May 2021 update

*Updated 26/05/21*

MP 600 GI Joe part 2

Thanks to contributor Ransack The Elder, the archive now hosts on-set photos and storyboards for Griffin-Bacal's production of the 1992 GI Joe toy commercials.

After 1990, the agency dropped animated short-length advertising (at the same time as returning to full-length animation with Bucky O'Hare) in favour of serialized, live-action storytelling.   For 1992, the plot centered around a scheme by Destro (voiced by Arthur Burghardt for the final time) to kidnap and brainwash Duke into serving Cobra.

MP 400 Dungeons & Dragons

Added model sheets covering Expressions, Attitudes and Mouth Guides for the main cast members, Dungeon Master, Venger and Tiamat's Heads

Also, added model sheets for episode no.2 Eye Of The Beholder (Sir John, Sir John's Son, Blue Dragon, Escargyte and the Hyena-Like Creatures).

MP 500 Muppet Babies

Added the Construction Model sheets for all main cast members, as revised at the start of season 2.  Consisting of five or six sheets per character: Front (some with A and B views), Front 3/4 view, Side, Rear, Rear 3/4 view.  

Also replaced the existing sheets for Mouth Guides, Expressions, Attitudes, Turnarounds and Construction with better quality copies

Other shows

There is a new page at the archive for contemporary shows produced by other companies, not affliated with Sunbow or Marvel Productions.  Containing miscellaneous items, as well as production timelines I have put together as something of a hobby.  The page will also be a place for websites specializing in other franchises and companies to be linked.  If anyone knows of a website based around archiving animation production material that they feel should be linked, drop me a line on the Blogger contact form.

Shows/companies currently covered by the page are:

• Filmation 1982-1987 (He-Man, She-Ra and Bravestarr)
• Mister T 1983-1985 (including partial storyboard by Don Manuel)

• Challenge Of The Go-Bots 1984-1986.  Including (with thanks to Jim Sorenson), an early treatment for the movie, vastly different from Battle Of The Rock Lords

• The Real Ghostbusters 1986-1991
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987-1996
• Marvel Comics' Properties 1992-1997
• Transformers (as an overall franchise)

April 2021 Update

 

Toyfair Catalogues

An ongoing project at the archive for this month will be to add the relevant catalogue sections to each show page.  Links and listings will be updated here as needed:

G.I Joe (part 1)

1982 Hasbro

1983 Hasbro

1984 Hasbro

1985 Hasbro 

G.I Joe (part 2)

1986 Hasbro Pre-Toyfair

1986 Hasbro

1987 Hasbro

1988 Hasbro

The Transformers (part 1)

1984 Hasbro

1985 Hasbro

The Transformers (part 2)

1986 Hasbro Pre-Toyfair

1986 Hasbro

1987 Hasbro (contributor credit: Ryan King)

1988 Hasbro (contributor credit: Ryan King)

1989 Hasbro (contributor credit: Ryan King)

1990 Hasbro (contributor credit: Ryan King)

Robotix

1986 Milton Bradley

Inhumanoids

1986 Hasbro

Jem

1986 Hasbro 

1987 Hasbro

1988 Hasbro Pre-Toyfair (Jem removed from main catalogue)

Air Raiders

1987 Hasbro (contributor credit: Ryan King)

Battle Beasts

1987 Hasbro (contributor credit: Ryan King)

Ninja Warriors

1987 Hasbro (contributor credit: Ryan King)

Visionaries

1987 Hasbro (contributor credit: Ryan King)

1988 Hasbro (Toyline cancelled in late 1987, too late to be removed from the catalogue)

Production Material

MP 700 The Transformers

The newest addition to the archive, auctioned off by Flint Dille and scans contributed by new owner Steve Chu, are storyboards for Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2. 

Drawn by Keith Tucker, they cover the Additional Material insert that was added to Act 3 of the episode.  As Don Glut's script ran three to four minutes short of the required runtime.  This copy was sent to Flint Dille, in his role as Associate Producer of the show and was uncovered from his storage in late 2020.

NWA 6640 Biker Mice From Mars

Recently, I stumbled upon the unofficial fansite www.bikermice.com , which had lain untouched since 1998.  From the site, I salvaged and formatted two full scripts.  One for the season 2 episode Return To Mars, Part 3 and the late season 3 episode Caveat Mentor.

Biker Mice From Mars was the last show commissioned under the banner of Marvel Productions.  Solicited in trade adverts in 1992 and debuting in September 1993.  During 1993, changes within Marvel Entertainment Group saw the production company reorganised and renamed to New World Animation.  The writing of the series was reaching its conclusion at the end of summer 1994.  However, because the show remained on weekends during it's initial run and did not make the jump to weekday afternoons, new episodes kept airing until February 1996.

Recent additions, December 2020

 Robotix

With thanks to Jim Sorenson, the show bible for Robotix has been added to the MP 4000 section.  Along with the 14 scripts for episode recap, with correspondence by story editor Alan Swayze

Transformers

Background keys for select episodes of Season One have been added to the archive, thanks to Ryan King.

Elaine Hultgren, co-owner of and layout artist at XAM Productions in Utah, made the jump to storyboard artist for Marvel in 1985.  For her storyboard test, the Transformers episode Blaster Blues was used for story.  Those storyboards are now available at the archive.  Elaine would go on to be credited for the entire runs of Jem, Inhumanoids and Dino-riders.  Her career would continue to be involved with shows covered by the archive throughout the 1990s.  First with Marvel, then with Graz Entertainment and the final involvement with a Sunbow co-production coming with Generation O! in the year 2000.

