Sunbow Entertainment

Background
Sunbow Entertainment (formerly Sunbow Productions until 1995) was a American production company and animation studio formed in 1980 by Griffin-Bacal Advertising. Their first production was The Great Space Coaster, but were most famous for their cartoons based on Hasbro's toylines in the 80's, like The Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, as well as their own original shows in the 90's, like The Tick. In 1998, Sony Wonder bought up Sunbow Entertainment, but was later sold to TV-Loonland in 2000, which folded Sunbow Entertainment in 2004. In 2009, Hasbro, Inc. acquired its properties (i.e. G.I. Joe and Transformers) from TV-Loonland. TV-Loonland themselves filed for bankruptcy in December of that year, and, 2 years later, the rest of TV Loonland's catalog was sold to m4e (made for entertainment) AG in Germany.

1st Logo (January 1981-1984)


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

Logo: Fading in to a medium/dark blue background, a strange dark object emerges from the top right corner and zooms into the middle, leaving a chyron trail as it does. As it stops zooming, the dark shadows on the object disappear, revealing itself to be the Sunbow Productions logo. It consists of a orange circle with a yellow gradient on the edges, and surrounding it is the text "SUNBOW PRODUCTIONS" in the same colors, but with the pattern reversed, in a font similar to that of the Jeopardy logo. The text is arranged in a circle pattern, which are supposedly made to resemble "sunrays".

FX/SFX: The zooming-in of the logo with the Scanimated chyron trail.

Music/Sounds: A high-pitched synth "whoosh" effect, followed by an synth keyboard-type chime that has a "wow"-like pitch and a echo effect.

Availability: Extremely rare. Can be seen on the first three seasons of The Great Space Coaster, which were released on VHS by MGM/UA Home Video. Four episodes were available on Vimeo's On-Demand service for a short time.

Editor's Note: The fast and rough zoom-in with the sudden SFX can be very startling for unexpecting viewers. The design looks fairly unfriendly as well.

2nd Logo (September 12, 1983-February 11, 1995)
Nicknames: "80s Sun", "'Flashing Sun", "The Sunbow Sun II"

Logo: On a shady blue background, 4 small dots (3 white and one pink), come in from all sides to merge in the middle, causing a small flash of light to appear and a off-center orange circle to grow. As it reaches its maximum size, 2 6-pointed lights appear and rotate in opposite directions of each other briefly, and the circle shrinks a bit, fading to the same logo from before, but with a saturated color scheme and black outlines. 2 pings then appear, on on top of the "W", and another on the bottom of the last "S".

Variants:
 * On co-productions with Marvel Productions, they have a unique logo together:
 * Early Variant: 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.
 * Later Variant: Zooming out from a orange planet, we see a detailed space background with a nebula, as well as a white and orange light. The orange light reaches behind the planet and causes the planet to burst into light, turning it into the Sunbow logo, while we zoom out from some silver bars that close up to form the Marvel Productions logo, this time in silver. The lights on the Sunbow logo die down, and the Marvel logo rotates straight upwards as the trail for the text recedes. Both logo shine, a simple wipe on the "MP" and a circular wipe on the Sunbow text, as stars flash in the background. The television counterpart is the short version and only features the logos shining.
 * Short versions of the logo exist, usually starting with the huge orange ball or the finished logo shining.

FX/SFX: The dots of light merging, the orange light, the logo "shining"; The "MP" zooming backwards, the orange ball of light revealing the Sunbow logo, and the flashing effects for the combo variants.

Music/Sounds: Some sparking sounds, followed by a short, somber piano/bass/synth tune with two synth dings at the end when the logo shines. The end theme may also finish over it.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * There's a fully synthesized remix of the fanfare with a whoosh as the dots converge that can be seen on some season one and all season two episodes of Conan the Adventurer.
 * The Sunbow/Marvel movie variant uses a bombastic synth fanfare with a chorus and explosion, as well as lightsaber-esque sounds for the shining.
 * Originally, the sparkling wasn't present.

Availability:
 * Standard Variant: Uncommon. The version with the end theme was seen on the 1992 episodes of Conan the Adventurer while the version with the jingle is used on 1993 episodes of said show both on Tubi TV, Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, My Little Pony Tales (the early '90s reboot), Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Warriors, a few CBS Schoolbreak Specials like A Matter of Conscience, 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.
 * Earlier Music Variant: Extremely rare. It was seen on the final two seasons of The Great Space Coaster, international prints of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (the 1989 series), and the 1984 CBS Special The Secret World of the Very Young.
 * Early Marvel Combo Variant: Rare. This combo was seen on G.I. Joe, The Transformers, and Jem and the Holograms, as well as the 1980s incarnation of My Little Pony, and both of the shows that were bundled with it, Moon Dreamers and Potato Head Kids. It was also seen on Inhumanoids.
 * Later Marvel Combo Variant: Rare. The longer variant is seen on The Transformers: The Movie. Meanwhile, the shorter version is seen on later episodes of The Transformers and G.I. Joe.

Editor's Note: The effects in this logo are rather passe today, but are pretty cool cel animation for the time, and the design looks cleaner and less extreme than the previous logo.

3rd Logo (Late 1994-June 26, 1998)
Logo: On a black background, the faint edges of some letters can be seen as a yellow circle, representing the sun, rises up. Eventually, the entire logo brightens up to reveal the Times New Roman text "SUNB W", with the sun being an O to form "SUNBOW". Below the sun, "ENTERTAINMENT" can be seen in a Helvetica font. All the text is in blue.

Variants:
 * There is an sped-up version of the logo.
 * A still version also exists.

FX/SFX: The sun rising. Pretty simple, but effective animation.

Music/Sounds: A dramatic 6-note woodwind fanfare with a "trill" at the end. The short version has the last 3 notes and 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.

Editor's Note: The dramatic music might catch some off guard; otherwise this is a nice logo.

4th Logo (1998-1999?)
Nicknames: "CGI Earth to Sun", "90s Sun II", "The Sunbow Sun IV"

Logo: A spinning globe of the Earth zooms out to reveal a space background with a shining light in the top left corner. The Earth veers into center right as several gold and white bars slide in from the left and right side of the screen, which fold up to form the Sunbow text, with "SUNB W" going up one-by-one and "ENTERTAINMENT" going up in one piece. Lastly, the logo fades to a 2D version on a white background, with black text and a white/yellow gradient sun.

FX/SFX: Decent CGI done in-house.

Music/Sounds: A rock theme with a few whooshes added.

Availability: Unknown. It's unknown where this came from, other than possibly from international VHS tapes of their shows.

Editor's Note: None.

5th Logo (January 17, 1999-February 19, 2005)
Nicknames: "Sony Wonder Sunbow", "2000s Sun", "The Sunbow Sun V"

Logo: On a blue background, the dark blue text "SUNB W" can be seen, as a yellow circle rises up from the bottom. As it settles into position, the entire logo brightens up, turning the background turquoise, and the circle gaining lines via a wipe effect, making it similar to Sony Wonder's sun at the time. "ENTERTAINMENT" fades in below the text, spaced out to fit the length of it, and the byline as well. The sun also gains a shadow.

Bylines:


 * 1999-2000?: "A Division of Sony Wonder".
 * 2000?-2003: "A TV-Loonland Company". Copyright information is far beneath the logo also in black.

Variant: With the TV-Loonland byline, the logo became still and the background white.

FX/SFX: The sun rising and the background changing color, or none later on.

Music/Sounds: The sound of a rooster crowing, or the ending theme of the show later on.

Availability: Rare. It was seen on Generation O!, The Cramp Twins, and The Brothers Flub.

Editor's Note: None.