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

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

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.

G.I Joe: Skeletons In The Closet script

Newly uploaded to the Archive is another item originating from Flint Dille's storage: his third GI Joe script, Skeletons In The Closet

Read the script at G.I Joe Part 1 and compare to the episode linked below as we delve into the origin of Destro, Lady Jaye's family tree and...The Evil That Lies Within?

(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:

Other companies page

I have re-opened the page dedicated to production material from show created by companies other than Sunbow or Marvel during the '80s and '90s.  Showcasing items from shows such as Ruby-Spears Mister T cartoon and an early outline for the Challenge of the Gobots movie: Starquest.  

One major addition since the last time this page was featured on the Archive are 41 scripts from Filmation's She-Ra: Princess Of Power.  Uploaded to the Internet Archive from the old BCI Eclipse DVD set, including all 28 scripts from Season 2 and featuring works by Bob Forward, Larry DiTillio and J. Michael Strasczynski.

View them all at Other Companies

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

Elita One's debut: The Search For Alpha Trion

With the character's imminent return to TV screens in Transformers: Earthspark on November 11th, it's time to take a look at the script where Elita One made her debut: The Search For Alpha Trion.

Written by Beth Bornstein with a view to promoting Female Autobots ahead of Arcee's inclusion in The Transformers The Movie.  This script was among 19 kindly scanned and donated to the Archive this summer, by owner Marco Van Leeuwen.  Telling the story of Elita and her team as they ba.ttle Shockwave's attempts to destroy them.  As well as delving into her relationship with Optimus Prime and, via flashbacks, the pair's younger days under the mentorship of Alpha Trion.

The script can be read in full at The Transformers, Part 1 page

January 2022 Update

 Happy New Year all.  Here are some newly-released items to kick off 2022.

Go to the Specials, Pilots, Miniseries and Movies page

First up is material from the Flint Dille Collection, supplied by owner Steve Chu.  Concerning the "forgotten son" of Super Sunday: Bigfoot And The Muscle Machines.

Backstory

SST Muscle Machines was a toyline of battery-operated monster trucks, first released by Milton Bradley subsidiary Playskool in 1983.  Starting out with the titular Big Foot - licensed by Bob Chandler, owner of the real-life vehicle.

In 1984, Playskool added licensed trucks Orange Blossom and Black Gold to the toyline, along with several other accessories.  That year, Hasbro bought out Milton Bradley, thus acquiring SST Muscle Machines.

1984 also saw the debut of The Transformers on weekend syndication, to huge ratings.  Seeking to keep those weekend ratings going as Transformers was scheduled to make the jump to weekday afternoons in the 1985 season.  Griffin-Bacal introduced the Super Sunday concept:  A trio of five-part miniseries, broken down into their individual 7-minute Acts and aired as an anthology series over 15 weekends.  With plans to re-edit those 15 shorts back into TV movies for syndication and home video release.

Needing "Boys Action" toylines that could be quickly developed into shows.  Hasbro looked to SST Muscle Machines, as well as fellow Milton Bradley acquisition Robotix.  To accompany their new fashion doll line in development: Jem.   

The Show

Ron Friedman was tasked to develop a show to promote the SST Muscle Machines toyline.  On March 5th, 1985 he turned in a "beats" outline and character lineup.  Detailing a group of drivers and mechanics led by Yank Justice, known as the Rolling Rodeo.  The story would detail the Rodeo's run-ins with the corrupt Judge Skullheart who practically controlled the county through bribery, extortion and abuse of power.  Along with his rogue's gallery of sheriffs, biker gangs, mercenaries and other hired thugs.

Included with this outline are three additional story premises.  As well as plot breakdowns and character summaries written up by Elise Goyette, Production Co-Ordinator for Sunbow in New York

Evidently, Hasbro and Griffin-Bacal were not impressed by Friedman's creation.  He was apparently told to go back to the drawing board.  Coming up with a second outline and a brand new story set-up, on March 26th.  

It is unclear whether this outline was satisfactory either, as Friedman was tasked to immediately start work on his second attempt at a screenplay for The Transformers The Movie.  Which would be listed as "complete" on April 27th.

In the interim, retail orders for the SST toyline in 1985 (which introduced the "funny car" War Lord) were evidently low enough that Hasbro decided to scale back their investment, cutting the supporting cartoon down to 9 segments.  Flint Dille was tasked to create a new miniseries.  Retaining the Friedman-created characters of Yank Justice, Professor D, twins Red & Redder and Close McCall.  He wrote a brand new story detailing the Rolling Rodeo's entanglement with an archaeologist on the run and their battles over a mysterious map.  Sought by the reclusive, elderly billionaire Adrian Ravenscroft in his quest to find the Fountain Of Youth.

The miniseries was released on VHS as a 53-minute movie, but has never received a DVD or streaming release.

At time of writing, no material from the Flint Dille 9 segment version is available for public viewing.

Go to the Jem show page

By the use of screen caps of a featurette found on the Shout Factory DVD set.  The Archive now hosts the storyboards for the music video Can't Get My Love Together.  Drawn by Will Meugniot, from the Marv Wolfman-written episode Broadway Magic.

Go to the Muppet Babies show page

Added 9 pages of mouth guides and 25 pages of walk cycles for the main cast.

Go to the Little Muppet Monsters show page

Added a new page for Marvel Productions and Jim Henson's ill-fated attempt in 1985 to produce a combination animated/live-action Muppet program.  13 episodes were ordered, but due to delays in producing the animated segments, only 3 were ever aired.

At the link are 35 pages of mouth guides and walk cycles from the animated segments.