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

Pound Puppies began as a plush toy. Wikipedia’s article on the brand credits the toys to Mike Bowling in 1984 and says Tonka introduced the line to the U.S. market. Hanna-Barbera made a television special in 1985 and then a weekly series for ABC that began in September 1986. Wikipedia’s series page lists Tonka alongside Hanna-Barbera as a production company. The model sheets in this Story belong to that 1986 series.

What the scan is

The Internet Archive item “Pound Puppies 1986 Series (Season 1) Model Sheets” is a 92-page PDF. Its description should be read with care. Much of it is reused text from a sale listing, which says the sheets “are printed for this auction” and describes 48 model sheets plus a size-comparison sheet, colour photos and “a Sheet of Publicity Line Art.” An update note says rescans and promotional illustrations were added later. So what is scanned here may be reproductions of the studio’s sheets, not the originals, and the 92 pages are more than the 48 the listing describes. Neither point changes what is written on the sheets, but both limit what the scan can prove about the set’s history.

Black-and-white publicity line art: Pound Puppies logo over five puppies, with five human and animal characters below, each name lettered underneath. Pound Puppies (1986) model sheets and publicity line art © Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.; Pound Puppies is a Tonka trademark (now Hasbro). Scan: Internet Archive item puppies-season-1-set (original PDF PUPPIES_SEASON1_SET.pdf; may reproduce auction reprints). Page renders at 150 dpi, plus one 300 dpi detail; not retouched. · PDF p.1 (IA n0).

The first PDF page is the publicity line art: the Pound Puppies logo above Bright Eyes, Whopper, Cooler, Nose Marie and Howler, with Dabney Nabbit, Holly, Katrina Stoneheart, Cat Gut and Brattina below, each lettered with a name. The model sheets start on the second page.

The log

Sheet 1 is headed “0153- SERIES,” the series number, next to the Pound Puppies logo and a circled “1,” with “HANNA-BARBERA PRODUCTIONS, INC” in a tab beneath. The cast stands on one baseline in height order, from Dabney Nabbit with his broom down to tiny Whopper, under the hand-lettered title “SIZE COMPARISION,” misspelled as written. Each character’s name is written across the figure.

Close-up of the boxed notes on sheet 1: revised pages dated 6/24/86 and 6/30/86, additions dated 6/13/86, 6/18/86 and 8/12/86. Pound Puppies (1986) model sheets and publicity line art © Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.; Pound Puppies is a Tonka trademark (now Hasbro). Scan: Internet Archive item puppies-season-1-set (original PDF PUPPIES_SEASON1_SET.pdf; may reproduce auction reprints). Page renders at 150 dpi, plus one 300 dpi detail; not retouched. · PDF p.2 (IA n1), 300 dpi detail.

The sheet is dated “6/2/86.” Around the size comparison, boxed and circled notes record later changes:

• “*REVISED PGS.” followed by about two dozen circled page numbers, from 6A to 50, dated “6/24/86.”
• “*ADDITION PG. 10A 6/13/86.”
• “*ADDITION 6/18/86 PGS. 6A 10B 16A 18A 23A.”
• “*REVISED 6/30/86 PG. 6A 10B 16A 18A 23A + ADDITION 23B.”
• “*ADDITION 8/12/86 PGS. 55 THRU 84.”

The log works like a table of contents for the changes. A sheet number with a letter means a page slotted in after the set was first numbered, and the later sheets bear that out.

Two kinds of header

The original sheets share a header reading “0153- SERIES.” Sheet 2, Cooler in a zip jacket in front and three-quarter views, has that header and the date “6/2/86.”

Model sheet 2 dated 6/2/86: Cooler in a zip jacket, front and three-quarter walking views, header 0153- SERIES. Pound Puppies (1986) model sheets and publicity line art © Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.; Pound Puppies is a Tonka trademark (now Hasbro). Scan: Internet Archive item puppies-season-1-set (original PDF PUPPIES_SEASON1_SET.pdf; may reproduce auction reprints). Page renders at 150 dpi, plus one 300 dpi detail; not retouched. · PDF p.3 (IA n2), sheet 2.

The lettered additions carry a different header: “0153-8600.” Sheet 6A, marked “*REVISED 6/30/86,” is Cooler’s doghouse. It is an A-frame with “COOLER” over the door, a satellite dish on the roof, a striped awning, and a star on the gable, the doormat and a cushion. Cooler lies beside it. Sheet 10B shows Howler poking out from a battered kennel with “HOWLER” on the front and a crooked roof. Sheet 23A, “*REVISED 6/30/86,” is “FORT WHOPPER,” a plank tower flying a “W” pennant, with Whopper sitting in front.

Sheet 6A, header 0153-8600: Cooler lying beside his A-frame doghouse with a satellite dish, awning and stars. Pound Puppies (1986) model sheets and publicity line art © Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.; Pound Puppies is a Tonka trademark (now Hasbro). Scan: Internet Archive item puppies-season-1-set (original PDF PUPPIES_SEASON1_SET.pdf; may reproduce auction reprints). Page renders at 150 dpi, plus one 300 dpi detail; not retouched. · PDF p.8 (IA n7), sheet 6A.

