Welcome to The Arcadian Archive the tumblr version of the twitter account by the same name! We dig through the internet to find anything from storyboards, to concept art, video clips and other fun things from the franchise including Rise of the Titans that you might miss simply because there is no hub as it were to find them. It can be fairly erratic when things are discovered, things from Trollhunters are still being found even now for instance, so there might be a slim chance something could pop up later on.
Unlike twitter’s daily tweets this account will be treated purely as a “You ask and if we have your request we will get it for you”. For understandable reasons we cannot guarantee finding anything but we’ll do our best!
We can assure that all finds are public and properly sourced. If content has a paywall or program restriction such as requiring discord to see the original source they will not be shared. We also respect that the creator can decide to remove their work at any time.
Luug is perhaps not the most obvious that there might be some earlier production art of and yet there is actually a little bit out there!
The earliest we have is this character design sheet from Fury Guzzali (The name below is correct! She's come out as Trans since then and in this house we do not deadname) showing how they were figuring out how his mouth should work and how it opens.
He's just a little guy after all.
Source
The corgi Luug with slightly different eyes also appears with these possibly Headless studios Vex, Aja and Krel so it could be theirs or hers. Been struggling to get conformation on that one. The other artists are Francisco Ruiz Velasco, Yingjue Chen and Betsy Bauer for certain.
Source
But wait you might be thinking, the final Luug doesn't quite look like that! Well you'd be correct, Betsy Bauer took the regins and polished him up into something a lot more familiar. This is fantastic reference in combination with the earlier version too.
Source
As part of this thread there was originally two sketches by Bolhem Bouchiba which have been removed due to this news breaking. They do still exist on the source which can be found here unless they decide to remove them.
Nausea and bank holidays are a potent combo so this is a bit late. Apologises.
A fun fact for many, there chucked around an idea of a Sally-Go-Back spin off! We don't know who the artist was but we do have the evidence that this treatment existed :)
During the grand saga of seeing if any of Ivan Gozali's Bellroc artwork survived, ended up on Stephan Franck's website. As you do. This ended up causing panic as the old url no longer functioned and being one of the exceptionally few sequences with Zoe?
(This was taken on the old version you had to screenshot n hope)
Yeah. Thankfully he had just redone his website and there was an extra surprise in store:
In the original uploads, some of the Our Final Act sequence was chopped off to fit the video limit which is fair enough. In this new version? Everything is intact bringing with it things we've not seen before.
It auto plays as before as forewarning!
Fun storyboards that I did for the series finale of Guillermo Del Toro’s Tales of Arcadia. By that point in the series, the group of main
The start and end of this one has been extended and includes Steve nearly dying :) Good thing Nari knows the power of WoW Druids which is take a shot then run for the hills! Now we know how she got onto the roof which was a mystery previously.
Part 2 is now on it's own page and has a few second addition riiiight at the end. This auto plays just like part 1!
More storyboards that I did for the series finale of Guillermo Del Toro’s Tales of Arcadia. The sequence starts with action and ends in hi
... Specifically the addition is when they fail to catch Douxie as he falls.
While already posted in the Troll Dad thread, wanted to give a bit of a spotlight to this on it's own.
The original Trollhunters book is probably best known for the astrolobe cover with somebody holding it by Sean Murray despite a publishing error stating otherwise aka the coloured version of this one:
Source
Did you know there was in fact a different cover? The one below blows around the internet frequently cropped and never with the correct artist credit who is in fact E. M. Gist! From speaking to Sean Murray, apparently Del Toro loved the final cover we got so much it was switched pretty last minute which does explain what happened somewhat.
This is taken directly from Gist's instagram page so you can both see really cool art and the full cover with funky Blinky and AAARRRGGHH as a lovely bonus :)
Toby’s war hammer was one of the coolest things i got to work on. it went through quite a few iterations, and with a lot of help from Rustam Hasanov, we finally ended up with what you see in the show. as a fan of fantasy weapons I was really excited to work on this it brought me back to my days of obsessing over MMORPG weapons.
you can see my process of concepting. It initially started off as crystal on a pike, and then after many rounds of notes. eventually formed into a crystal surrounding a demon head statue.
Please watch Trollhunters on netflix if you havent checked it out yet.
