Simon Letch, the guy who posts G1 scripts online has just added a first draft of Fire in the Sky to his archive at:

https://sunbowmarvelarchive.blogspot.com/2019/06/mp700-transformers-1984-1987-sunbow.html

The majority of the original dialogue is very different from the lines eventually spoken but the same basic ideas still get communicated. There are however two interesting bits where the original script intended to go in a direction a bit different from what we originally got.

In the fflashback scene where Starcream and Jetfire blast off from Cybertron there's this stage direction:

" THE PICTURE CHANGES to show Jetfire and Starscream flying out over the planet of Cybertron and TRANSFORMING into aircraft modes. (If we must be particular about this, Starscrearn should transform into a Cybertron aircraft instead of an Earth-related plane.)"

So you see the wirters were at least trying to maintian some level of continuity.

And then the end scene is kind of trippy as originally written. Instead of Optimus saying "We shall remember you, Skyfire" and all the Autobots chiming in somberly with "We shall remember..." we get:

"OPTIMUS PRIME (VO-CONT)
He shall live forever ... Long live Jetfire!

ALL (VO)
Long live Jetfire!

.... and the Northern Lights glow behind them as we ..
FADE OUT"

I just really can't read this as anything other than upbeat and happy. These Autobots remind me of the end to Marvel #3 where Gears is dead-ish and Prime tells Spider-Man not to worry about it.

The "Yay he's dead!" ending gives me tonal whiplash. I almost expect Bumblebee to walk up with a shovel and ask 'So we gonna dig him out or what?'

On Sunday, May 9, 2021 at 12:08:27 PM UTC-6, Steve L.K. Macrocranios wrote:

> https://sunbowmarvelarchive.blogspot.com/2019/06/mp700-transformers-1984-1987-sunbow.html

I'm looking at the early Autobot cast list for the cartoon, and it lists both Cliffjumper and Blow-Out, both Windcharger and Sprint, both Trailbreaker and Guzzle, and includes Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, and Spin-Out all listed together.

It's probably just somebody being confused, since Blow-Out is described in documents later as a red Porsche and has Cliffumper's biography associated with him, as is the case with Sunstreaker/Spin-Out and Trailbreaker/Guzzle.

Weirdly, Bumblebee and Wheeljack seem to be last-minute additions!

> " THE PICTURE CHANGES to show Jetfire and Starscream flying out over the planet of Cybertron and TRANSFORMING into aircraft modes.
> (If we must be particular about this, Starscrearn should transform into a Cybertron aircraft instead of an Earth-related plane.)"
Too bad that particular note either didn't make it to the animators, or it was ignored by them. Well, at least they made an effort.

> I just really can't read this as anything other than upbeat and happy. These Autobots remind me of the end to Marvel #3 where Gears is dead-
ish and Prime tells Spider-Man not to worry about it.

SPIDER-MAN: This Gears is stone dead! Gears is no more! This is an ex-Gears!
OPTIMUS PRIME: He's not dead. He's just resting. Probably pining for the fjords.

Zob (it's Mother's Day, so naturally my kids are acting as rotten as possible)

On Sunday, 9 May 2021 at 19:08:27 UTC+1, Steve L.K. Macrocranios wrote:
> Simon Letch, the guy who posts G1 scripts online has just added a first draft of Fire in the Sky to his archive at:
>
> https://sunbowmarvelarchive.blogspot.com/2019/06/mp700-transformers-1984-1987-sunbow.html
>

An odd way to describe me, but not inaccurate.

The owner of this script bought it from the full set of first drafts that eventually ended up sold by Masterforce UK back in 2013/14. The copies of War Of The Dinobots and Cosmic Rust also came from that set, contributed by private owners. Looking for leads as to who owns what from that set and who is willing to help is an ongoing concern.

Zobovor wrote:
> I'm looking at the early Autobot cast list for the cartoon, and it lists both Cliffjumper and Blow-Out, both Windcharger and Sprint, both Trailbreaker and Guzzle, and includes Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, and Spin-Out all listed together.
>
> It's probably just somebody being confused, since Blow-Out is described in documents later as a red Porsche and has Cliffumper's biography associated with him, as is the case with Sunstreaker/Spin-Out and Trailbreaker/Guzzle.

Well it just seems weird to me that yellow Cliffjumper, red Bumblebee, and Bumblejumper did make it to production without names, plus the three Diakron colored guys existed who may or may not have been models Budiansky used as visual reference. So maybe some of those were not alternate names for the characters we eventually got, but were intended at some point for the toys that existed but went unnamed or unused.

On Sunday, May 9, 2021 at 7:01:50 PM UTC-6, Steve L.K. Macrocranios wrote:
> So maybe some of those were not alternate names for the characters we eventually got, but were intended at some point for the toys that
> existed but went unnamed or unused.

Definitely possible. I can certainly envision a scenario in which Hasbro was saving blue Trailbreaker, red Mirage, police car Sunstreaker, etc. for a potential future release... at least until they got distracted by the Dinobots and Constructicons and forgot all about it. There was nothing inherently unsellable or objectionable about the Diaclone toys that went unused (except maybe for Marlboor Wheeljack, but even that could have been sold with some deco changes).

Somewhere in this vast multiverse, there's an alternate reality where we never got The Transformers: the Movie at all, and 1986 was just a third year of Diaclone toys—Skids in silver, Ironhide in black, Hoist in yellow, etc. Maybe even some toys that we never got as Transformers in any form.. On the Microchange side of things, there was a pair of binoculars, a combination lock, a flashlight...

Zob (Takara was already doing Real Gear Robots back in the early 80's!)

On Sunday, May 9, 2021 at 7:43:37 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> On Sunday, May 9, 2021 at 7:01:50 PM UTC-6, Steve L.K. Macrocranios wrote:
> > So maybe some of those were not alternate names for the characters we eventually got, but were intended at some point for the toys that
> > existed but went unnamed or unused.
> Definitely possible. I can certainly envision a scenario in which Hasbro was saving blue Trailbreaker, red Mirage, police car Sunstreaker, etc. for a potential future release... at least until they got distracted by the Dinobots and Constructicons and forgot all about it. There was nothing inherently unsellable or objectionable about the Diaclone toys that went unused (except maybe for Marlboor Wheeljack, but even that could have been sold with some deco changes).

The smoking gun for me would be character models drawn up for these toyless names, showing what exactly Guzzle, Spin-Out, etc. were supposed to look like and what molds they were based on. But I don't know if that has ever popped up or even exists. It's just the darndest thing that some of these guys made it to stores but had no corresponding cartoon representation, even if just a model sheet. Even Jetfire got a model sheet.