I don’t think I’m going to go through all of the production notes. You can get it from the Sunbow Marvel Archive, unlike the Doctor Who notes we have documents that will be going over everything in there anyway. I do want to focus on a few things of interest. For example we’ll be checking out the Autobots and their human allies in this section. I think we’re still on the first draft’s notes going in. Whomever put this file together opted to put them all in one big file rather than separate between drafts.
We already know some to most of what’s in this because we have the “final” results, but I’m still hoping for some interesting curiosities going in, and we have official Hasbro and CBS notes in this at some point. Sadly, we won’t be going over those today, but these are the notes going into the first draft, and hopefully we’ll learn something interesting.
That’s all the padding I can come up with for an intro. Unless this is your first installment, and I do recommend to at least read the article series intro to get caught up, you already know everything going into this. Let’s just roll out already.
AUTOBOTS GOAL: Want to stop the Decepticons, protect earth. They are the electro-mechanical police of the galaxy. Autobots know what Decepticons are after and try to outguess them.
Like in the last installment I don’t know if there’s any significance to the colors chosen for highlighting. For all I know his highlighters kept drying up on him. Most of the remaining paragraphs in this section are highlighted in yellow, but I’ll spare your eyes coloring the letters to match. This and another section are highlighted in green, both colors not used in the Decepticon section. The idea of robot space cops were better realized with the GoBots in their cartoon, though sometimes the Renegades acted more like Cobra than a gang. I think they started leaning into the war idea, which Marvel/Sunbow would also try to do with the Robotix adaptation.
TRAILER opens up into Autobot headquarters. It could shoot a laser into anything (mountain, ground) and cut into it, then open up into Headquarters. This way the Decepticons can never discover the Autobots HQ. Inside HQ is small ATV (as well as robot mecho-arm, for repairs).
I do like the idea that Optimus Prime’s trailer and Roller would have seen more screen time under this version, but it doesn’t sound like they’re components of Optimus Prime like the toy’s tech spec bio and rare cartoon appearances gave us. I’m trying to figure out how they’re saying this works with the “shoot a laser into something” tying into “open up into Headquarters”. The toy could have the robot part pop up from the top if you wanted, so maybe that’s where the laser would come from, but is it burying the base? I thought they were just climbing into the trailer, treating the toy version like a way too small playset.
BUMBLEBEE = comic relief. He can’t get himself to work correctly. Runs into things, runs out of gas. People alway catch him driving “without a driver”. He’d get a speeding ticket, etc.
Da’ Bee deserves better than pretty much anything from either draft. How does he get a speeding ticket if they don’t see a driver? I defend comic relief characters when they’re needed and I just don’t think this show would need one, whether it was Bumblebee or Gears.
TEENAGE GIRL: Bumblebee is her car. She is torn between growing up like a normal teenager and wanting to help the Autobots stop the Decepticons. She might be on a date in her VW when they get a cal I and the car starts by itself. She’ll have to kick the guy out and drive away. This disturbs her. She is an A student. Smart as a whip. Gives the Autobots a down-to-earth understanding of what’s going on. This sometimes gives them an edge over the others. She also brings them an emotional, loving, warm side … which they must grapple with. This, too, helps them in the end to win their battles against the Decepticons.
I don’t know why Wendy is listed as “teenage girl”. I know there was confusion at one point of pre-production and maybe these notes are from that period, hence why we’re getting “Bumblebee” instead of “Toad” (thank Primus). I do like the occasional culture clash, which I think the comics did better under Budiansky’s run. However, and this could be because I’m so used to what ended up with, this just feels so odd as to not be missed from the final product.
TRUCK DRIVER: Optimus Prime’s truck. He’s a Han Solo type. Doesn’t want to be there. Wants to go back to work. “Give me back my truck” attitude. He bitches and moans when they commandeer his truck in the middle of a run, but in the end, he comes around (like Han Solo) and helps them out. He also gives them an understanding of the common man and he knows the roads, where to hide, where others might hide, he can get them parts if they need. He’s a great mechanic and might even help save them. He doesn’t quite understand their sophisticated electronic guts, but with his mechanical know-how he can come up with something to help them. He struggles between earning a living (for food and clothing, which Autobots don’t understand) and helping them out. He sometimes drives around, looking for Decepticons. Optimus talks through his CB speaker when he’s in truck form. He might also run some of the special equipment in the trailer when Optimus is gone. Truck driver speaks with Dem’s and Doe’s. He constantly gets angry when Optimus takes over his truck. He worked for years to earn the money to buy his truck, still making payments. “Hey! You ruined my warranty!” Constant banter between them which Optimus patiently accepts. Truck driver refuses to leave his truck. Yells at Optimus when he dents the truck.