The other two pages on the June 18 list complete the set. Sheet 16A, also “*REVISED 6/30/86,” is Nose Marie’s house. It has a scalloped roof, a bow and a heart on the gable, a sign reading “nose marie,” a scalloped awning, a heart-shaped window and a window box of flowers, with Nose Marie sitting alongside in a ruffled collar. Sheet 18A is Bright Eyes’ house, with a sign shaped like a bone reading “Bright Eyes,” a heart above it, and a cushion at the door, while Bright Eyes runs toward it with a bow in her hair. Put together, the five pages added on 18 June 1986, 6A, 10B, 16A, 18A and 23A, are one house for each of the five main puppies. All five were then revised together on 30 June.

Sheet 10B: Howler in a bowler hat leaning out from a battered kennel lettered HOWLER. Pound Puppies (1986) model sheets and publicity line art © Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.; Pound Puppies is a Tonka trademark (now Hasbro). Scan: Internet Archive item puppies-season-1-set (original PDF PUPPIES_SEASON1_SET.pdf; may reproduce auction reprints). Page renders at 150 dpi, plus one 300 dpi detail; not retouched. · PDF p.14 (IA n13), sheet 10B.

Each house in this set is labelled with its owner’s name and dressed to suit him: a satellite dish and stars for the cool lead, patched boards for Howler, a fort for the smallest pup. Those details are what the sheets record. Whether the houses were also made as toys is not something these pages show, and this Story makes no claim about it.

Sheet 23A: small Whopper sitting by a plank tower signed FORT WHOPPER with a W pennant. Pound Puppies (1986) model sheets and publicity line art © Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.; Pound Puppies is a Tonka trademark (now Hasbro). Scan: Internet Archive item puppies-season-1-set (original PDF PUPPIES_SEASON1_SET.pdf; may reproduce auction reprints). Page renders at 150 dpi, plus one 300 dpi detail; not retouched. · PDF p.30 (IA n29), sheet 23A.

The original 6/2/86 pages also cover the human side’s pets. Sheet 41, “0153-Series,” is Cat Gut, who sits at Katrina Stoneheart’s feet on the publicity art. He is drawn as a shaggy, bristling cat with a long fluffy tail and claw-like feet, in two poses. The original-series pages were revised as well. Sheet 24, Holly in four turnaround poses, is dated “6/2/86” and marked “*REVISED 6/24/86,” and 24 is one of the numbers circled in the June 24 box on sheet 1.

Roughs from the main title

The August 12 addition, sheets 55 to 84, is a different kind of material. Sheet 55, headed “0153-8600” and marked “*ADDITION-8/12/86,” has a hand-lettered note at the top: “ADDITIONAL MODELS TAKEN FROM ‘MAIN TITLE’ FOR ANIMATION USE ON OTHER SHOWS……” The drawing beneath is loose: a curly-haired puppy, apparently Nose Marie, moves through a cloud of scribbled dust. Filling the right side is a warning in display lettering: “ROUGHS FOR LAYOUT AND ANIMATION PURPOSES ONLY.”

Sheet 55: loose sketch of a curly-haired puppy in a dust cloud, with notes ‘Additional models taken from Main Title’ and ‘Roughs for layout and animation purposes only’. Pound Puppies (1986) model sheets and publicity line art © Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.; Pound Puppies is a Tonka trademark (now Hasbro). Scan: Internet Archive item puppies-season-1-set (original PDF PUPPIES_SEASON1_SET.pdf; may reproduce auction reprints). Page renders at 150 dpi, plus one 300 dpi detail; not retouched. · PDF p.63 (IA n62), sheet 55.

“Main title” here means the title sequence. The note’s point is that drawings made for the opening could be reused as poses in episodes. “Other shows” most likely means other episodes, not other series, but the sheet does not say.

Sheet 71 dated 8/12/86: three rough poses of Cooler with a pasted ‘ROUGH SKETCHES ONLY’ stamp. Pound Puppies (1986) model sheets and publicity line art © Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.; Pound Puppies is a Tonka trademark (now Hasbro). Scan: Internet Archive item puppies-season-1-set (original PDF PUPPIES_SEASON1_SET.pdf; may reproduce auction reprints). Page renders at 150 dpi, plus one 300 dpi detail; not retouched. · PDF p.79 (IA n78), sheet 71.

Sheet 71, dated “8/12/86,” shows the same approach applied to Cooler. Three loose poses carry a pasted-on stamp reading “ROUGH SKETCHES ONLY,” with smaller type underneath that appears to say “TO BE USED FOR CONSTRUCTION PURPOSES.” The small line is only partly legible in the scan. Construction, in a model-sheet sense, means the underlying shapes an animator builds a character from. The stamp marks the poses as guides for that, not finished drawings to trace.

Reading it as a collector

For anyone holding a loose Pound Puppies sheet, the scan suggests checks. Is the header “0153- SERIES” or “0153-8600”? Does the sheet number carry a letter? Is there a “*REVISED” or “*ADDITION” date, and does it match the log on sheet 1? A sheet numbered 55 or above should belong to the August batch, and a lettered sheet to the June additions. These are internal checks only. They can show whether a sheet fits this set, not whether it is a studio original or a later print.

The set also shows the series at a specific point. Wikipedia notes that the Pound Puppies were redesigned for the series compared with the 1985 special, and these 1986 sheets are the redesigned versions. The scan does not include the special’s designs, so a side-by-side comparison has to come from somewhere else.