Once again feeling terrible so feel like inflicting another of the food posts on you all. This particular one is by Lunchbox Dad and is a sponsored partnership post for 3Below, was a fair few of these. Just in case the site suddenly vanishes/dies as has happened previously, everything has been copy/pasted below. If you want to go to the site to have a look for yourselves, source link is at the bottom of the post :)
One of our favorite characters in 3Below is Luug, who is a dog on earth but an alien when in space. This dog/alien is such a clown and brings laughter into every episode! After all, who doesn't love a dog/alien?
Ingredients: Whole wheat bread, provolone cheese, nori (roasted seaweed), pepperoni, black olive.
Directions:
1. Cut whole wheat bread into head, muzzle, and ear shapes. Use crust to make the dark brown of the eyes.
2. Slice provolone cheese into the shape of the white parts of Luug's head including muzzle, ears, teeth, and eyes.
3. Cut nori into circles for the black parts of the eyes and Luug's mouth shape.
4. Use your knife to slice olive into the shape of the nose, and pepperoni into the shape of Luug's tongue.
5. Assemble Luug's head using my photo as a guide. Enjoy eating while experiencing 3Below: Tales of Arcadia as a family!
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Aja Mashed Potatoes and Noodles:
I came up with something different for this meal since Tales of Arcadia: 3Below is such a unique show. Aja and Krel are two of the main characters, along with their bodyguard Vex. The series follows these heroes as they are escaping their home planet and land on earth. Actually, they crash land in Arcadia, which is the same town where Trollhunters takes place. Their quest is to blend in so they aren't caught by the intergalactic bounty hunters. Not only that, but they must repair their ship so that they can return home to defend their planet. Pretty amazing, right? My family thinks so!
Since we are watching the show over the holiday break, I didn't make a lunch, but more of a small meal/big snack. The ingredients are actually pretty simple and this is my first try at making mashed potatoes into a cartoon character! The character is obviously Aja the royal alien teenager, but the secret to how I made her blue is below in the directions!
Ingredients: Mashed potatoes, natural or artificial food coloring, glass noodles, nori (roasted seaweed), cream cheese, blueberries.
Directions:
1. Prepare mashed potatoes according to your favorite recipe. Make sure they are not lumpy. Mix in either artificial or natural food coloring. I used blue spirulina powder, but you can use anything that will give it a neon blue tint.
2. Boil water on the stove, dropping in the same food coloring while you are bringing it to a boil. Prepare the glass noodles according to package directions. Glass noodles are almost transparent so they are easily dyed different colors. You can find them online or in the asian food section of your local grocery store.
3. Drop some of the mashed potatoes on the plate and start forming them into Aja's face. Her face is very smooth with large eyes and a tiny nose. Use my photo above for inspiration.
4. Once you have the potatoes formed how you want them, surround them with the glass noodles to create her hair.
5. Cut the nori into the shape of her eyes and a thin piece for her mouth. You will also want very small circles for the middle of her eyes. Dye a small amount of cream cheese using the same food coloring. Place the large black part of the eyes on the face first, followed by a small ball of cream cheese, then a small circle of nori, then a smaller ball of cream cheese, and then an even smaller circle of nori. It sounds way more complicated than it actually is.
6. Finish by arranging blueberries around her neck, creating Aja's uniform.
This is the third and final Blair Kitchen sequence that was public on his website before it crumbled after he passed away in January 2020. You can find the first one here and the second here.
This one is also from Claire and Present Danger though unless you remember the poll results it might not be the one you're thinking of.
Very interestingly it looks like there was a point where the changelings were in human form for this meeting (Which in context makes little sense and no wonder it changed) though does add an interesting tidbit as a result!
Gunmar’s wava hidhena
Rest in peace Blair Kitchen, thank you for having these available on your website when you did.
Today is the last of the unexpected artworks by Rustam Hasanov and is certainly the most mysterious in the form of this guy. Only one of the images has a file name where they are referred to as "Creature".
Now does the build remind you of anybody at all? They have Tronos colours which is fun of course but that's not all. Apart from being very scuttly in build which would make them a great climber, they share traits with a certain alien called Buster from 3Below...
Source for both images
It's more noticable when you have them side by side thanks to Alfonso Blaas who uploaded this paint over Fury Galluzzi's linework. She never had any Trollhunters artwork before that part of her website was shut down so sadly I we don't have that. Still, this was when he was part of the Trollhunters part of the franchise, more specifically as a "spider" in Merlin's Tomb. It certainly lines up!
Source
Just as a bonus of the only other non-storyboard art of Buster since the opportunity is here. This one is by Francisco Ruiz Velasco aka Fruiz.
