What's up with Encore Wave's (Swerve's) name?

[GoktimusPrime]

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."

[Pulse]

My head hurts...

I'm sorry but I think you've lost me...

[kurdt_the_goat]

Is it just me or have you typed ウエーブ every time in your post, even when you say it is spelt differently?

[iceburn]

i see some big エ and some small ェ but i don't know the difference.
i'm confused too....

bring me some light!

[dirge]

How does one write "you have too much spare time" in Kanji? d:

[Robzy]

[STL]

How does one write "you have too much spare time" in Kanji? d:

ROFL!

[GoktimusPrime]

Is it just me or have you typed ウエーブ every time in your post, even when you say it is spelt differently?

As iceburn noted one is spelt with the full size エ ("e" - Minerva's fav saying ) and the other is written at half-size. The half-size spelling is from G1 and also appears on TakaraTOMY's web site whereas the full-size spelling appears on the Encore package and Encore Wave's tech specs card.

Okay, it kinda works like this...
ウェーブ (1/2 size) = 'Wave' ("Way-v")
ウエーブ (full size) = 'Uave' ("Ooh-ay-v")

In G1 and on the web site it's "Wave" whereas on the Encore packaging and tech specs card it says "Uave."

I'm kinda curious as to why TakaraTOMY have done this. Was it to skirt around some copyright issue or did someone just screw up?

I personally do not recall having ever seen TakaraTOMY ever make a typo/"spelling" anomaly in Japanese text and this would be the second time I recall seeing a Japanese reissue whose name differs from the original (the other being "Cybertron Perceptor" which I guess means that Takara had lost the rights to the Perceptor name and followed Hasbro's suit in tacking on the faction name as part of the toy name to circumvent that legal pothole).
Autobot Perceptor

P.S.:

How does one write "you have too much spare time" in Kanji? d:

Like this: 貴様 "kisama"

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

P.S.:

Like this: 貴様

ROFL! Zing!
Hang on a sec thats not right...


I am gonna go with Typo option. Maybe whoever was typing just forgot to shrink the エ - consistently.

Wondered same conundrum briefly myself but then got on with life

[dirge]

ROFL! Zing!
Hang on a sec thats not right...

Gok actually ran this one past me before posting it, too