Behind the memories

Every favorite has a story.

Creators, design, and the history of play.

New here? Start with a toy, a game or a cartoon, then follow your curiosity through the collection below.

The Hanna-Barbera Pac-Family riding their blue domed car through a painted Pac-Land landscape.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

Walk Lines and Float Lines: Drawing Pac-Man’s Television Cast

Hanna-Barbera's Pac-Man model sheets give the family a walk line, the ghosts a float line, and a growing cast a shared sense of scale. Five drawings show how the ensemble fits together.

An imagined animation revision desk with graphite pencils, pegged paper, a small eraser and a toy doghouse.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

Revised 6/24/86: The Change Log on a Pound Puppies Model Sheet

The first sheet in a scanned set of Hanna-Barbera's 1986 Pound Puppies model sheets carries a handwritten log of revisions and additions dated June to August 1986. Read alongside the sheets it lists, it shows a cast of toy-line dogs gaining houses, props and rough poses over one summer of production.

An imagined light table with graphite drawings of the expressive Wack stick-creature, pencils and a peg bar.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

Wack! Hungarian Margin Notes on a Felix the Cat: The Movie Model Sheet

Production drawings from Felix the Cat: The Movie carry two languages. Presentation boards dated '85 are lettered in English and credited to a German and an American company, while a model sheet signed 'Belay '87' is annotated in Hungarian, the language of the studio credited with the animation.

White, black and red transforming robot and its fighter form on a futuristic city landing apron at night.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

New Titles, Familiar Pictures: The Dynamagic Films on VHS

A leaping ninja survives a new title, and a robot adventure becomes a $29.95 offer. Two pieces of sales paper reveal how Japanese animated films were repackaged for American video shelves.

Lion-O in blue armor holding the eye-emblem sword hilt above a stone terrace at an alien sunset.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

Cleared in 110 Markets: ThunderCats in the Pages of Broadcasting, 1984–85

Four issues of the trade weekly Broadcasting follow ThunderCats from a Telepictures ad promising a September 1985 debut to a column of early Nielsen averages. Together they show the barter deal that brought a Rankin/Bass strip to local stations.

An imagined animation drawing desk with a peg bar, graphite pencils, a bow tie and blank model-sheet paper in morning light.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

Poopsie, A.K.A. Chainsaw: Reading the 1991 Goof Troop Model Sheets

An 88-page scan of Goof Troop model sheets carries Walt Disney Television Animation archive stamps from March 1991, a year and a half before the series reached syndication. The notes show how the studio rebuilt Goofy and Pete for television, and one rough sheet gives Pete's dog the names Poopsie and Chainsaw.

Animation color-workbench still life with charcoal, indigo, yellow and red paint, transparent cels and a light box.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

Painting the Dark Knight: Three Batman Color Models

A blue strip gives Batman’s black cowl its shape; a green streak cuts through the Joker’s hair; red and black trade places across Harley Quinn’s suit. Three painted models turn those choices into a reference an animator can follow.

Kitaro in a yellow-and-black vest and wooden geta beside a lantern-lit forest shrine.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

W Over 2: Reading the 1985 GeGeGe no Kitaro Color Design Sheets

A fraction beside Kitaro’s eye leads to a shadow table. Other notes switch shadows off, add a second stage or change an eye for a close-up—small instructions that keep an animated cast consistent.

Bandana-wearing tactical figure in dark gear in a misty blue industrial landscape, newly painted for this article.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

The Edges of Snake: Looking Closely at Metal Gear Solid Art

Broken outlines let Snake disappear into white paper or a green jungle. An annotated equipment drawing brings every strap back into focus. Four plates show how much a picture can reveal—and how much it can leave for us to complete.

Tusked Gamera with a green shell and charcoal skin towering over a miniature city at twilight.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

Three Prices for Gamera: Bandai’s 1999 Monster Shelf

A ¥600 figure, a missile-firing action toy and a half-metre display piece offer three ways to own the same monster. Bandai’s 1999 catalog makes their different attractions visible.

Miniature cars, a yellow dinosaur track loop, blue looping track, shark playset and blank game cards on a toy display.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

Hot Wheels, UNO and a Mattel Desk in Bandai’s Catalog

K.A.R.R. meets a Japanese space sheriff, Doraemon meets UNO, and collector Barbie shares a catalog with ¥300 cars. A small customer-service line ties Bandai’s 2003 assortment together.

Green spring-and-arrow siege machine in a fantasy landscape beneath a blue moon.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

Thirty Questions About Lunar: The Scenario Answers, 1995

A 1995 official setting book for Game Arts' two Lunar games closes out its making-of section with thirty questions answered by Kei Shigema: what Shigema said about Hiro’s unknown parentage, why so many heroes have one parent or none, how much money Lemina saved, and whether Lunar would come back.

Silver-haired Lenneth in a winged helmet and blue-and-gold armor above a misty Nordic valley.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

Lenneth’s Sprites Came First: The Yoshinari Brothers on Valkyrie Profile

Lenneth’s braid, Kashell’s retakes, Lezard’s heavy clothes and Meltina’s greenish hair: the Yoshinari brothers’ comments reveal the decisions behind Valkyrie Profile’s finished character art.

Blond Dihalt in gold and dark armor with a red cape, standing above a castle valley at sunrise.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

Out of Order on Purpose: Satoshi Urushihara's Notes on Five Langrisser Games

A 1998 Gakken art book runs the Langrisser games in story order, III first, and opens each chapter with a short first-person note on designing its characters: what anime had taught him, what he changed, and what he had wanted to try for years.

Black Vectrex console and wired controller on a wooden desk, with blue vector graphics on its portrait screen.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

Cut $100: The Wish Book's Video-Game Aisle, 1983

Sixteen pages at the back of the 1983 Sears Christmas Wish Book offered seven game systems, and nearly every one came with a markdown, a rebate or a keyboard. Here's the console aisle, price tag by price tag.

White miniature Hoth ice-fortress and gray radar transport on a snowy tabletop toy display.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

Sears’ Jedi Exclusives—and the Case Outside the License

In the 1983 Wish Book, a $4.99 case sits beside licensed Jedi figures with a revealing disclaimer. Compare it with the $19.99 C-3PO case, then follow the toys into a whole bedroom.

Painted editorial scene of a Ryu illustration in a white gi and red headband curling around a vintage drum scanner.

AI editorial illustration · Rewind: Northwest Retro

Wrapped Around the Drum Scanner

A 1995 Capcom art book shows Street Fighter II's key art in its makers' words: a Japanese poster begun over a Hokkaido New Year, an overseas promo painted in about three days and wrapped around a scanner drum, and a Super Turbo poster undone by Gouki.