Sunbow Productions

This article is about the real-world company. For the fictional weapon, see Sun-bow.

Sunbow and Marvel Productions logos as they appeared in the credits of Transformers and G.I. Joe.

Sunbow Productions (rebranded as Sunbow Entertainment Inc. from 1995 to 2001) was an animation production company that was originally established by advertising agency Griffin Bacal in the early 1980s. Sunbow was founded for the purpose of creating animation to support and publicize the products of Griffin Bacal's clients, which at that time included Hasbro. Animated specials and series for many of Hasbro's 1980s properties, including The Transformers and G.I. Joe, were co-produced between Sunbow and Marvel Productions Ltd (Marvel Productions, in turn, outsourced most of their animation to Asian studios such as Toei and AKOM).

Marvel Productions handled the majority of the day-to-day production of the first season; Jim Shooter would even hyperbolically claim that Sunbow's only contribution to the production process was "removing [Marvel Productions'] cover sheets from whatever [Marvel] created and stapling on their cover sheets." But Sunbow began to take a more active hand with season 2; Associate Producer Flint Dille became more involved in production to give the show "a little more edge,", and has recounted numerous instances of him editing scripts. The involvement of Marvel Productions story editors Bryce Malek, Dick Robbins, and script editor Ron Friedman diminished as the season went on, until eventually, for the third season, Sunbow Productions took over much of the running of the show, and the three men were replaced with Sunbow in-house staff Dille, Marv Wolfman and Steve Gerber.

In 1998, Sunbow Productions was bought out by Sony Wonder, and subsequently sold off to TV-Loonland. Loonland re-established the company as Sunbow Entertainment Inc. On May 14, 2008, Hasbro announced it had acquired the worldwide distribution rights of the television series featuring their characters from TV-Loonland through the acquisition of the Sunbow catalogue.

Full length television and movies

• The Great Space Coaster (1981-1986)
• G.I. Joe (1983-1986 new episodes, 1987 repackage season)
• Charmkins (1983)
• My Little Pony (1984-1986)
• The Transformers (1984-1987 new episodes, 1988 repackage season)
• Robotix (1985)
• Bigfoot And The Muscle Machines (1985)
• Jem (1985-1988)
• The Glo Friends (1985-1986)
• Inhumanoids (1986)
• My Little Pony: The Movie (1986)
• The Transformers: The Movie (1986)
• Moondreamers (1986)
• Potato Head Kids (1986)
• G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987)
• Visionaries: Knights Of The Magical Light (1987)
• Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars (1991)
• My Little Pony Tales (1992)
• Conan The Adventurer (1992-1993)
• Conan And The Young Warriors (1994)
• The Tick (1994-1996)
• The Transformers: Generation 2 (1994-1995)
• Sgt. Savage And His Screaming Eagles (1994, direct-to-video)
• G.I. Joe: Extreme (1995-1996)
• The Mask: The Animated Series (1995-1997)
• Littlest Pet Shop (1995)
• Salty's Lighthouse (1997)
• The Crayon Box (1997)
• The Brothers Flub (1999)
• Fat Dog Mendoza (2000)
• Generation O (2000)
• The Cramp Twins (2001)

Animated toy and comic commercials

• G.I. Joe (1982-1990, 1994)
• The Transformers (1984-1990)
• Robotix (1985)
• Jem (1986, live-action advertising only for 1987)
• Inhumanoids (1986)
• Air Raiders (1987)
• Battle Beasts (1987)
• Ninja Warriors (1987)
• Visionaries: Knights Of The Magical Light (1987)
• C.O.P.S N' Crooks (1988)

External links

• Sunbow Productions at Wikipedia
• Loonland's companies, which include Sunbow and Metrodome.
• The Sunbow/Marvel Archive