Sunbow Entertainment/Summary

Logo descriptions by Nicholas Aczel and Adam P. Logo captures by snelfu, EnormousRat, StephenCezar15, and Eric S.

Video captures courtesy of English1stud's Sanctum, GDelva2003, Royger Short, NinJutsuDude1997 (AmantiDorian), and Eric S.

1st Logo

(1981-1984) Sunbow Productions (1981)

Nicknames: "Zooming Sun", "The Great Sun Coaster", "The Sunbow Sun"

Logo: We fade to a blue background. The symbol emerges from the top corner of the screen and zooms-down chryon-rollercoaster style. It then curves to the middle of the screen. The logo appears as a sun motif, with the company name "SUNBOW PRODUCTIONS" surrounding an orange-yellow circle. The words appear as the sun's rays, and they bear a vague resemblance to the Jeopardy! logo.

FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor: The zooming-in of the logo with the chryon trail. Very bad scanimation effects. The design looks like it's from the late 1960's.

Music/Sounds: A high "whoosh" effect, followed by an obscure keyboard-type chime that has a "wow" sound to it.

Availability: Extremely rare. Can be seen on VHS releases of the first three seasons of The Great Space Coaster by MGM/UA Home Video. However, outside of those tapes, it will probably not be seen again, due to the fact that there are legal issues preventing the series from being released publicly.

Scare Factor: Medium to high. The fast and rough zoom-in can be very startling for unexpecting viewers. The design looks very unfriendly as well.

2nd Logo

(1983-1994) Sunbow Productions (1983)Sunbow/Marvel (1984)Sunbow/Marvel (1987)Sunbow/Marvel (1987)

Nicknames: "80s Sun", "'Flashing Sun", "The Comet/CGI MP", "The Sunbow Sun II"

Logo: On a shady blue background, 4 dots of light fly from the midpoint of each side of the screen and merge in the middle, exploding into a huge ball of orange light that fades to reveal the Sunbow logo identical to the previous logo, but with a brighter orange color cast and black outlines. The logo "shines".

Sunbow-Marvel Combo Variants:•Television: On a dark blue background, a stylized "MP" (larger version of the first Marvel Productions logo, but colored blue and white) quickly zooms backwards, placing itself on the bottom half of the screen. When the "MP" is in place, a flash of light reveals the words "MARVEL PRODUCTIONS LTD." in a rounded white font, along with the byline "A CADENCE COMPANY" underneath in a smaller font. At the same time, a spark forms an orange ball of light on the top half of the screen, which fades to reveal the 1984 Sunbow logo. When both logos are in place, a very bright sparkle shines on the edge of the "P" in the Marvel Productions logo. •Movies and Television: We zoom out, over a space BG, from an orange planet, as a glowing orange ball of light hits it. This turns it into the Sunbow logo, as we zoom out through the bars of the CG Marvel logo, in silver/white (the Marvel logo also has the white part of the "M" absent), and the logos both shine. The television counterpart is the short version and only features the logos shining.

FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor: The dots of light merging, the orange light, the logo "shining"; kinda passe today, but pretty cool animation for the time, and the design looks cleaner and less extreme than the previous logo. The "MP" zooming backwards, the orange ball of light revealing the Sunbow logo, and the flashing effects for the combo variants.

Music/Sounds: A short, somber keyboard tune with two dings at the end when the logo shines. The end theme may also finish over it.

Music/Sounds Variants:•There's a remix of the fanfare that can be seen on the second season of Conan the Adventurer. •On Marvel co-produced movies, it has a "spacey-like" theme with whooshes that sounds like light-sabers. •On Jem and the Holograms, it has it's own theme: a fast-tempo 6 note jingle with a flourish-like sound on the 6th note. •On The Charmkins, the closing theme ends with a 7-note harp jingle, with a ding, which sounds like the Windows 95 jingle.

Availability: Rare. The standard variant was seen on later seasons of The Great Space Coaster, Conan the Adventurer (when last reran on Hub Network), Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, My Little Pony Tales (the early 90's reboot), Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Warriors, the one-shot DTV feature Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles (a spin-off of G.I. Joe), as well as early episodes of The Tick. For the Marvel combo variants, the first Sunbow/Marvel logo was seen on G.I. Joe, Transformers: Generation 1, and Jem and the Holograms when last reran on Hub Network, and on DVD, as well as the 1980s incarnation of My Little Pony, and both the shows that were bundled with it, Moon Dreamers and Potato Head Kids. It was also seen on Inhumanoids. The movie variant survives on the 2006 DVD release of the 1986 Transformers movie, along with later episodes of Transformers: Generation 1 and G.I. Joelast seen on Hub Network. As for the Charmkins variant, extremely rare.

Scare Factor: Depending on the variant:•Low, bordering on medium for the standard variant; the gloomy music and dark background don’t exactly make for a clean mix. •On the Marvel combo variants, it can range minimal for the TV variant (the animation might get to some people) and low to medium on the movie variant (the animation is cool, but the music can scare a few).

3rd Logo (1994-1999)

Nicknames: "'90s Sun", "The Sunbow Sun III"

Logo: On a black background, we see the dark blue text:

Sunbow Productions (1996)

SUNBW --ENTERTAINMENT

A yellow sun rises from between the "B" and "W," casting a light on the rest of the logo.

Variant: There is an abridged version of the logo.

FX/SFX: The sun rising, pretty simple but effective animation (were one able to parse the large sun as an "O").

Music/Sounds: A dramatic six-note woodwind fanfare with a "trill" at the end. The short version has the last three notes playing, along with the trill. The end theme may also play over it.

Availability: Rare. It appeared on later episodes of The Tick, Littlest Pet Shop (the 1995 version), Salty's Lighthouse, G.I. Joe: Extreme, Mission: Genesis (a.k.a. Deepwater Black in some markets), the short-lived Adventures of Hyperman, and The Mask: The Animated Series.

Scare Factor: Low. The dramatic music might catch some off guard, otherwise this is a nice logo.

4th Logo

(1999-2003)

Sunbow Entertainment (Sony Wonder byline)Sunbow Entertainment (2001)

Nicknames: "2000s Sun", "The Sunbow Sun IV"

Logo: On a white background we see the "SUNBOW" text from before only this time the sun in place of the "O" is more hand-drawn and has lines surrounding it.

Bylines:•1999-2000?: "A division of Sony Wonder". •2000?-2003: A black byline for TV-Loonland is seen below. Copyright information is far beneath the logo also in black.

Early Variant: On The Brothers Flub, the sun rises in a manner similar to the third logo and the background starts out blue before turning turquoise.

FX/SFX: None. The sun rising and the background changing color on the variant.

Music/Sounds: The closing theme of the program. A rooster crowing on the variant.

Availability: Was last seen on Generation O! on Kids' WB!, The Cramp Twins on Cartoon Network and Fox Box (which was later "4Kids TV"), and The Brothers Flub on Nickelodeon.

Scare Factor: None.

Final Note: In 2003, TV-Loonland folded Sunbow Entertainment. In 2009, Hasbro, Inc. acquired its properties (i.e. G.I. Joe and Transformers) from TV-Loonland. Two years later, the rest of the catalog was sold to m4e (made for entertainment) AG in Germany.