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

The Flint Dille Collection: Bigfoot And The Muscle Machines

Some more material originating from Flint Dille's storage has been granted release.

After Ron Friedman's two attempts to create an outline for the Super Sunday anthology show Bigfoot And The Muscle Machines, Flint was tasked to take over the project.

The Archive is pleased to add Griffin-Bacal's briefing binder detailing Playskool's toyline, started in 1983 and inherited by Hasbro in 1984. For the series itself, Flint's full outline and two versions of the first episode script Cryptic Cargo.

Additionally, the Archive has added a Super Sunday press release which gives an insight into the early development of Robotix.  As well as brief synopsis for show ideas "Starlite" and "Stoney"

Both versions, along with auditions sheets read by Susan Blu and the full character lineup, are available at: Sunbow Syndication 1985-1987

Transformers The Movie: Ron Friedman's first script

In 2010, screenwriter Ron Friedman consigned many scripts and reference material from his days writing for Sunbow Productions in the mid-80s, to be sold by Heritage Auctions.  A group effort by fans, coordinated by Jim Sorenson, saw 31 Transformers TV scripts, briefing binders and the second script for The Transformers The Movie bought up, scanned and made available online.

One item that eluded this endeavour was Friedman's first script for the Movie.  Completed in February 1985 and rejected by Griffin-Bacal, who supplied a new outline for Friedman to make a second attempt, before Flint Dille was called in to make heavy re-writes as production commenced.

In Autumn 2020, former Sunbow producer Flint Dille was in the process of clearing out his storage, finding many items from his decades-long writing career.  One such item displayed online on October 9th was a second copy of that first Movie script.  Most likely in Flint's possession as reference for his and Creative Director Jay Bacal's own unsuccessful attempt at writing a Transformers movie: The Secret Of Cybertron.

The following month, Jim Sorenson flew out to LA in order to scan as many of Flint's written works from his Sunbow days before they were auctioned off.  On November 2nd, he scanned this script and sent the digital files to me for merging and OCR.

The script was used as the basis for a panel presentation at TFNation 2022, hosted by Jim Sorenson and Chris McFeely, that summarised the plot and featured fanart intepretations from a quartet of artists.

Now, fourteen years since it was first seen, nearly three years since a second chance emerged and a full year since the story was revealed to the world, the Sunbow Marvel Archive is proud to present the very first script for The Transformers The Movie (link to Movie page)

The Wally Burr Collection

Thanks to Rich Helscher, the Archive now hosts a sizeable portion of paperwork previously belonging to the estate of voice director Wally Burr.  If anyone out there owns copies of items from Wally's collection not represented here, please get in touch.

Audition sheets

Transformers (56 pages, characters A-M)
Transformers (52 pages, characters N-Z)
Transformers (19 pages, alternate set)

G.I Joe - Xamot and Tomax (Michael Bell and Corey Burton), Zarana (Lisa Raggio).
Bigfoot And The Muscle Machines - Jennifer Minerva McGraw, Red and Redder (All by Susan Blu).
Glo Friends - Glo-Cricket, Glo-Turtle, Moose (Lorenzo Music)
Fraggle Rock - Travelling Matt (Pat Pinney).
Dino Riders - Mind Zei (Peter Cullen), Serena (Noelle North).
Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes - Dr. Putrid T Gangreen (John Astin).
Bucky O'Hare And The Toad Wars - Al Negator (Gary Chalk), Bucky O'Hare (Jason Michas), Deadeye Duck (Scott McNeil), Dogstar (Gary Chalk), Jenny (Margot Pinvidic), Will DuWitt (Shane Meier).
Thor, Tales Of Asgard (2011 Direct-to-video) - Loki (Rick Gomez), Sif (Tara Strong), Thor (Matt Wolf) script samples for audition.

Scripts, Call sheets, Dialogue scripts

MP 700 Transformers

67/87 Five Faces Of Darkness, Part 2 - Flint Dille
Full script - Flint Dille's copy, included here as placeholder
Full script - Wally's notes
Call sheet and dialogue script - Ted Schwartz (Rodimus Prime) script copy.

68/88 Five Faces Of Darkness, part 3 - Flint Dille
Full script - Flint Dille's copy, included here as placeholder
Full script - Wally's notes
Call sheet and dialogue script - includes handwritten  dialogue for John Moschitta ADR session (Blurr, Wheelie, Quintesson)

69/89 Five Faces Of Darkness, Part 4 - Flint Dille
Full script - Flint Dille's copy, included here as placeholder
Full script - Wally's notes
Partial call sheet and dialogue script

70/90 Five Faces Of Darkness, Part 5
Full script - Notes by Wally Burr
Call sheet and dialogue script

91 The Killing Jar - Joey Kurihara Piedra and Michael Charles Hill
Full script - second revision, Wally's notes

Full script - third revision, notes by Michael Charles Hill.  Contributor credit: Ryan King

Call sheet and dialogue script

Storyboards

MP 4034 The Transformers The Movie
Note - though these storyboard scans have been available at the Archive since 2020, it is only through collectors buying copies sold by Wally Burr in the mid-2000s that made their inclusion possible.