Source
Even has six legs on the final version which certainly seems suggested above just like our red boy!
You're probably wondering why the heck spider keeps being brought up as there was never any spider! Well there wasn't in the final version no, there was however a draft version where there was one. Buster survived the process long enough for artwork to be produced and refined before he sat on the back benches. Then he'd have his official debut in 3Below as more than just an obstacle.
Source link. Includes a script too I don't feel comfortable reposting on tumblr.
Forgot how much canva despises the idea of previews, anyway.
Couple of weeks ago on Scott Cooper's new website when innocently went to grab the Blinky's Day Out link, something else appeared. What made this even more surprising is it had never been seen previously. So for your humble Tuesday here is a small sequence from A Night to Remember which you can find here! Just click on the right of the screen to move things along, the bar at the bottom doesn't always show up.
Right with that out the way there is something else rather special about this particular sequence, apart from having a date for the Spring Fling, and that's this:
Do any of these girls look familiar at all? Well let's start with the unknown girl on the left. She may have had a tiny appearance in a certain thread posted on this account. If you look very closely at this artwork by Yingjue Chen there is a girl who looks pretty similar on the top row with shorter hair. Not a perfect match of course, just being head and shoulders makes that tricky, but not impossible. That means it is highly likely she was one of the Headless Studios designs and this is not the only indication...
Source
As the girl on the right is Shannon! But wait you say, that girl is skinny there's no way that's her. This is then slid in front of you:
This is from the Art of Trollhunters artbook. While normally would avoid photos/scans unless officially released, this one never has been and at the precise moment do actually need it. This is cropped from a video as we're not giving keys for the uploader getting a copyright strike. You can see some of the others in the class book as well which is a nice touch.
Finally in the middle? Blonde Zoe returns for one rather unexpected cameo in last place would have expected :) Between her and that very specific version of Shannon this means that Scott must have had some Headless Studios art for student reference when drawing. Which is neat!
Sometimes running this Archive is coming across as an insane conspiracy theorist but equally it's a very neat detail.
While Germany went a bit bonkers with their own merch, France actually did their own series of five books for Trollhunters! Since was asked about them now seems as good a time as any to make a post about it.
These were published by Bibliothèque Rose et Verte which is a children's book line that are banded by age and gender kinda? Books are separated into two different categories (Bar a new one that seems to have appeared which is it's own thing) with the paler the colour, the younger the targer audience, and the darker the colour the reverse. Think the best way to explain is to screenshot directly from their website how the system works:
Each book has their banding very clear on the spine which as you can see from these two series graphucs, Chasseurs de Trolls is firmly in the mid range section. While toned down a bit (Age range), they largely follow the episodes they're based on and don't fall into fluffy canon as a result.
If you're wondering how big we're talking here's Volume 1 with a Switch cartridge for scale. Perfect for small hands. The front of each has simple bio pages about various characters with Jim referred to as James and Jimmy and AAARRRGGHH being shortened to ARGH which is fair honestly. All the books can be found on Amazon, ebay is always a good bet and weirdly enough some libraries also stock them!
The first volume, Un nouvel êlu, is by far the easiest of them all to track down and being aimed at the 8-10 age bracket, very friendly if your French isn't great. That Amulet image was also seen on a Best Buy poster which has reappeared for some reason much like Bular looming on low opacity.
This page is taken from an amazon sample to give you an idea what inside is like. Throughout the books are graphics that are anything from the usual model poses, screenshots and maybe cropped from a screenshot? Very neat either way.
Non! hurle Bular.
The second volume, L'entraînement de maître Jim, is the easier to spot having a unique red cover while also being the rarest for mystery reasons. This has been so bad it took until today for a non overpriced version to turn up and could use a giftcard to finally grab it.
The third volume, La vengeance des gobelins, has a habit of popping in and out of existence. Sometimes, lots of copies and good prices. Other times? Somebody is trying to charge a few hundred. It does have the most awful and thus best changeling though.
It's a bit on the small side (Thanks amazon) but this is the back of volume 3 if you were at all curious. Look at that face, delightful.
Volume 4, Un terrible duel, was pretty common at one point has been threatening to do a volume 2 and in fact somebody is trying to sell a copy for over a thousand right now. Scalpers aside, Jim's hand is doing frightening things on this cover.
Much like the first book, Attention: nain rebelle ! has remained pretty stable in both price and in copies which hopefully will continue. For whatever reason they released just these five in 2019/2000 and no more which is a shame. Still, you know they exist now so if you want them now is as good a time as any!
