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Thread: Transformers 80s cartoon storyboards & scripts

  1. #1
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    Default Transformers 80s cartoon storyboards & scripts

    This site isn't new and I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it here before somewhere, but there has been something new added, so it is worth noting once again... detailing all of the older material, including what I think is the prized possession - the 1986 Movie storyboards, showing a lot of the original details that were messed up in the final version of the Movie (that fans fight over), plus the cut scene of Ultra Magnus carrying three Autobot cars to destroy Devastator just before Optimus and Megatron fight.

    The Beginning
    Marvel Comics original treatment (modern reproduction)
    Marvel Comics issue 1 commercial, full storyboard
    The Pilot
    4023-4024-4025 More Than Meets The Eye full script (revised 13.03.84)
    The Interim
    MP Internal Correspondence on series development (30.04.84, transcript)
    Writer's Bible (Season 1 cast only)
    Season 1
    01 Transport To Oblivion full script X 2 (revised 08.06.84, final 22.06.84)
    02 Roll For It full script X 2 (reconstructed first draft + final)
    03 Divide and Conquer full script (final)
    04 Fire In The Sky full script X 2 (unedited original + final)
    05 S.O.S Dinobots full script (revised Friedman)
    06 Fire On The Mountain full script (revised Friedman)
    07 War Of The Dinobots full script X 2 (unedited original + final)
    08 The Ultimate Doom, part 1 full script (final)
    09 The Ultimate Doom, part 2 full script (final)
    10 The Ultimate Doom, part 3 full script (final)
    11 Countdown To Extinction full script (final)
    12 A Plague Of Insecticons full script (final)
    13 Heavy Metal War full script (final), full storyboards
    Season 2
    18 City Of Steel storyboard samples
    21 The Immobilizer storyboard samples
    24 Day Of The Machines full script X 2 (reconstructed first draft + revised Friedman)
    25 Enter The Nightbird partial script X 2 (reconstructed first draft + revised Friedman, missing pages 40-42)
    26 A Prime Problem partial script (missing pages: Cover, Cast, 1, remaining pages after 34)
    27 The Core partial script (missing all pages before 15)
    28 The Insecticon Syndrome full script (revised Friedman)
    29 Dinobot Island, part 1 full script (revised Friedman)
    30 Dinobot Island, part 2 full script (revised Friedman)
    31 The Master Builders full script X 2 (reconstructed first draft + revised Friedman)
    32 Auto-Berserk full script X 2 (reconstructed first draft revised Friedman)
    Series Update circular from Flint Dille (07.02.85)
    33 Microbots full script (unedited)
    34 Megatron's Master Plan, part 1 full script X 2 (reconstructed first draft + revised Friedman)
    35 Megatron's Master Plan, part 2 – Additional Material section storyboard
    38 Blaster Blues full script X 2 (reconstructed first draft + revised Friedman)
    Elaine Hultgren storyboard test – 4 page storyboard, uses Blaster Blues for story
    39 A Decepticon Raider In King Arthur's Court full script X 2 (reconstructed first draft + revised Friedman)
    41 The God Gambit X 2 (unedited original + revised Friedman)
    42 Make Tracks X 2 (reconstructed first draft + revised Friedman)
    60 Cosmic Rust AKA Rust In Peace full script, full storyboard, 1st page of outline
    61 30 Seconds Over Megatron AKA Starscream's Brigade full script (unedited)
    62 The Revenge Of Bruticus X 2 (reconstructed first draft + final)
    Dialogue scripts from all 65 episodes (call sheet available for Hoist Goes Hollywood)

    Sunbow and Marvel Productions Script/Storyboard Archive: MP#700 The Transformers 1984 – 1987 (Sunbow Productions/Marvel Productions) part 1

    The Movie

    Second Ron Friedman outline (28.03.85)
    Second Ron Friedman draft script (27.04.85)
    Second Ron Friedman draft script revised (02.05.85)
    Undated Sunbow revision script
    Dialogue script (Walker Edmiston's copy)
    Full storyboards (sequences 1-31)

    Sunbow and Marvel Productions Script/Storyboard Archive: MP 4034 The Transformers The Movie

    Season 3

    The Eye Of The Beholder (unused premise, transcript)
    92 Chaos outline (1st page of Act I, 1st page of Act II)
    106 Fight Or Flee full script (final)
    110 Grimlock's New Brain first page of outline
    115 Return Of Optimus Prime, part 1 full script (final)
    116 Return Of Optimus Prime, part 2 partial script (final, missing pages 12-18)
    Cast list file (01-116)
    Synopsis file (01-116)
    Dialogue scripts from all 30 episodes (call sheets available on Chaos and Dark Awakening).

    Sunbow and Marvel Productions Script/Storyboard Archive: MP#700 The Transformers 1984 – 1987 (Sunbow Productions/Marvel Productions) part 2

  2. #2
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    This archive is the gift that keeps on giving.
    Just added to it are big scans of the Transformers pages in the American Toyfair catalogues from 1984 to 1990.

    In addition to the on-site exhibit displays at Toyfair, this book would be the primary marketing tool for retailers, which they would take back to the office for future reference... in an era before the internet.
    The 1984 pages are particularly nice, as the images and text was essentially the premiere unveiling of the Transformers concept to the world. The images might not show anything too significantly different despite being pre-production figures (like Sunstreaker having red shoulder missiles), but the product descriptions would be how these toys were being described to people who had no idea what a Transformers toy or character was.

