#hmm.... can't really tag the cat. i'm sorry. love u

[birindale]

I've mentioned the so-called "U-Matic tapes" before, but had tabled finding footage of them bc the next step was going to involve a lot more hacking than I'm capable of. But on my most recent research quest, I got a bootleg DVD which contained an unlisted feature: my personal white whale.

So what is this? Why did I want a copy so bad?

The U-Matic tapes were found in Filmation archives, and we believe this was part of the collaborative process between Mattel and Filmation's development of the characters.

It's easy to look at the Filmation designs and see where the studio's common practices are put into effect. Hordak was changed from gray-skinned to blue so that he would pop out against the backgrounds better. She-Ra's spiraling chest emblem was made symmetrical, because they'd learned that asymmetry and stock footage do not get along during their Superman cartoon.

But this--these designs, this singular tape--this is our missing link. The common ancestor between the first wave toys and the Filmation designs. And yes, I had still images, but not in the original resolution! Not with the clapperboard! This is an entirely unexpected windfall and I'm downright gleeful. Buckle in, folks, I'm breaking it all down:

Castaspella

Ah, Castaspella. She started out with really vibrant colors actually, Justine Dantzer designed her with this whole psychedelic vibe. Her magic wheel was originally super bright, primary colors that imo would have served the toy really well. Instead of 'look at this cool hypno disk' it would be 'look at this cool rainbow hypno disk'. Kids love rainbows! I'm not biased at all!

Obviously the biggest difference aside from her color scheme is the wheel. They did have it in early Filmation passes, but like... it's a giant wheel. I imagine it's kind of a pain to animate.

Double Trouble

Double Trouble, too, had a bit of a color scheme journey. She began with magenta and red, then apparently moved into this violet-and-blue combo, before finally settling on green. And like, the first wave did need more green imo. If they'd stuck with the red for Catra and that lilac for Glimmer they could have had a whole rainbow. And like, gay bias aside, that would be lovely for collectors, or kids that like to arrange stuff by color.

Anyway they kind of stole prototype DT's color scheme for Filmation Glimmer, probably because of the aforementioned 'pop' blue brings against their standard backgrounds. And speaking of...

Glimmer

The guide who lights the way! Filmation pushed her hair much pinker than the toy's (although it's dyed purple in one episode), but otherwise yeah, that's pretty much just Double Trouble's proto-outfit, sans tulle. I should note that the leotards and so on are likely also a 'reduce the number of frames we have to draw' measure. Lou Scheimer had a very, very strict policy that She-Ra's underwear never be showed, which made a number of shots incredibly difficult to animate (the spin-kick towards the camera comes to mind). Honestly it's probably the reason for our She-Ra's shorts. But it's where things like leotards come in handy, because you can animate the action without working around modesty or fabric physics.

Catra

Catra's the biggest downgrade, in my opinion. Like I know, toys marketing being what it is, that they had to push pink. But the red looked so cool! And I know it's difficult to see in the video, but her mask used to have fur like in the prelims. That I think was more of a practical decision, since it's harder to slip a fur-lined mask over rooted hair than a smooth plastic one, but I'd kill to see some test shots with it.

We're not sure what that flocked red Battle Cat mold is--if it's an early Clawdeen/late Tinx, or a shapeshifted Catra. I'm inclined to think the former, both because the play pattern is 'this one toy can be two forms' and because they appear to have added a silver collar in place of Battle Cat's helmet. It seems to have been scrapped for her winged horse Storm, at least for this wave, which is kind of a shame. I think a red velvet Panthor would have had a lot of crossover appeal with the MOTU market (and just been awesome in general).

She-Ra

She-Ra is pretty far along conceptually on both sides of the equation. Naturally, she was the first to be designed--you can see where Mattel was leaning into a tulle and reflective sticker thing and Filmation was like "we reeeeeally want to give her a winged opera-viking-helm thing though". You can see the mask, instead of hard plastic, is like, shiny foil.

Bow

The top of Bow's cape, too--shiny foil. His bow was shaped more like a traditional longbow, and his quiver appears to have been hollow instead of a single cast piece. His outfit is actually the least changed, both in the toy's production and in developing it for Filmation. Like the only things different in the cartoon are that he doesn't have a breastplate covering his heart & abs, and that they gave him a mustache. They tried to do a full beard initially so like. Hey. Could have been hairier!

The figure on the left, under proto-Enchanta, seems to be proto-Kowl. How quickly Justine Dantzer's concept was lost. Koala, plus owl--it's not that complicated!

but Mattel wanted to make a little guy with butterfly wings instead. Explains some of the Filmation concept art, at least.

Angella

Angella was probably changed the most for Filmation. Like they kept the pink and the wing-influenced sigil on her chest (and the actual wings), but they added that blue--almost certainly for contrast--and turned her blonde. Meanwhile the toy just refined the chest design and switched from opaque white to a semi-transparent pink for the wings. 'Cause you know, toy marketing.

Frosta

Frosta, too, was relatively unchanged. Both companies opted for a lighter shade of blueon the hair, and Filmation replaced the reflective elements with white & the sheer with a different shade of blue, but other than that it was pretty much just the same process they applied with Catra's fabrics. Mattel went for texture, Filmation went for an easy-to-animate silhouette.

Other

I've talked about Justine Dantzer's original vision for the Crystal Castle even more than the U-Matics themselves at this point. She loves eagles, she was really excited about the beak elevator thing, it didn't test well & Mattel decided it was too edgy. Thus, the eventual pink situation.

Speaking of eventual pink sitatuations--did somebody say Swift Wind?

