Unproduced G.I. Joe Vehicle – Borer

Andrei Koribanics freelanced for Hasbro in the mid-1980s.  Besides today’s Borer art, I’ve also come across a figure concept by him (that may end up in Chapter 14 of my book) and the presentation painting of Sgt. Slaughter’s Renegades (in Chapter 6).  Leaky Suit Brigade has a tiny interview with Koribanics, and should have a longer one up at some point.

For those of you who note Cobra’s heavy use of drill tanks in the weekday cartoon, it’s interesting to note that toy-wise, the Joe team may have wound up with a fleet of personal ones.  I can just imagine the ads — this toy popping through a wall of mulch laid in a brick pattern, ’88 Joes stopping Destro’s Iron Grenadiers from some nefarious subterranean plot.

Based on the scale of the cockpit and the figure in it, this unproduced vehicle would have been a little under $10, I think.  What I don’t know, however, is how much input other designers may have had.  Koribanics might have concepted this all by himself and drawn this with little outside input, or the idea (or a sketch) may have started under someone else’s pencil.  Regardless, this are nice illustrations of what might have been.

And what might R&D and Marketing have come up with for a name?  What acronym says little, one-man drill tank?  DART, for Drill Attack Retrievable Tank?  PBD, for Personal Borer Drill? What would you name this vehicle had it made it to market?

“The Rotten Egg” storyboards batch 6

Sorry for the delay!  Back to blogging!  Thanks to all the visitors who clicked here while I wasn’t posting.

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More storyboards from writers Steve Mitchell and Barbara Petty’s “The Rotten Egg,” this time pages 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24.  Sorry, I don’t know who boarded these, but when I do I’ll update this sentence.

Things will get a little more interesting with batch 7 when the final animation deviates a little from the storyboard.

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Cobra Night Raven designs by Steve Reiss

Steve Reiss attended CCS, the College for Creative Studies, before it had that name, back when it was called Society of Arts & Crafts in Detroit.  It had long been a school with a reputation for vehicle design.  After Reiss joined Hasbro in 1985 he was soon designing G.I. Joe vehicles, like the stunning 1986 Cobra Night Raven, based on Lockheed’s also-stunning SR-71 “Blackbird.”  For your reference, here’s the real thing:

    And here are Steve Reiss’ six pages of designs, the basis for a rough, three-dimensional model.

For play value, Reiss added a one-person drone that latched onto the top of the larger jet:

And here’s the parts breakdown.

The final toy is black with opaque red accents, and the clear red cockpit windows are a lovely, extra detail.  The Night Raven is also quite long, and I recall always needing two hands to support it.  It’s one of the most attractive products in the entire Real American Hero product line — elegant, sleek, and aggressive.

“The Rotten Egg” storyboards batch 5

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More storyboards.  This time it’s pages 16, 16A, 17, 18, and 19.

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I Was a Teenage Sunbow Intern – Part 8

In our last episode ([Part 1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]), Tim began his internship exploring production materials for The Brothers Flub.

In the first week, there were two art-related tasks given to the interns.  The first was for MIP or MIPCOM, annual markets where networks, producers, and studios meet to buy, hype, and sell programming for television.  Much as ToysRUS’s year revolves around Christmas, Sunbow’s year revolved around these.  I don’t know who attended, but presumably our top Sales, Production, and Development people from the New York office.  I think they were in different cities each year, and the two different conferences were six months apart.  And one was exclusively for kids shows?  Notably, these weren’t just about American studios and English-language programming.  These were global, where a small network in Chile might plan its broadcast year, or a French studio might sell its first package of 52 half-hours and finally get on the map.  Both names you have heard of and lots you haven’t are in attendance.

