Bumper Films

Background

Bumper Films (Ffilmiau Bumper Cyf) was a Welsh children's stop-frame animation production company formed on June 26, 1982 by John Walker and Ian Frampton. They are best known for Fireman Sam, which premeired in 1987 and is still going strong today. In 2001, the Fireman Sam brand was sold to Gullane Entertainment and after production on Starhill Ponies ended in 2002, the rest of the company closed down.

1st Logo (1983)

English variant
Welsh variant

Logo: Superimposed over the ending of the show, at the bottom of the screen there is the text 'made by Bumper Films Ltd. for S4C' in yellow. Underneath it is the copyright 'Rocky Hollow ©Rockcense Ltd 1983 ©S4C 1983'.

Variant: On the Welsh version of Rocky Hollow, the text reads Cynhyrchiad Ffilmiau Bumper Cyf. ar gyfer S4C' instead. The copyright is the same.

Technique: None, except for the ending of the show.

Music/Sounds: The ending of the show.

Availability: Rare. It only appeared on Rocky Hollow.

2nd Logo (November 1, 1987-November 17, 1994)

Fireman Sam Original variant
Fireman Sam VHS variant
Fireman Sam Welsh variant
Fireman Sam season 4 variant
Fireman Sam Welsh post-1995 season 3 variant
Fireman Sam Welsh post-1995 season 4 variant
Joshua Jones variant
Joshua Jones Welsh variant
Fireman Sam Remastered variant

Logo: The screen fades to a white background, and a picture of a bumper car fades in. Inside it are two boys; the first one is wearing headphones and holding out a microphone, and the second is looking through a camera with a telephoto lens. On the car is a yellow flag with the company name in black. The whole symbol is colored blue and yellow. Underneath the bumper car is the text "BUMPER FILMS Ltd for S4C", with "S4C" being in said channel's corporate typeface and with each letter colored respectively in blue, green and red. A copyright stamp attributing Prism Art & Design Ltd is displayed underneath.

Variants:

On Fireman Sam, "with thanks to the Fire Service" is written in Gill Sans under "BUMPER FILMS Ltd for S4C".
On early episodes of Fireman Sam, the "S4C" letters are in blue and directly based on the 1982 corporate typeface.
On Joshua Jones, the logo is drawn much differently (with the colors on the flag being inverted), and the copyright text is different. Instead, it reads "BUMPER FILMS" in Futura Condensed, and then "for S4C, BBC, Prism Art & Design" underneath. Below that are copyright stamps for Rob Lee and S4C.
On Season 4 of Fireman Sam, the logo has been made identical to the Joshua Jones variant, but with "With thanks to the Fire Service" underneath and the copyright stamp for Prism Art and Design Ltd.
On post-1995 reruns of Welsh prints of Fireman Sam (Or Sam Tân in Welsh) the logo is set on a black BG and is on the top with Welsh text saying "Cynhyrchiad" ("Production") and on the bottom of that is the 1995 S4C logo of the time and text saying "Ar Gyfer" ("For") on the top of the 1995 S4C logo. The copyright date is below that. "BUMPER FILMS" is in English though.
On current remastered prints of the original series of Fireman Sam, the logo has the 1995 S4C logo in the left corner, and the 2000 HIT Entertainment logo in the right corner, and the copyright notice now also says "© (year) S4C International (with S4C in the 1995 typeface, along with the notice that reads "BUMPER FILMS for S4C") and Prism Art & Design Limited, a HIT Entertainment Company."

Technique: The fade in from white.

Music/Sounds: On Fireman Sam, the synthesized whoosh from the end of the show's theme tune is heard. Oddly, the "whoosh" sound is also heard in Joshua Jones, but sounds noticeably faster.

Music/Sounds Variant: On the Fireman Sam special "Snow Business", a wind-like sound is heard.

Availability: Uncommon.

Presumably on original broadcasts and VHS tapes of the first four seasons of Fireman Sam.
The variant with the HIT logo is seen on current DVD releases and BBC iPlayer prints of the original series of Fireman Sam (where the intro freezes when Sam gives a thumbs up and then the title zooms in), though some DVD releases have the original logo intact.
The logo was present on all episodes of Joshua Jones, which was given a DVD release in Australia but not the UK.

3rd Logo (April 7, 1999-2002)

Logo: On a white canvas background, we see the words "Bumper Films" under the Mike Young Productions logo in a blue pudgy font. Underneath the symbol reads "for S4C" with "S4C" being in the channel's then-current logo typeface. A copyright stamp appears below.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: The end theme of the show.

Availability: Very rare. Was only seen on Starhill Ponies.