I’m trying to decide whether or not I would have hated “Truck Driver” (again, this could come from after Hasbro nixed “Duke” as his name) based on this description. Part of me wants to mentally depicted him as a variant of Jack Burton from Big Trouble In Little China. On the other hand I think this is where I really turn against the “possessed vehicle” idea because this does feel like a kind of jerk move, plus all damage is to the truck, not Optimus. I’d have to see him in action before deciding if I’d hate this version, but we don’t live in that timeline.
The AUTOBOTS have arrived more recently. They just discovered the Decepticons are on earth and that is where our series begins. Autobot “glowing beings” spoke to truck driver and took over his truck. Same with girl. They didn’t want to, but Autobots gently insisted … for the greater good.
Never even saw the movie and that line still gets into my head. I really should see that movie someday, though. Yes, that section is highlighted in green. In continues on the next page, but the blue markings are back. There’s one near “Truck Driver” that I think says “space marshalls”, which would be in the wrong spot. The idea of them being “police” was at the start of the page, not the middle, and unless he’s listing TD as a deputy it’s an odd placement to me. Then again, notes only have to make sense to the person writing them down for themselves. We all have notes that would weird to anyone else but make perfect sense to us.
At the bottom of the page we get “How about the Autobots took over a car club (guys and girls) and now they have humans with them?” Scott must have really wanted that car club, but it wasn’t going to happen, Jeff. Stop trying to force it into existence. That’s a good thing, really. The original miniseries had TWO humans, with the series we got adding two more and a recurring character. I don’t think Raul even met Spike, Sparkplug, Chip, and Carly. The future period only had Daniel with Spike and Carly occasionally showing up, while Sparkplug, Chip, and Raul were never even mentioned. With Hasbro wanting to focus on the toys and their characterisation, there wouldn’t have been room for a decent sized car club to get any worthwhile focus even in a weekday series with all the toys to introduce as new characters. So it’s probably for the best that Jeffery Scott didn’t get his car club.
The last part of the “Autobots” section is pretty short.
AUTOBOTS want to keep themselves a secret so they do not disturb earth. EMOTIONS – Autobot cars must have feelings! They care about things.
Want to return home. Miss loved ones, etc.
LARGE TOW TRUCK gets Autobots out of trouble when they have crashed.
Giant helicopter hauls Decepticon jets away. (This part was in yellow, but it hurt MY eyes trying to find a decent shade)
AUTOBOTS – When cars crash they must be fixed by others in “operation” style repair.
There’s also a section for the two groups together. It’s also short, and is just bordered in purple highlighter.
AUTOBOTS/DECEPTICONS can crash and bust themselves up. They react to this with a discomfort until they are repaired.
AUTOBOTS/DECEPTICONS can not transform when they are damaged. They must be repaired first. Or perhaps only part of them can transform. This could lead to jeopardy, especially when someone is about to find out about Autobots.
AUTOBOTS/DECEPTICONS grow “tired” when their batteries run down. Need charging. When they run out of fuel they stop. “We’re running on empty!”
AUTOBOTS/DECEPTICONS are not indestructible. They are metal and as such can be dented, bashed, burned, broken, etc. They need repair like cars and/or machinery. They are only as strong as their size and weight would allow.
AUTOBOTS/DECEPTICONS cannot tell one another from regular jets/cars.
All of these we got in parts in the actual show. We want our heroes to not be invincible. Even Superman has some kinds of limits under good writing despite his powers and power level.
From here, Hasbro and CBS would have their own notes, which we’ll go over in the next installment. Also, we’ll get to see Jeffery Scott’s…art skills? This puts us halfway through the collected notes, but I’m going to skim over a lot of this half to get on to the second pitch already.
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