My Little Pony n' Friends audition audio and show bible pages

On 5th October 1985, auditions were held for the My Little Pony n' Friends series, for the role of the Moochick (replacing Tony Randall). The following paper materials were included with the physical reel.

Brian Cummings Frank Nelson Charlie Wolf Andre Strojka Ken Mars Pat Fraley Roger C Carmel Maurice LaMarche Jack Angel Michael Bell Frank Welker Neil Ross Henry Pollock II Tony Pope Jared Barclay

On the same audio reel are auditions for the roles of Cherries Jubilee, Masquerade, Poser and Whizzer.  The following show bible pages were included with the physical reel, doubling as audition sheets

With takes from: Cathy Cahn Susan Blu Sherry Lynn B.J. Ward Tress MacNeil Noelle North Marilyn Schreffler Robbie Lee Barbara Goodson Mary McDonald-Lewis Patty Dworkin Susan Silo Patti Deutsch

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 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

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

G.I Joe: The Movie: Duke's death scene restored (VIDEO)

This past weekend, at Transformers convention TFNation 2024, the Mapes brother held a panel showcasing audio from various dialogue recording sessions for Transformers and GI Joe.  At this panel, they debuted the original audio track for Duke's death scene in G.I Joe: The Movie, famously overdubbed for the movie's release, as a reaction to the backlash over Optimus Prime's death in The Transformers: The Movie.

Video of the restored scene, as well as audio from a scripted, but ultimately unproduced funeral scene, is available to view below.  Accompanied by an introduction from movie writer Buzz Dixon.

If the YouTube video is restricted in your region, follow the link to view directly on TFNation's website. 

To read the full G.I Joe: The Movie script, head to G.I Joe, Part 2

My Little Pony Tales: Shop Talk script

Thanks to yanchagraffiti, the Archive has its first piece of production material for My Little Pony Tales:  Doug Booth's script for episode 10, Shop Talk.

Developed by George Arthur Bloom and consisting of 26 quarter-hour stories, with a slice-of-life focus compared to its 1980s predecessor My Little Pony N Friends. MLP Tales lasted for only one season in 1992, and was produced by Sunbow and Graz Entertainment.

Read the script, along with material for other 1990s shows at: Sunbow Round Two 1991-2000

My Little Pony: new storyboard galleries

 New galleries are up for the following My Little Pony N Friends storyboard sets:

• Revolt of Paradise Estate, Part 2
• Partial episode storyboards: Baby, It's Cold Outside and Would-Be Dragonslayer

View all of the My Little Pony storyboards at: 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