36-38 cut

1:25 to 1:40

sc. 44 and 47-50 cut, dialogue laid over long Truck In of sc. 45 and continues through sc. 51

1:52 to 2:11

sc. 56 and 57 cut

4:17 to 4:30

sc. 166-170, 174, 177-180 cut.  Sc. 175 and 176 moved between actions on sc. 173

5:20 to 5:35

sc. 240 to 243 cut

5:40 to 6:06

sc. 272 dialogue cut, sc. 273 visual cut, 273 dialogue over 272 visual.

6:14 to 6:23

sc. 304-306 cut, sc. 303 revised

7:19 to end

sc. 338 dialogue cut, sc. 342-351 cut.

Note - sc. 343-351 scripted to be re-used for MP 700-07 War Of The Dinobots, but deleted from that episode as well