    The main page of links is here (not just Transformers pages, which is really fascinating for other toyline fans), and it has the Transformers scans split across two other pages that you have to scroll down to find the Toyfair scans (on google-drive as pdfs, but can be downloaded).

  3. #3
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    Not from that archive, but there has been another item from the 80s just found... a promotional pre-production figure of the toy that we would later see released in 1985 by Hasbro as Shockwave. (and licensed to a number of other companies during that decade, including Astro Magnum and "Shackwave" by Radio Shack (officially called Galactic Man, homaged just last year with the GEN Selects grey redeco of Siege Shockwave) that some of us had, particularly in countries that had Radio Shack, and might have been easier or cheaper to find the non-Transformers version)

    The company in Japan that created the original toy was called Toyco, and this chrome silver coated version was said to be one that was sent out as promotional pieces.
    (for those who don't know, the original Transformers toyline was created by people at Hasbro in America, going to Japan and buying the rights or licenses to various transforming toys from several different Japanese toy companies... some of which are competing companies, which is why a number of early Transformers Branded toys by Hasbro couldn't be released by Takara in Japan when they released the Hasbro toyline in 1985)

    Toyco have tweeted out a video of the silver Shockwave, and screenshots can be seen here.

  4. #4
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    It's amazing how 30-something years later, we are still discovering things from the early years of Transformers, for the first time.

    Currently on ebay is a listing for a promo pack for the 1986 Transformers Movie, for us$825 plus postage.
    There are some sample photos from the promo pack, which are mirrored here for when the ebay listing disappears.

    It hasn't sold yet, but I have photos of these sample pages (and more) saved from February.... but I can't remember if it was at the archive in the first post, or from TFW and the source wasn't noted.
    Either way, it would be a great and rare item of Transformers history to own, so I'm surprised it hasn't sold yet... considering how much people are splashing out on single (official and 3rd party) toys & licensed statues these days.

  5. #5
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    The Hasbro Toyfair Catalogues I collected and posted last year, which cover all 7 years of US G1, have now been centralised on a permanent landing page at: https://sunbowmarvelarchive.blogspot...atalogues.html

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    The G1 show bible has been up at the Archive for some time, now joined by it's first supplement. The Transformers New Product Addendum, detailing the new cast that joined the show in season 2.


  7. #7
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    Also noting that the Toyfair catalogues from the 80s, are at one location, which is highly recommended to check out, with Transformers toys from 1984 to 1990.

    I saw on the tfw posting a cover letter by Jim Ward, but it wasn't included at the archive link... claiming that he had a submitted story idea rejected that was similar to "Enter the Nightbird" .
    The dates probably support this, as the character addendum is from February 1984, and the script for Nightbird is dated December 1984 (and first aired in September 1985).

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by griffin View Post
    Also noting that the Toyfair catalogues from the 80s, are at one location, which is highly recommended to check out, with Transformers toys from 1984 to 1990.

    I saw on the tfw posting a cover letter by Jim Ward, but it wasn't included at the archive link... claiming that he had a submitted story idea rejected that was similar to "Enter the Nightbird" .
    The dates probably support this, as the character addendum is from February 1984, and the script for Nightbird is dated December 1984 (and first aired in September 1985).
    As I said there, the opposite is likely true. The date on this addendum ought to read February 6th, 1985. I think it is purely the case that, as a prospective freelancer, Jim Ward didn't know that plot had already been done when he submitted his premises. Unless said premises are among items yet to be auctioned (they haven't been so far), there is no way to prove it conclusively.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Greebtron View Post
    As I said there, the opposite is likely true. The date on this addendum ought to read February 6th, 1985. I think it is purely the case that, as a prospective freelancer, Jim Ward didn't know that plot had already been done when he submitted his premises. Unless said premises are among items yet to be auctioned (they haven't been so far), there is no way to prove it conclusively.
    February 1984 does feel like it is too early, but February 1985 is way too late, as the *completed* scripts with those new characters were written a month before, in January 1985... and that would be after several months of soliciting story ideas from potential writers (with the story concepts, characters and the year 2 addendum), selecting the best ones, getting them approved by Hasbro, and then soliciting people to write the scripts (which are not always the same people who submitted the story ideas).
    Maybe the date on the document was mixed up and it was meant to be June 2nd instead of February 6th... which would be a better fit for the timeline.

    Maybe some of the writers back then could shed some light on the rough timeline of involvement for the original scripts, from first being contacted by Sunbow to submit a story idea, to the submission of the completed script.

  10. #10
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    It was the 8th of May in America earlier today, and that means it was the unofficial 38th anniversary of Transformers, as that was the date in 1984 that can be confirmed as the first official release of anything to do with Transformers (the toys and cartoon came out a few months later).

    In commemoration of the anniversary, storyboards for the TV commercial for that first issue of the Transformers comic have been posted up (or here), and a first for me is seeing the actual commercial on youtube... which looks to be Sunbow animation, but has a lot of concept art and colourings of characters like Megatron and the Seekers.
    And take note of how the Ark originally looked, as a long black rectangular spaceship, that differs greatly from the Ark in the comic (a silver squarish spaceship) and the Ark in the cartoon (a yellow curved spaceship).


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