New secondary blog: Animated 80s

Within the last week, I have launched and am currently building a companion blog to the Sunbow Marvel Archive.  One which will house production material from cartoons of the 1980s not produced by either Sunbow or Marvel Productions: Animated 80s

This site will feature scripts and storyboards that have come my way whilst in the course of pursuing material for the Archive proper.  These currently include:

• The New Adventures of Flash Gordon
• Blackstar
• The Smurfs
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
• Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors
• She-Ra: Princess of Power
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)
• G.I Joe: A Real American Hero (DiC)

Dungeons & Dragons: Jeffrey Scott premises, outlines, etc

The Archive now hosts various premise lists and outlines for seasons 1 and 2 of Dungeons & Dragons, previously sold off by Jeffrey Scott

Season 1

• Eye Of The Beholder premise
• In Search Of The Dungeon Master - Step outline
• Beauty And The Bogbeast - full outline
• Servant Of Evil premise
• The Garden Of Zinn full outline
• The Box - Step outline
• The Lost Children - Step outline

Season 2

• 9 pages of unused premises
• The Dark Side outline (later to become The Traitor)
• Dungeon Master...Rest In Peace outline, revised to become...
• The Master's Disciple outline (taken to full script by Michael Reaves as Day Of The Dungeon Master)
• Venger's Turnabout premise by Wendell Washer (with CBS feedback notes)
• The Last Illusion outline (with CBS feedback notes)

To read all of the new material, head to Marvel Network Shows

The Incredible Hulk and She-Hulk: 1983 attempted relaunch

The 1982 Incredible Hulk series lasted only one season of 13 episodes, with no renewal by network NBC.  However, Marvel Productions still held out hope that it could be salvaged.  

Presentation documents were written by Misty Stewart in early 1983, seeking to relaunch the series as The Incredible Hulk And The She-Hulk, with Bruce Banner's cousin Jennifer Walters, introduced in the episode Enter: She-Hulk, as a co-headliner.

Changes included rewriting the Hulk to be less like the comics incarnation and more like the live-action TV series which had ended the year before.  Additionally, the network presentation suggests that the show have Bruce Banner and Jennifer Walters not be related to one another, in order to facilitate love triangle storylines involving Betty Ross. 

Photos taken from ebay auction. 

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

(YOUTUBE) Storyboard video playlists

In order to grow the Archive's YouTube channel, I have been creating videos showcasing the various storyboard sets available.  Either full half-hour, full quarter-hour or a single Act.  Playlists are available below

Transformers

My Little Pony N Friends

More videos will be added in future, so please consider subscribing to the Archive YouTube channel

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