What's up with Encore Wave's (Swerve's) name?
Disclaimer: This may not make any sense to people who don't read Japanese.
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Note: Swerve's Japanese name is "Wave" and while I usually prefer to stick to Anglophone names when discussing Transformers in English, due to the nature of this discussion I'm going to refer to him as "Wave."
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Okay... here's the weird thing. Afaik G1 Wave's name has always been "spelt" as ウェーブ (weebu - "wave") but on the Encore Minibots box and Encore Wave's tech specs card it's spelt as ウエーブ (ueebu - "uave"). Odd!
Now I've never owned or seen G1 Wave in his Japanese packaging, but I can cite at least three sources which confirms G1 Wave's name being written as ウェーブ.
#1: Transformers Generations has Wave's name written as ウェーブ.
#2: Wave's G1 Tech Specs(according to Dr. Sigma's Lab) has Wave's name written as ウェーブ
#3: Swerve's page on TF Wikia also cites Wave's name as being ウェーブ.
Now the odd thing is that on the official web page for the Encore Minibots on TakaraTOMY's TF web site Wave's name is writen as ウェーブ!
So what gives? Did TakaraTOMY simply manage to misspell Wave's name persistently on the Encore Minibots packaging and Encore Wave's tech specs, yet spelt it correctly on their web page? Or has TakaraTOMY lost the rights to use the name ウェーブ so they re-spelt it as ウエーブ for the Encore figure as a way to get around it? If so, how come they can still use the original spelling on their web page? Or maybe they've misspelt it on the web page and technically they're meant to be spelling it as ウエーブ now.
...if I were still on holidays I'd consider calling TakaraTOMY for answers (if anyone else has the time and inclination, please consider). ;)
Still... it all beats calling Octane "Tankor." :p
