This section showcases Busta Toons ever-growing collection of animation art from Filmation's He-Man and She-Ra series.

How did you start?

I began collecting animation cels back in 1997. I had always wanted to own something in my He-Man and She-Ra collection that was very rare, and being a big fan of animation, cels had interested me for many years. So I decided to begin hunting for Filmation production cels.

What was your first piece of art?

The first piece of art I ever purchased was of He-Man (from MU94) and Orko (from MU128) on a laser background (from MU9). I bought this piece of art from someone who had just placed an advert on the Usenet stating that he was selling the art. I was very fortunate in that I was the first person to contact him. I was very wary of buying cels from overseas, as I live in the UK, and was worried that the art would not survive the journey. Fortunately it came through in perfect condition, and the addiction started...

Why are He-Man and She-Ra cels so good?

He-Man and She-Ra cels are so good because they one of a kind; it really is that simple. Warner Brothers, Disney and Hanna Barbera will very rarely sell production cels, because they prefer limited editions. In other words you pay a lot of money for a cel that everyone else has, usually the ratio is one in one thousand. A lot of these limited editions are not hand painted as machines on a production line paint them in mass. Therefore you own a completely unoriginal mass-produced cel. He-Man and She-Ra had no limited editions. The cels you see here are one of kind. The only duplicate cels are the publicity cels, which were given to employees of the company, or sequences of similar stock footage. He-Man and She-Ra cels were created in the day when cels were of very little value, so Filmation didn't mass-produce one thousand cels and call them "limited editions."

And now without further ado, onto the collection...

These are one of a kind cels. Occasionally they were used more than once in He-Man and She-Ra episodes, but this was common for Filmation as they had a heavy stock system. Sometimes Filmation would even make an almost identical replica of the same cel for use in another situation or episode. It is sometimes strange to see two cels that are almost identical and yet both one-of-a-kind production cels. Production cels are the most common form of He-Man and She-Ra animation art.

The cels and backgrounds here are both from the same episode and individual scene. They appeared on the screen as seen here. These are usually the hardest pieces of art to find.

Layout art is often the most diverse and odd-looking pieces of Filmation material. Layout artists would look at the storyboard and draw how the shot should be framed. Some artists, depending on time, would draw beautiful pieces of layout artwork, while others would rush the piece. Sometimes layout art is superior to the final cel drawing itself!

These pieces of artwork were Xeroxed onto an acetate cel, and painted by the colorists. Sometimes in the transition from paper to cel detail was lost. The style of Filmation really shines through in these pieces. You will notice on some animation cels that blue text is written next to the drawing. These were usually instructions from or to the director. The reason the text is written in blue, is that the Xeroxed machine would not pick up the color blue.

Model sheets were created for all departments of Filmation’s artists as the final character designs. Animators and storyboard artists used them as character reference, colorists used them for quick reference, and directors used them to see how a character’s color scheme would look.

These color charts were given to the cel painters, so that they knew the specific colors of the characters. This was also for the most part related to continuity, so that the colors did not change in the slightest from scene to scene.

These pieces were knocked up by the artists at Filmation and were used to advertise the show. Whether it were a forthcoming season or just a regular re-run, if advertising were needed, they would usually use these cels. At the same time, Mattel itself would have some promotional artwork that were more in keeping with the look of the toys. Those particular pieces of artwork would have a wider distribution than the Filmation ones.

Most original hand painted backgrounds have a cel outline layered over the top to give the background shapes a distinct black line.

Laser backgrounds are easy to come by as cel specialists run them out on a color copier. While they are very beautiful to look at you do not get the same depth and feeling as owning an original hand painted background.