Storyboards artists:

Peter Chung
Jooin Kim
Chung Hwan Oh
Sioak Park
Sangil Shim
David Shin
Soo Young Chung
Del Barras
James Gomez
Ernie Guanlao
Doug Lefler
Rico Rival
Romeo Tanghal

(If anyone has information about which artist did which sequence, please get in touch so they can be properly credited)

* = scene truncated

+ = scene cut, but dialogue retained and moved.

Sequence 1: 6, 9, 18 before 17, 29, 34, 37 divided into 37A and 37B, 38, 39 divided into 39A and 39B.

Artists: Peter Chung

Sequence 2: Entire sequence simplified.  Green star, satellites, asteroids, ice crystals, stellar ring, nebula and swirling vortex all out.  Superman credits or Star Wars crawl in

Sequence 3: 7*, 22 no pan - static shot.

Artists: Peter Chung

Sequence 4: 1 no pan.

Sequence 5: 2-9, 31 replaced, 36

Artists: Peter Chung

Sequence 6: 15, 24*, 25, 34, 45-48A, 52, 56 replaced, 57-72, 89*, 90

Artists: Peter Chung

Sequence 7: 31, 32, 39-44B replaced by early trailer footage, 54, 55+, 62-65, 67, 68+, 69-72, 83-87 no effects.

Artists: Peter Chung

Sequence 8: 4-8, 11, 37, 37A, 48, 49, 54, 55, 62 replaced by 104, 71 replaced by 78, 80, 81, 83*, 86, 102-111, 116, 122-126, 128+, 130-135, 151, 152*, 183, 188* 

Artists: Peter Chung

Sequence 9: No visuals cuts, 10 second cut to score due to timing issue.

Sequence 10: 2

Sequence 11: 18, 31A, 32, 33, 36*

Sequence 12: 3

Sequence 13: 2, 4C, 10-12, 30, 32

Sequence 14: 2, 16, 18-20, 26, 27

Sequence 15: 24-28, 44, 53*, 57A*, 61, 61A revised, 61B-64, 66, 76, 77, 80, 82 cont. with action from 83, 84A, 84B, 99, 102-105, 107*, 108-112, 114-126

Sequence 16: 2*, 17*, 18-21, 23-25, 34+, 40, 41, 47, 48, 54, 56, 62, 73, 74* 

Sequence 17: No visual cuts, Hot Rod dialogue moved from sc. 11 to sc. 1

Sequence 18: 3, 5, 6, 8, 15, 16

Sequence 19: 10, 11, 17, 23+, 30A, 33 static, 35, 38-41+, 53*, 71

Sequence 20: No cuts

Sequence 21: 1-3, 5-7, 11*, 12, 19A

Sequence 22: 1, 3, 8 revised, 10 revised, 13, 27 revised, 28-30, 32*, 33-35, 37-40 

Sequence 23: 2B, 2C, 3-5

Sequence 24: 33F, 40*, 41, 42, 45, 49, 50, 53 revised, 59+

Sequence 25: 7-11B revised: 8, 10 cut, 7 and 9 action on 11, 14*

Sequence 26: 3C-3H, 14A, 15-15B action moved to 14D, 15-15G, 18, 21, 22A-22C, 23B, 26-27B, 48A

Sequence 27: 1, 12, 14-16, 25 replaced by 25A and 25B, 29, 30, 28 and 31 continuous scene, 34, 35, 39, 41-42, 43-47, 48 revised, 49, 55, 56, 60 moved to 49F, 61-64, 65-70 moved to 49A-49E, 75-77, repeat of 71, 78 moved to 82A, 79, 83, 84

Artists: Peter Chung

Sequence 28: 2

Sequence 29: 13 and 14 revised (Unicron uses eye laser, not hand)

Sequence 30: 27, 28, 41-42, 46, 47A, 47B moved, 52 replaced by 40, 53

Sequence 31: No cuts

Sequence order in finished film

1 to 13

14-1 to 14-29

15-1 to 15-6

22

14-29A to end of 14

15-7 to end of 19

21

20

23 and 25 combined as a continuous sequence

24

26 to 31