There was actually an additional Marko Bajic sequence that was found pretty early on that is on vimeo people might have missed. It's also a rarity in having Draal who doesn't show up too much in what's public at the moment. So for your Tuesday enjoyment a sequence from the Trollhunters episode, Airheads!
As vimeo sometimes breaks on tumblr, direct link is Here.
Today we’re taking a look at the very funky design path that Draal, Bular and Gunmar went on during Trollhunters pieced together as best as possible through the power of file names, matching things and the artbook. The order of events is as accurate as I can guess as for understandable reasons I cannot see an exact timeline.
First up from one of Headless Studios’ posts we can see what is very definitely a purple Draal as I’ve been affectionately dubbing him looking a big brutal boy with Caveman Spongebob is also a frequent comparison.
Apologises for the slight delay on this, health issues cannot be helped. Storyboards from Just Add Water will be crossposted tomorrow.
While there is a solitary addition in the artbook where her human form has swepy bangs instead of a fringe and wearing gloves, we're fairly lucky in that there's a fair amount of Nomura's concepts are online! This one by Headless Studios is the earliest so it's unknown if she was a hit the ground running after being redesigned from The Crooked Man or there was anything else prior.
Her weapon choice being swords seemed to settle fairly early though and were basic katana at the time. Her hair style, limbs, belt and horns appear to have been the biggest back and forth until settling on a combination.
[Source]
We also have this beefy slide that appeared at the 2016 Annie Awards, where Trollhunters won best Character Design, that contains two additional expressions too.
[Source]
And one extra from the official instagram for luck.
[Source]
In addition thanks to Rustam Hasanov, Trollhunters' Art Director, we have a maquette of her! This is a video with a turnaround.
[Source]
But wait you might be thinking, she has the khopesh already here so where did those come from? Well thanks to Brent Noll we can answer that one! Below shows Headless Studios with the updated Nomura design holding one of her fabled weapons. From this he created a full break down including angles, perfect for evil perspective needs.
[Source] Will need to scroll down a bit there's no direct link.
In addition to that, Jessica Bulinski has both a Nomura paint over of the changeling herself, a good look at her weaponry and a full process of how exactly it lights up. Because the eye glow is an effect it's not shown here meaning you can see the base colour easier.
[Source] Will need to scroll down a bit there's no direct link.
Enjoy the chaotic gremlin/Curator Troll! All previous design threads now have titles too to make them easier to spot, debating making a specific tag.
As there is some growing confusion over the various toy sets I'm moving a couple of the threads over here to help out :)
First up is the lesser known but very common toys from the German maker Simba! They are known as Siso in the UK likely because of a copyright clash.
There's three sets of three that are a near constant feature of ebay which are these:
This is also how you discover Not!Enrique's name in German is NightErik.
There is also the changeling duo. Nomura has a defunct Amazon listing on the UK and Strickler has multiple photos suggesting at some point they were released just in limited numbers. Thus far no ebay check has flagged them but am keeping an eye out.
This Strickler is unique for having wings as the funko mini variant lost them during production.
There was also a line of light up and talking toys! They have dark beady eyes for the lights so don't be too worried about that.
There are also two items on a similar theme. This Daylight sword is different from the Palamon version (If in doubt check the packaging!) and the Amulet which is fairly rare.
On the Spanish amazon they had some unique graphics for some reason:
Couple of additional graphics that have been uncovered:
Annnnd also found a video advertisement for the toys in the original German:
Mit den 15 bis 20cm großen und vollbeweglichen Trolljäger Action Figuren Jim, Bular und Draal kann der ultimative Kampf zwischen Gut und Bös
Then we get into wiggly territory. @noehaddock managed to find a 2019 toy catalogue which includes these toys which have not been seen in the wilds.They may have only gotten this far, they might have actually been produced in very limited numbers, that is still being researched at present.
In there is a Hero's Forge playset including Draal to be a bit fancy:
The boys on bikes, Eclipse!Jim and Toby in his Sturge's reference armour:
And three more light up and sounds toys featuring Toby, Blinky and AAARRRGGHHL
And that's all the known Simba toys! If you want to check out the post on the Funko toys it is here.
Reblogging again as found some additional graphics plus an advert of the Simba toys that were lurking in my bookmarks as a reminder that never did anything with. Whoops. Was actually after a completely different tweet also in the bookmarks.
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