My boss Randy explained what needed doing.  Some large color artwork for Brothers Flub was to be mount spray mounted on foam core.  Presumably at a Sunbow table at one of the conventions there would be an easel to display it.  Thinking back, studios probably brought (or rented?) TV/VCRs, and certainly brought VHS tapes, but I doubt they had portable video projectors.  So besides small printed ad slicks and press kits, an old-fashioned sign might be the best way to attract eyeballs.  Two other interns handled this, and I think they did the work in the back stairwell that no one ever used, probably not known for its proper ventilation.

I don’t recall what the other task was for, but it may have been a network or the Los Angeles office.  But I got to do it, and I was thrilled to be working with Sunbow assets, even if Randy said something like “It’s not a big deal/it doesn’t have to be perfect,” meaning the stakes were not high and no one was actually relying on my ability to color match.  It had something to do with communicating what colors the main characters in Brothers Flub were, and the client/end user/mystery person was then going to… print out their own version?  Better know what the paint colors would look like as a broadcast signal?  I don’t remember.  But for some reason, it wasn’t being done with actual paint or the code numbers for animation cel vinyl paint.  I had some oversized Brothers Flub printout, and was matching the colors as best I could to Pantone colors.  But instead of comparing to a Pantone chart and writing down the color codes, I had a Pantone swatch keychain with plastic chips for each color, and Randy had encouraged me to cut a small piece from each and glue it into the poster next to its analog.  I think the New York office lacked some prop for doing this the correct way.  I didn’t understand why it was okay to ruin this presumably expensive item, but Randy was unphased.

And so I did, a little distressed that I was chopping up a fancy Pantone tool because we were missing some other tool, and disappointed that this job was not important.  On the other hand, I was happy to be doing something rather that sitting in the intern room, and I could somewhat put to use the small bit of color theory I had taken two years prior.  I mean, not just anyone could match color swatches, right?

There were two other main tasks for production interns, one which led me to treasure I had seen on my tour, and the other that led to buried treasure the likes of which I could not imagine.

What were they?  Tune in next time to find out!  [Next Part]

[Part 1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Larry Hama’s Fury Force Helicopter

Told at many conventions and in many interviews is the prehistory of G.I. Joe, how Larry Hama pitched a military comic to Marvel called “Fury Force.” He sketched out six heroes — covert military types — along with a motorcycle, a van, and a secret base underground base. And later grafted it onto Ron Rudat’s G.I. Joe action figure designs, and made it the through line for the monthly G.I. Joe comic book.

Fury Force had a helicopter, too.

Unproduced: Towed Artillery Missile System

Sorry for the delay in posting.  School starts and trips accrue in September.  To get back into it and take a break from “The Rotten Egg” and my exciting internship today we’ve got Rich Rossi’s color rendering of a vehicle concept, the Towed Artillery Missile System, which I’ll call the TAMS for short.  In all honesty I don’t know anything about it, so we’ll play the reasonable assumption game.

Drawn in ’84, it would have been pitched for ’86 or ’87.  But often concepts would get shot down, only to resurface later, or inspire a later idea.  In 1988 a different vehicle showed up, the similarly monikered RPV, or Remote Pilot Vehicle — boy did the names not flow for these two.

I don’t wish to draw a straight line between them, that one inspired the other, but it’s safe to say they both filled a specific price point, play pattern, and concept.  But notably the TAMS seats no driver and carries no figure, even by precarious foot peg.  And to further differentiate it from the RPV, by ’88 scale, detailing, and concepts were getting exaggerated and moving away from strict military realism.  The structure of the TAMS more resembles the detailing on earlier vehicles like the FLAK and the ASP, shown here.

There’s a stronger sense of parts and bolts and hardware, whereas the late ’80s styling smoothed out edges and surfaces.  Since these catalog scans aren’t too enlightening, here are links to much nicer photos of each, from the fine folks at yojoe: the FLAK, the ASP, and the RPV.

One thing’s for sure — Real American Hero had no shortage of small artillery accessories.  These were great for populating a small-scale battlefield with variety, even if they weren’t as much fun as “regular” vehicles like Jeeps and tanks, or as story-driving as a headquarters playset.