The Transformers The Movie

All 31 storyboard sequences for the movie have been cropped to the original two-panel pages.  All pages have been straightened, vertical pans rotated and file sizes reduced for ease of loading and viewing.

Fraggle Rock

The full storyboard for the main title sequence has been added to the archive.

Transformers deleted dialogue recordings

 Uploads by Transformers At The Moon

MP 4023 The Transformers - Day 1 (in five parts)

MP 4024 The Transformers - Day 2

MP 4025 The Transformers - Day 3

MP 700

01 Transport To Oblivion

02 Roll For It

03 Divide And Conquer

04 Fire In The Sky

05 S.O.S Dinobots

06 Fire On The Mountain

07 War Of The Dinobots

08 The Ultimate Doom, Part 1

09 The Ultimate Doom, Part 2

10 The Ultimate Doom, Part 3

11 Countdown To Extinction

12 A Plague Of Insecticons (including Insecticon Body English for sound library)

13 Heavy Metal War

Laserbeak ADR session - Chris Latta and Wally Burr

Ravage ADR session - Frank Welker and Wally Burr

Season 2

21 The Immobilizer

30 Dinobot Island, part 2

August 2020 update

This month has seen some obscure rarities come to the archive.

MP 200 Pandamonium

Added model sheets, height comparison charts and background layouts for Pandamonium.  One of two co-productions in 1982 between Marvel and Intermedia Entertainment (on behalf of MGM/United Artists).

The series revolves around an alien artifact, sought by the sorcerer Mondraggor, which falls to Earth and breaks into pieces.  American brother and sister Pete and Peggy observe the piece which makes planetfall in Tibet.  Upon flying out to examine it, they discover three pandas have been turned into talking bipeds: Chesty, Timothy and Algernon.  The siblings and the pandas are now in a race against Mondraggor to reunite the pieces of the artifact.

The series was presented as a comedy with the panda's personalities being expys of The Three Stooges.  It and fellow Marvel/Intermedia show Meatballs & Spaghetti were among the last US animated shows to include a laugh track.  Both were cancelled after one season and have had no modern home release.

MP 700 Transformers

The Hasbro briefing binders, originally purchased from the Ron Friedman auctions, have been uploaded to the archive.
These include binders for the initial 1984 cast, including early names and designs.  As well as separate briefing material covering Shockwave, Jetfire, the Dinobots, Insecticons and Constructticons.

Air Raiders

Added the Sunbow press kit for what would have been the next Sunbow/Marvel co-production for 1987.  Development work by Doug Booth and Ron Friedman during the summer of 1986 led to a three-part pilot script written by Friedman and ready by January 1987.
Unfortunately, low retail orders of $30 million at Toyfair in February, combined with Hasbro's decision to abandon funding for full-length animation once the existing contracts were fulfilled, led to the pilot being cancelled.

Marvel Productions Behind The Scenes

A documentary made in 1981 during the production of Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends.  Spider-Man On The Move, presented by Stan Lee.  According to documentary producer Arthur Greenwald, Stan's star turn on this programme led to NBC requesting he record narration for seasons 2 and 3 of Amazing Friends, as well as narration retroactively added to repeats of season 1 and to The Incredible Hulk.

Sadly, the main production office (flat-topped, single story building) featured in this documentary burned down in March 1984.

8mm home video of Marvel Productions' head office, filmed in 1984 and uploaded by Bryce Malek, as he and Dick Robbins worked as story editors on The Transformers

 A floor plan of the head office from February 1986, from John Semper's files

1st floor

Ground floor

More of Bryce Malek's home video, this time of the office Christmas Party in 1986.  Putting faces to a lot of the names on the above floor plans.

July 2020 update

This month has seen some housekeeping at the archive.  The "Productions" links have been moved to the top of the page for easier navigation between the various shows

MP 600 G.I Joe

Due to the official Hasbro YouTube channel releases reaching 50 out of 95 full episodes.  The GI Joe section of the archive has been split into two parts, in the same manner as Transformers.
For production material from season 2, as well as the full script and storyboard samples from GI Joe The Movie.  Update your bookmarks to: https://sunbowmarvelarchive.blogspot.com/2020/07/mp-600-gi-joe-real-american-hero-1983.html

MP 900 Defenders Of The Earth

To streamline the DoE page, only full episodes which are supported by available production material will be uploaded.


MP 5205 Jem

A trio of music video storyboards have been made available to the archive:

First up we have There's A Melody Playin' by future Shrek director Vicky Jenson, from the episode In Search Of The Stolen Album.  Jenson took visual ideas from Madonna's Papa Don't Preach video, the single for which was only released less than two months before these storyboards were finalized.

Next is the original version of Love's Not Easy, by comics legend Romeo Tanghal.  This music video was slated to be the third video for the episode Island Of Deception.  Due to the issues which affected many shows sent out to overseas animators by Marvel Productions in the summer of 1986.  This episode along with 6 others in season 1 were cut down to 19 minutes of original animation.  The time being made up with music video replays and Superstar PSAs.

The video below is of a fanmade animatic using colourised versions of the storyboards.  This was premiered at Jemcon 2018:

Finally, there is Gettin' Down To Business, version 2.  Drawn by Marvel Comics and Productions artist Mike Vosburg for the season 2 episode The Bands Break Up.  Unusually for the time, the storyboards were drawn on 3-panel pages (left over from GI Joe The Movie), versus the usual 6 panels.  Viewers are encouraged to compare the storyboards with the finished video as major changes are made to the first five pages: