Unknown Generation 1 animation studios
Right: Examples of final character models (again, notice the sharper lines on the face) and shaded coloring used by Toei.
When producing animation for the original Transformers cartoon, Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions utilized the services of Toei, AKOM, and at least two unknown animation studios.
Episodes
Season 2
The existence of work by a studio other than Toei or AKOM was first indicated by Toei's own website resume, which confirmed they produced only 39 of the second season's 49 episodes. Of the remaining 10 episodes, 3 are immediately identifiable as AKOM productions, leaving a remaining 7 to be the work of the unknown studio. Identifying exactly which episodes were done by this unknown studio has always posed a challenge, as the quality of their work does not differ significantly from that of Toei, but extensive research by your friendly neighorhood TFWiki editors has yielded the following list. The main identifying feature is the consistent use of outdated animation models for a handful of the new season 2 cast members that are not seen anywhere else in the season outside of this limited group of episodes. Those episodes are:
- Features the alternate model for Hoist
- Features alternate models for Tracks, Hoist, and Inferno
- Features alternate models for Tracks, Astrotrain, and Omega Supreme
- Features alternate models for Inferno, Hoist, and Smokescreen
- Features alternate models for Tracks, Skids, Thrust, and Astrotrain
Immediately obvious features of the alternate models include: Red Alert being colored bright white instead of greyish off-white; a rounder head for Inferno, based on the one seen in his full-body character model, rather than the more toy-accurate design seen in other episodes from his close-up head turnaround model; a black helmet with orange horns for Grapple, as opposed to solid orange (which is, for the most part, actually toy-accurate); a green-and-orange hinge in the centre of Hoist's chest rather than solid orange, burgundy parts instead of red on Smokescreen; red pectorals and shoulder-vanes on Thrust instead of grey/black; black windows on Tracks's robot mode (but not vehicle mode); a grey helmet and shoulder-wheels on Astrotrain instead of purple; more toy-based tech-detailing all over Omega Supreme; and a pale blue torso instead of dark blue on Skids. There are other, more subtle differences, including "softer" facial designs; check the "Notes" section on each character's individual article for details. All of these early models appear in the original commercials advertising the toys; most of the Autobot characters did not reappear in later seasons, but Omega, Astrotrain, and Thrust's early models continued to be consistently used for all season three appearances by the characters that were animated by AKOM.
The remaining episode is harder to pin down, but exhaustive research indicates it is "A Prime Problem", which features the same general softness of line and warmth of color as "Auto Berserk," as well as some unique airbrushing effects seen in that episode, and in the aforementioned commercial. It also features a lot of very un-Toei block-shading lifted overly literally from character models.
Check out this article's talk page for our very thorough dissection of the particulars!
Season 3
Of the 30 episodes in season 3, at least 1, "Call of the Primitives", is definitely animated by a studio other than Toei or AKOM. Fandom scuttlebutt going back to the 1990s has identified this studio as Tokyo Movie Shinsha, but no legitimate evidence for this claim has ever appeared. While it is often stated as fact, the truth is, we really don't know.
The episodes "Starscream's Ghost" and "Only Human" are prominent candidates for work produced by a studio other than Toei or AKOM. Both were widely accepted as being Toei's work by fans in the 1990s simply because they are visibly of vastly superior animation quality than any AKOM offering, but when Toei's aforementioned website resume revealed that the studio produced only 13 of the season's episodes, the numbers didn't add up, and these 2 episodes were relegated to being considered AKOM productions by default, despite their drastically different visuals. In reality, it is much more likely that they were the work of the same unknown studio from season 2; in addition to using outdated color models for Rodimus Prime and Galvatron (like AKOM), they also consistently use the incorrect, outdated designs for Rodimus, Galvatron, Cyclonus, Arcee, and Springer, which doesn't happen anywhere else in the season. Even AKOM was more up-to-date in their reference material than that!
Possible locations
Series production co-ordinator Paul Davids referred to a third studio in a 2002 interview, noting it was only used "a few times" and claiming it was in the Philippines. Davids appears to be mistaken in his recollection, however; the only animation studios open in the Philippines at the time Transformers season 2 was animated were Optifex, who worked exclusively for Hanna-Barbera, and Burbank Animation. While Burbank did work on Sunbow/Marvel shows made around the same time, like Jem, My Little Pony and Defenders of the Earth[1], their resume does not appear to include any Transformers episodes.
Although Toei has a Filipino branch, they were not established until November 1986, well after production of both season 2 and 3 of The Transformers (bar "The Return of Optimus Prime") had already been completed.
As such, there has been no luck in determining the identity of this mysterious studio.
External links
- Interview with production coordinator Paul Davids at the Cybertron Chronicle, suggesting the use of a studio from the Philippines: "Three to four weeks 'in-house' to prepare character designs, backgrounds, color models, record voices and edit soundtrack, complete the storyboard, and ship the show to Korea or Japan (and a few times we used an animation facility in the Philippines)."
