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: Model sheet gallery

Following on from my post at the end of October, detailing the numerous My Little Pony N Friends storyboards and other material donated to the Archive by user yanchagraffiti, below is the link to a gallery of a 185 sheet model pack. 

Covering Attitudes, Turnarounds, Mouth Guides and Construction Models for the various types of ponies, Megan and her family, the Moochick and his rabbit, the Grundles and the Bushwoolies.

View them all at My Little Pony N Friends model sheet gallery

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?

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:

New page: D&D, Young Astronauts, Pandamonium

New page at the Sunbow Marvel Archive, combining Marvel's early network endeavours of Pandamonium, Dungeons & Dragons and The Young Astronauts at the following link.

Marvel Network Shows 1982-1986

The standalone D&D page will remain for a time, but will no longer be accessible from the main banner.

(VIDEO) The Young Astronauts: Wendy Hampton auditions

With thanks to yanchagraffiti for providing the files, linked below are auditions for the character of Wendy Hampton, on the Marvel Productions' series The Young Astronauts.

These are specific excerpts from an hour-long reel.

Susan Blu

Nancy Cartwright

Jeannie Elias

(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