That blurry, indistinct horse shape is everyone's favorite equine, in the flesh. Guys, look! He's white! There's a blue ombre on his wings! Suddenly the dichotomy of Toy! and Filmation!Swifties seems less extreme, no?

That bird-thing on the left seems to be a proto-Enchanta, albeit very different from the final product (which was basically just a swan with a mane, not this sick ass dragon-influenced version).

The shields were just round shields, but they may have been placeholders to show off colors/materials, because we know Noreen Porter had refined She-Ra's at least by this point.

The video quality is too poor to say for certain who had a weapon and who had a comb at this point, but Catra's little item there looks significantly pointier than the comb she wound up with. Maybe a comb-ination with a knife? I for one think she should get a blade or two. As a treat. They didn't even give her a sword until wave 3, and that wasn't even her main weapon [side-eyes the Shower Squirter judgmentally]

Man I still can't believe this just turned up. Who would have thought that trying to get cleaner footage of the 1985 Duck Soup commercial could lead to this. Thank you bootleggers you are doing god's work (media preservation). If anybody wants some Rainbow Brite or the live action Japanese Spider-Man or something, I had a pretty great experience with these guys. Only complaint is that their list of included features should be way more specific. I took a gamble on finding some footage anyway & while it didn't turn up I'm far happier with this result. Also if an officially licensed version of any of their titles comes out they take it off the store, which is like, weirdly honorable? But good for them, tbh. Good for them.

[melodythebunny]

mini Q and A??? ig

sooooo i've been off mostly and literally didn't check my inbox the whole time I've been away. so whoever sent these sorry for the late replies and @drtwobrains @professor-boxleitner I'm just gonna tag you guys on this post bc there are some questions referring to your ocs asks and answers below VVVV

hehe thanks! ^^ random idea between friends and I bc we all had cat themed ocs i tried to mimic the wordgirl art style as best as I could. brush sizes are really important with the style in my opinion.

Do you guys really want an answer to that/jjjjj just look at this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFsaGbhWUsk

chuck set him up-/j

carrie is offended u-u

:3

yeparoski! These kitties got claws and aint afraid to use them.

if your referring to us the oc creators....i can't remember... we sorta tossed the idea around. dunno if we'll do anything with it??? but maybe ;p

hmm dunno, gotta ask @drtwobrains and @professor-boxleitner about their ocs. but ik the general point of the au is that Bad guys are Good guys and Good are bad? @kurixta as for carrie yep...

hmmmmm dunno?? i can see either copycat or chesire being the leader. (they do probably quarrel over it sometimes....)

copycat can mimic other people tho there are some 'flaws' like the fact she cant stop making her trademark :3 face carrie just give ppl bad luck (cuz black cats and luck-) not always intentional but it can happen at random. cant remember chesire's tho-

coincidence.....? or maybe not??

pffttt- maybe in some random alternate universe- XD https://melodythebunny.tumblr.com/post/689960311250386944/guys-found-copycats-origin-story

but the fusion idea was a joke.

OMG YOUR RIGHT- @katthefantasy

@drtwobrains -insert that spiderman meme-

pretty much already a team up. got there cat gals committing crimes for fun

[byuntrash101]

Cat, your timing for posting part 2 was perfect. I legit just finished my finals 😭. Anyway before I comment on part 2 let me just say one thing I noticed about part 1 hmm.

In part 1 I noticed that bbh did stop OC from leaving the cafe with "worry in his eyes" hmm 🤔 this already made me think that something was up you know. With the warning of not trusting him I was like there's definitely something bad happening/ about to happen outside the cafe so he did all the sexy things with her to delay/keep her safe.

Then in part 2 he also said for her to not come over tomorrow. BBH u sus hahaha. And then we have OC and her father unbothered by the scream inside the restaurant. I already assumed by that time like oh heck they rich and people are screaming they probs the mafia.

The transition of their characters from part 1 being all cute and innocent 🍭to straight up dirty and evil 😏. Maybe they are meant for each other having the best of both worlds.

With all these in mind, I feel like getting Mr. and Mrs. Smith vibes with this except they just started seeing each other.

UNLESS!!unless!! bbh already knows she's mafia and is just using her. hmm I'm just so excited with the next parts ahh. This is probably my fave genre in one like mafia x smut x girl boss. And also chanyeol is here!!

I really hope tumblr fixes this shit. But right now I'm thinking of making a fan account just so I could reblog all the ffs I like (cause this personal acc is followed by my fam lol). And maybe try to write too hmm. Also you don't show up on my following list anymore although you do show up on my feed 😤 tumblr is weird.

Hope you had a great day Cat! we all can't wait for the next parts and also for your other writings!! Rest well

🍔

Hello !!!! Sorry it took me so long to get around to you! I hope you can forgive me :(

Omg how did your finals go ?? You are in med school right ? I admire you so much anyways I hope it went greeat!!!

I love your theories about part 1. One would Baekhyun be worried that day? hehe!!! It's so much funn!!!

yassss to the mister and misses smith vibes I love that movie!!!! I love strong couples like this!!!

Im so so so so happy you like it!!! 😭😭 I love you theories!!! They're amazing!!!

You're too cute wanting to make an account to reblog my stuff but don't worry there no need for that I think i figured out what the probleme was. I think it's du to my cover. Tumblr doesnt like that I use the same image for my posts. For part 3 I went with a super duper small (and ugly, idk how people do those) moodboards and it showed in the tags!!! I was so happy!!!

You are truly an amazing human being!!! ALways lifting me up when im down! Really thank you my juicy anon <3