Did they actually loose that name? Or just put it aside because the 'B' word is a bit on the sensitive side? Either way, possibly my favourite G1 name. A reference to his abilities, and a tongue in cheek reference to his unpleasant nature.
Oh boy. Time for the obligatory "Let's explain how trademark doesn't work" post. At least nobody used the dreaded "c" word yet! The only one of these that Hasbro had actually lost for a while was Ravage. All the other names Hasbro never "lost". If they had lost "Jazz", how could they call him "Autobot Jazz" then? Do you think Bandai could get away with calling one of their toys "Jetfire Zord" or "Optimus Prime Zord"? That's not how it works! "Jazz", "Frenzy", "Ratchet" and "Rumble" are all very common everyday words that are used everywhere in a broad variety of categories. And because Hasbro fear they might not be able to successfully defend those names in court, they slap prefixes in front of their names. "Autobot Jazz" contains the made-up word "Autobot" which by itself is already a registered Hasbro trademark, so it strengthens the trademark protection for "Autobot Jazz" as compared to a standalone "Jazz". Fun trivia: Bob Budiansky originally wanted to call the G1 character "Jazzz" with three "z"s. It's possible that the name would be more easily defendable that way. "Devastator" is a similar case. It's someone who "devastates", so it could possibly be considered a somewhat descriptive term, hence the need for the prefix "Constructicon", another made-up word. This one has always baffled me the most, since "Devastator" borders on nonsensical made-up, and the very similar "Demolishor" worked without a prefix not too long ago. Then again, trademark law is complicated and not necessarily logical. The same way they lost a lot of other trademarks: They didn't release any new toys using that name for years (the last US Motormaster toy was in 1986, the G2 version never came out), and another company claimed it, or at least tried so, in the meantime. I assume the culprit in this case is the application for "Moto Masters" by Elastic Media Corporation. It covers the relevant "toys" field (International Class 028), and while it's not exactly "Motormaster", it could be considered "confusingly similar", and Hasbro's lawyers traditionally try to avoid such problems altogether rather than risking a confrontation. The application was filed in 2004 and eventually abandoned in 2007. That covers the timeframe when Classics Legends Menasor and Titanium Menasor came out. Theoretically, the name should be available for use again by now.
I guess it would have been too descriptive. A bumblebee toy called "Bumblebee" is not defendable as a trademark. Same way you can't call a car "Car" and claim it as a trademark.
Except there is no purple Rainmaker seeker? The Rainmakers are yellow, blue, and green. Sunstorm (who is orange) is also not a Rainmaker. Sunstorm was accompanied by a purple seeker and also a blue one (who was different than the blue Rainmaker).
for beast wars/machines i always figured they chose not to use it as all insects were villains and Bumblebee has always been a hero( not counting the episode where he got reprogrammed by the decepticons) and to give the name Bumblebee to somebot that did not have a Bee for an alt mode would have been odd and confusing, but you do have a point Nevermore
Actually, according to the brain meltingly exhaustive wall o' text TFArchive.com article linked from TFWiki, 'Bumblebee' was lost then regained, as other companies used it while it was lapsed and then contested Hasbro's reclamation for the movie. Hasbro gave up registering it, tho, and just trademarked it. --Moony
Well, since they named the Alternators/Binaltech Overdrive by the name Windcharger, I'd guess they lost Overdrive. They changed Outback to Fallback for the Botcon set. They couldn't get Firestar or Moonracer either, so they renamed them Flareup and Chromia. I'd guess they can't get Runabout, or think it would be hard to defend, since they called the Runabout homage by the name Runamuck. Also, they lost Road Huggerr, which is why the purple repaint of Cybertron Crosswise was called Jolt. They tried Crasher, but had to go with Fracture. Didn't they try to get Sawtooth for the 2007 movie repaint of Cybertron Mudflap, but it didn't go through? Of course there is Slag and Nexus Maximus, were not lost, they were voluntarely retired from use.
Slag is the only name I really miss. Also Trailbreaker. But seriously? Who cares what they're called on the package? We all know that Hardshell is Bombshell and that Animated Snarl is Slag. Call em what ya want
No, they tried Road Hugger first (sorrry I said Roadgrabber, I meant Road Hugger!), when they didn't get it they switched to Jolt, another purple car.
What about them? The still used Swoop and Blaster. Classics Mini-Con Swoop and Universe Voyager Blaster were the last.
Actually, Robot Heroes Blaster was later, assuming he falls into the same trademark category. (And in his case, it was "Autobot Blaster", with a prefix.)
I'm think Dark Storm would be an appropriate name for the blue one. And it fits in well with the name theme (Sunstorm and Acid Storm being the other two).
I gotta go with these 2, right here, as well. Motormaster as well. I wonder who/what they lost these to? I can't recall seeing any other products with those names. - Coeloptera
What Hasbro should do is to sculpt up some generic looking robot figures about an inch high (think those little figures in those vending machines near store enterences that people win for $0.25), paint them differently and do a VERY limited release. Maybe 1 big box with them all in it but just listed on the back. Nothing fancy. Name each one with various names that aren't going to be used in the normal TF line. This preserves the name since there is a toy released using the name. So if Onslaught isn't going to have a regular release for the next few lines, the name is safe since there is a little robot called Onslaught. They could do the same with GIJoe using little army guys painted differently. Not sure if each line needs to do this separatly, for example, if GIJoe releases their Shockwave, is the name fine for use w/TF if no TF has used it in awhile. This way we can take a brake from having the same names used over and over everyline but the name will be avalible for when it is needed. Hasbro would only have to do this every few years since the trademarks last several years.
