Things you never realised about Transformers (toys etc)

[Megatran]

Doing a bit of research on the JP 2002 reissue 'New Year Special' Alert (Red Alert) & Lambor (Sideswipe). Found out they are cosmetically slightly different to the standard G1 reissues.

Courtesy of tfwiki:

Lambor (Sideswipe) and Alert (Red Alert) were once again re-released together in January 2002 as an e-HOBBY exclusive "New Year Special" set, with several factory-applied decals replaced with paint operations, the "CAR MACHINE" plate-decal now blank, plus an additional recolored alternate sticker sheet for each one and bio cards with new art by Hidetsugu Yoshioka.

Again, courtesy of tfwiki:

For 2002, Alert was again released with Lambor, this time as "New Year Special" editions available through Takara's e-HOBBY online shop. This latter version featured yellow instead of blue stickers for his shins and feet.

Image of 2002 New Year Special Red Alert courtesy of TFU.INFO

[GoktimusPrime]

Doing a bit of research on the JP 2002 reissue 'New Year Special' Alert (Red Alert) & Lambor (Sideswipe). Found out they are cosmetically slightly different to the standard G1 reissues.

Courtesy of tfwiki:


Again, courtesy of tfwiki:


Image of 2002 New Year Special Red Alert courtesy of TFU.INFO

I've seen both of these toys in hand and I wrote up comparative reviews for them back in 2002... but I've long lost them. I've been trying to find my old reviews, but alas I think my G1 reviews have been lost.

[Metallikato]

An odd little factoid I just ran across. Was reading the wikipedia page for the movie American Graffiti and noticed Terry McGovern (G1 Wildrider) was part of the cast so I read his page too. Apparently it was him who coined the term "Wookiee".

[GoktimusPrime]

^I did not know that, that's awesome!

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Just noticed that Titans Return Weirdwolf will be called Wolfwire. Two questions come to mind:

1/ Does this means that Hasbro were unable to register a closer approximation to the name, like "Decepticon Weirdwolf"? I take it that names like "Strangewolf" or "Oddwolf" are also undoable. What about "Weirwolf"? I know that it doesn't make much sense (a wolf who lives by a weir?), but Hasbro have certainly given us far more ridiculous names like that in the past (e.g. Wind Sheer ).

2/ This means that somewhere out there, someone else is holding the trademark for "Weirdwolf." I must say that I didn't see that coming.

And what's up with Wolfwire coming with "Monxo," but there's a separate Titan Master called "Monzo"?

[Handsprime]

1/ Does this means that Hasbro were unable to register a closer approximation to the name, like "Decepticon Weirdwolf"?

I read that as Doctor Werewolf, which most of you probably have no idea who or what that is, unless you like Dubstep

[Deonasis]

^ Or..

3/ Someone at Hasbro doesn't like the name.

Name changes happen aaalllllllllllllllllll the time.

[GoktimusPrime]

Archer's back?!

[Zommael]

^I did not know that, that's awesome!

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Just noticed that Titans Return Weirdwolf will be called Wolfwire. Two questions come to mind:

1/ Does this means that Hasbro were unable to register a closer approximation to the name, like "Decepticon Weirdwolf"? I take it that names like "Strangewolf" or "Oddwolf" are also undoable. What about "Weirwolf"? I know that it doesn't make much sense (a wolf who lives by a weir?), but Hasbro have certainly given us far more ridiculous names like that in the past (e.g. Wind Sheer ).

2/ This means that somewhere out there, someone else is holding the trademark for "Weirdwolf." I must say that I didn't see that coming.

And what's up with Wolfwire coming with "Monxo," but there's a separate Titan Master called "Monzo"?

It's possible that someone else isn't holding the trademark for Weirdwolf, but that it's felt by the trademark office to be too close to a generic term which would not be trademarkable (i.e werewolf) or too similarly to a term which another company has trademarked. In this latter case, what immediately springs to mind is "warg wolf" from Lord of the Rings, which might well be held by whoever the licensee for that franchise is. Trademark law is complex and nuanced, and just because one trademark can't be used by one company doesn't mean another is using it.

[GoktimusPrime]

Fair point, although it's not unheard of for people to "trademark squat" by taking trademarks and doing nothing with them (but continuing to register them so noone else can use them). Kinda like a form of intellectual property hoarding. *cough*HarmonyGold*cough*

[Zommael]

Fair point, although it's not unheard of for people to "trademark squat" by taking trademarks and doing nothing with them (but continuing to register them so noone else can use them). Kinda like a form of intellectual property hoarding. *cough*HarmonyGold*cough*

Not unheard of, but difficult. If say a company called Symphony Bronze was squatting on the Weirdfwolf name, Hasbro would be able to take action against them, and they would have to prove either that they have used the trademark recently or have definite plans to use it - this is how Hasbro were able to lose names like Bumblebee back in the 90s, since they couldn't prove recent use or that they were about to use it. It's also bad for the company who holds the trademark as it may force them to give away their plans - for example Hasbro might have been forced into revealing the existence of the movie if someone had challenged their registration of Bumblebee back in 2004.